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race have been perfected. Our Accomplishments have need to be reminded that the moral codes and most of
been stupendous. We have spanned the heavens and the conventions that the past has left to us have resulted
measured her immeasurable spaces. We have probed from the needs of mankind. They are protecting the
the heights of the air. We have sounded the depths of walls thrown up to keep away the gross and the vulgar
the sea. We have harnessed the rushing torrents so and the unclean. Decency In literature and art and in
that their destructive forces have become our slaves, manners has given way to excesses and extremes of all
d to heat our homes, to light our streets and move our kinds. Behaviorism in philosophy claims the right of
k machinery. We have followed the ant burrowing in self-expression under all conditions and circumstances.
t
e the earth, tunneling her mountains and laying bare her It ignores codes and conventions. It ignores other’s
precious stones and metals. The stars of heaven and the comfort and convenience and right. It is utterly selfi sh
s depths of the earth and sea have revealed their secrets in its attitude toward life. Restraint and reserve are cast

, to man. The impossible has been made possible by the to the winds.
o fearless spirit of adventure that has driven men into
every region known and unknown, whether of thought Realism in art and literature grossly pictures the
or experience. And yet - no masterpiece of human vulgar and the ugly on the plea of the right of full
achievement can be claimed by anyone age or by any expression. They forget that true mastery in art and
e one person. literature as in every other walk of life demands
e suppression as well as expression. Restraint is the key
e We cannot ignore or discard the acquisitions of to mastery in everything human. Law is restraint. There
c human knowledge in the ages long gone by. For can be no true liberty without wholesome restraint.
s however imperfect that knowledge may have been, True liberty does not involve the right of doing and
,
our present edifi ce is built upon the foundations laid saying anything we wish. True liberty says of the gross
by our forefathers. They were trailblazers. Their and common, “I can do this or that thing. I can make
achievements were sometimes uncouth and rough. a beast of myself but I will not.” That is liberty. That is
t They were imperfect in many respects. The trails the true freedom. The keystone of character is found in
t
they blazed had twists and turns in them that future the phrase, “I can but I will not.”
d generations have had to straighten out. But without
s these rugged and adventurous excursions into the Human progress and civilization have been built
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s great unknown by these hardy pioneers, the builders upon restraints rather than upon license. Take away
of our own generation would never have accomplished the restraints of life, the conventions and the codes
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e the things we are proud of. They hewed their way and even the “Thou shalt nots,” and deterioration will
through the drift and tangle of the unexplored regions result.
d in thought, in science and in all material and spiritual
e things. We are entering into their labor. My brethren of the Grand Lodge of Montana,
e our speculative and symbolic Masonry – set to build
n In philosophy, they have delved into the recondite character, to preserve morals and right living, to foster
s and the unknown. They have been fearless in asking reliance on a higher power that we call God – our
t
d the way of everything that human thought can speculative and symbolic Order fails if it ceases to
conceive. In science, they have faced the facts of build on the foundations upon which our civilization
e nature and have asked her the meaning of everything. has been reared. It is easy to take glibly on our lips
n
They have fathomed her secrets. By patient watching high sounding words and phrase. But unless they in
m and observation, they have found out the meaning of some measure represent the ideals and standards of our
e things as they are. They have taken the forces that own life, we might better never have said them.
o
inspired terror and awe in our superstitious ancestors
and made them do our bidding. In spiritual things, Some of you are familiar with the debate on truth
they have sought after and found God. In their social that occurs in one of the more advanced degrees in
relationships one with another they have built moral Masonry. It takes place there in order to impress the

s codes and conventions whose use has been to refi ne candidate with the importance of truth. There will
e and purify, to make sightly and to sweeten the life always be the question in the thinking mind “What
of man, God's highest and best masterpiece. We are is truth?” Like many of the deeper things in life it is
y entering into their labors. diffi cult to fi ve and adequate answer. We know what
h
truth is. It appeals to something in us that tells us
w In an age whose tendency it is to cast aside, to that what we see or hear is true. With too intimate a
- discount and to discard the products of the past we knowledge of the man or woman telling us things,
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Volume 95 Number 1 Montana Freemason Page 25