Shiloh Lodge #327
March 2004
 Trestleboard

From the East

I want to thank all the brethren for allowing me the honor of serving as your Master for 2004, and all my fellow officers who are committing their time and effort in making this a successful year.

I would also like to thank all who came out to the installation of officers and helped make it a very special day for myself and family.  I am especially indebted to my installing officers, who did a really great job.

I understand the Sweetheart’s Dinner was a great success and am sorry that I was unable to attend due to an unavoidable conflict.  We have some other great functions coming up during the year and I look forward to seeing many of you at those functions.

Fraternally Yours,

Cleo M. Miller

Worshipful Master-2004 

SECRECY 

"Within proper bounds, Masons may and should welcome publicity.  A secret society is one which seeks to conceal its existence and its objects.  Freemasonry is not such a society and is secret only as to the obligations, means of recognition, ballots upon candidates and forms and ceremonies observed in conferring degrees.  With the exception of those particulars, Masonry has no reservations from the public.  As to everything else -- its design, its moral and religious tenets and the doctrines taught by it, the time and place of its meetings, the names of the officers of a Lodge and those belonging to it -- are all in no way secret and may be known by any one." (Committee on Publicity, Connecticut Grand Lodge). 

DUTY 

"Every crime against our laws, every sin against decency and morality, every sharp practice against square dealing in business, is a serious reflection on the Masonic Lodge, in the neighborhood in which it is committed. Masonry should not take the pure principles of morality and preserve them in the walled up seclusion of lodge halls, like as we preserve fruit and vegetables and keep them in dark cellars for our own use; but our lodges and our lives should be as lighthouses, blazing out the truths of right living, to bless the community, state and nation, in which we have our being." (Milton Winham, P.G.M., Arkansas). 

WHY WE MEET

We meet for the purpose of admitting members to our fellowship, to instruct them in the lessons and principles (of Masonry) and to strengthen each other in adherence thereto, said George W. Speth, in a public lecture in 1892.  We meet to hand down to succeeding generations the knowledge and practice of certain ceremonies, which we have ourselves inherited from our Masonic ancestors, and the analogues of which can be traced in the remotest antiquity.  Lastly we meet to practice our three grand principles of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. 

THE MASON'S CHARACTER 

Freemasonry has always been true to its name, and the real Mason is the builder of the temple of his own character. Its mission is to furnish high ideals for the individual, that may be reflected in his actions towards his fellow men. The Masonic ideal teaches that moral and spiritual attainments are far more important than the material and physical.
 

SPIRITUAL WEALTH

"(A) Mason receiving the third degree should be entering upon a lifetime of study, self-improvement and service to his fellows, and his lodge is intended to be and should be the source of light and instruction and a field for serious and devoted work for the principles, which our institution inculcates and upon which it is founded.

The conception that the prosperity and greatness of a lodge is measured by its large membership and its wealth is erroneous.  That lodge is prosperous and great which commands the affections of its members, and displays spiritual rather than material wealth."  (William Rhodes Harvey, P.G.M., California).

We would like to provide support to our brethren in times of distress and celebrate with them in times of gladness. Please immediately inform any of your lodge officers of such information regarding yourself or a brother.