Dispensation Granted Monday, January 31, 1820
Chartered Tuesday, December 12, 1820
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MEDINA LODGE NO. 58, F. & A. M.
Dispensation Granted Monday, January 31, 1820
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ELECTED OFFICERS Master Lloyd G. Egbert (330) 225-5883 Sr. Warden William Carl Thompson (330) 723-7310 Jr. Warden Roger A. Thomas (330) 722-7169 Treasurer Dennis L. Lawson (330) 225-2868 Secretary Vaughn H. Cover (419) 853-0048 Sr. Deacon Theodore E. Thomas (330) 225-6643 Jr. Deacon Fred H. Justice 330-722-6005 Tyler Bob J. Askew (330) 225-8444 Trustees Edgar L. Harris David S. Kurtz Larry B. Donovan
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TRESTLEBOARD
September 2002
News From the East
Brethren:
It sure is hard to believe that summer is almost over and the time has come to go from refreshment to labor once again.
It has been a very hot and busy summer. I would like to personally thank all the dedicated people (and you know who you are) that helped to make the Donut Hut a success. We all know how much work and dedication is needed to pull off a successful week at the Fair. I hope everyone had fun.
At the DeMolay’s first meeting in August, Tim Moore, DDGM and seven Brethren presented the Master Counselor, Scott Darling, with his Scholarship Plaque. Also I attended a meeting in Richfield where our DeMolay performed one of their degrees.
Please mark your calendars, Brethren, we have a very busy fall ahead of us. There is a meeting scheduled for every Thursday through November. Brethren, with all our new members, we need to make a lasting impression and show our support.
Last but by no means least, don’t forget the Masonic Picnic on Sunday, August 25 at Plum Creek Park and we will resume our monthly breakfasts on Saturday, September 28. I look forward to seeing you all there.
See you in Lodge,
Lloyd
News from the Southeast Corner
Do-Nut Hut 2002
This year's Do-Nut Hut has been an apparent success. Final figures are not in, but gross receipts were $8,999.81, and we have only two bills yet to be paid: one for doughnut supplies ($1,678.60) and one for milk (which has not yet been billed). Judging from historical costs it appears the 2002 Do-Nut Hut operations has netted approximately $3,500.00. Thanks to all who endured my mistakes and the heat – Fred Justice.
July's Red Cross Blood Drive Very Successful
A goal of 31 pints was set by the Red Cross; 38 pints were collected. This means we potentially helped up to 114 people, and exceeded expectations as well. Helping with the drive were Lloyd Egbert, Ruth Woodhull, Larry Donovan (our Red Cross Liaison), his daughter, Lynette, and niece, Karen. Brethren and family who donated blood were David Kurtz, Fred Justice, Roger Thomas, Ted Thomas, and Lois Thomas. The Red Cross thanked us for our participation and for allowing them the use of our facilities. They are planning to return in November. The exact date has not yet been set.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
STATED MEETINGS
Thursday, September 12th, 7:30 p.m..
Thursday, September 26th, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 10th, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 24th, 7:30 p.m.
SPECIAL MEETINGS
Entered Apprentice Degree - Thursday, September 5th, 7:00 p.m
Fellow Craft Degree - Thursday, September 19th, 7:00 p.m
SPECIAL EVENTS
SATURDAY MORNING BREAKFASTS
Saturday, September 28th, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m
Medina Masonic Temple Dining Hall
The Level
The Level, so the newly made Mason is taught, is for the purpose of proving horizontals. An English writer finds a lesson in the structure of the Level, in the fact that we know that a surface is level when the fluid is poised and at rest. From this use of the Level he bids us seek to attain a peaceful, balanced poise of mind, undisturbed by the passions which upset and sway us one way or the other. It is a counsel of perfection, he admits, but he insists that one of the best services of Masonry is to keep before us high ideals, and, what is more, a constantly receding ideal, otherwise we should tire of it.
Of course, the great meaning of the Level is that it teaches equality, and that is a truth that needs to be carefully understood. There is no little confusion of mind about it. Our Declaration of American Independence tells us that all men are "created equal," but not many have tried to think out what the words really men. With most of us it is a vague sentiment, a glittering generality born of the fact that all are made of the same dust, are sharers of the common human lot, moved by the same great faith and fears, hopes and loves - walking on the Level of time until Death, by its grim democracy, erases all distinctions and reduces all to the same level.
Anyone who faces the facts knows well enough that all men are not equal, either by nature or by grace. Our humanity resembles the surface of the natural world in its hills and valleys. Men are very unequal in physical power, in mental ability, in moral quality. No two men are equal; no two are alike. One man towers above his fellows, as a mountain above the hills. Some can do what others can never do. Some have five talents, some two, and some but one. A genius can do with effortless ease what it is futile for others to attempt, and a poet may be unequal to a hod carrier in strength and sagacity. When there is inequality of gift it is idle to talk of equality of opportunity, no matter how fine the phrase may sound. It does not exist.
By no glib theory can humanity be reduced to a dead level. The iron wrinkles of fact are stubborn realities. Manifestly it is better to have it so, because it would make a dull world if all men were equal in a literal sense. As it is, wherein one lacks another excels, and men are drawn together by the fact that they are unequal and unlike. The world has different tasks demanding different powers, brains to devise, seers to see, hands to execute, prophets to lead. We need poets to inspire, scientists to teach, pioneers to blaze the path into new lands. No doubt this was what Goethe meant when he said that it takes all men to make one man, and the work of each is the glory of all.
What, then, is the equality of which the Level is the symbol? Clearly it is not identity, or even similarity of gift and endowment. No, it is something better; it is the equal right of each man to the full use and development of such power as he has, whatever it may be, unhindered by injustice or oppression. As our Declaration of Independence puts it, every man has an equal and inalienable right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," with due regard for the rights of others in the same quest. Or, as a famous slogan summed it up: "Equal rights for all; special privileges for none!" That is to say, before the law every man has an equal right to equal justice, as before God, in whose presence all men are one in their littleness, each receives equally and impartially the blessing of the Eternal Love, even as the sun shines and the rain falls on all with equal benediction.
Albert Pike, and with him many others, have gone so far as to say that Masonry was the first apostle of equality in the true sense. One thing we do know: Freemasonry presided over the birth of our Republic, and by the skill of its leaders wrote its basic truth, of which the Level is the symbol, into the organic law of this land. The War for Independence, and the fight for constitutional liberty, might have had another issue but for the fact that our leaders were held together by a mystic tie of obligation, vowed to the service of the rights of man. Even Thomas Paine, who was not a Mason, wrote an essay in honor of an Order which stood for government without tyranny and religion without superstition - two principles which belong together, like the Level and the Plumb. Thus by all that is sacred both in our Country and our Craft, we are pledged to guard, defend, and practice the truth taught by the Level.
But it is in the free and friendly air of a lodge of Masons, about an altar of obligation and prayer, that the principle of equality finds its most perfect and beautiful expression. There, upon the Level, the symbol of equality, rich and poor, high and low, prince and plain citizen - men of diverse creeds, parties, interests, and occupations - meet in mutual respect and real regard, forgetting all differences of rank and station, and united for the highest good of all. "We meet upon the Level and part upon the Square"; titles, ranks, riches, do not pass the Inner Guard; and the humblest brother is held in sacred regard equally with the brother who has attained the highest round of the wheel of fortune.
Every man in the lodge is equally concerned in the building of the Temple, and each has his work to do. Because the task demands different gifts and powers, all are equally necessary to the work, the architect who draws the plans, the Apprentice who carries stones or shapes them with chisel and gavel, the Fellow Craft who polishes and deposits them in the wall, and the officers who marshal the workmen, guide their labor, and pay their wages. Every one is equal to every other so long as he does good work, true work, square work. None-but, is necessary to the erection of the edifice; none-but, receives the honor of the Craft; and all together know the joy of seeing the Temple slowly rising in the midst of their labors. Thus Masonry lifts men to a high level, making each a fellow-worker in a great enterprise, and if it is the best brotherhood it is because it is a brotherhood of the best.
Source: THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN, The Masonic Service Association of the United States, VOL. 2, JUNE 1924, NO. 6.
The Time Immemorial Prerogative
The jurisprudence of Freemasonry emphasizes the importance of conforming to "ancient usages," and has much in common in this respect with the “common law" of England. The written laws of Freemasonry have been gradually developed as necessity seemed to warrant. Sometimes they were modified to protect certain interests which appeared to be vital to the harmony of the Craft as, for example, the legislative action in regard to Grand Lodge jurisdiction. Prior to 1717, when lodges met by immemorial usage, there does not appear to have been any question as to jurisdiction, and brethren would meet and practice the rites of Freemasonry without authority other than their unquestioned time immemorial prerogative. The grand lodges of the United States were originally formed by lodges in the states declaring Masonic independence in emulation of the political declaration of independence.
