Brethren, this evening I wish to introduce to you, an aspect of a man that you may well not be aware of. A man that I believe is well known to most, and, assuredly, known to you all. This man is Count Lyof N. Tolstoi. Leo Tolstoy wrote some books, such as: A Russian Proprietor, The Cossacks, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace are among the many books he wrote. And among these many books Leon wrote three books on religion. The first was My Religion, then, My Confession, and finally, The Kingdom of God is Within You.

Leo Tolstoy was a very religious man, who, in his life, had embarked upon a number of religious retreats in an attempt to sort out his own spiritual crisis. Even after having penned War and Peace and Anna Karenina he came to believe he had accomplished nothing in his life.

Tolstoy posed this question; Is there any meaning in my life that will not be destroyed by my death? Leo embarked upon a spiritual quest to try and answer this question. The legacy of which are the three books and numerous papers and short stories on religion.

I will not, this evening, walk you through Tolstoy’s entire quest but I will focus on one of Leo’s conclusions and how Freemasonry demonstrates that Tolstoy was wrong.

Tolstoy queried, Humanity. Where is its limit? Where does it end and where does it begin? Does it include the savage, the idiot, the inebriate, the insane? If one were to draw a line of demarcation so as to exclude the lower representations of the human race, where ought it to be drawn? If we include all humanity without exception, why should we restrict ourselves to men? Why should we exclude the higher animals, some of whom are superior to the lowest representation of the human race?

We do not know humanity in the concrete, nor can we fix its limit. Humanity is a fiction, and therefore it cannot be loved. Indeed, it would be advantageous if men could love humanity as they love the family. It would be very useful, to substitute a community of interests for individual competition, or the universal for the personal; in a word, to make the whole world a mutual benefit society, - only that there are no motives to bring about such a result.

Exponents continually exhort us to extend the love which men feel for themselves, their families, their fellow-countrymen, over humanity at large, forgetting that the love of which they speak is a personal love, which may be kindled for the family, and even extend to include one’s native country, but which expires altogether when it is appealed to in behalf of an artificial state, and when claimed for that mystical object, humanity in general, one cannot even grasp the idea.

A man loves himself, his physical personality, he loves his family, he even loves his country. Why should he not also love mankind? It would seem such a happy consummation. And it so happens that Christianity inculcates the same precept.

It would indeed be fortunate, but it is impossible, because love founded on a personal and social life-conception can go no further than the love of country.

The flaw in the argument arises from the fact that the social life-conception, the basis of family love and of patriotism, is itself an individual love, and such a love, in its transference from a person to a family, a race, a nation, and a state, gradually loses its efficiency, and in the state has reached its final limit, and can go no further.

The necessity for widening the sphere of love is not to be denied, and yet it is the very attempt to satisfy this requirement that destroys its possibility, and proves the inadequacy of personal love. And here it is that the advocates offer it as a prop to humanitarianism, a Christian love, not in its essence, but only in its results; in other words, not the love of God, but the love of man.

But there can be no such love. Christian love comes only from Christian life-conception, whose sole manifestation is the love and service of God.

Tolstoy was able to satisfy himself that such an extension could be reached in the Christian doctrine, though he had doubts that such a union would manifest itself.

Although Tolstoy focused on the Christian life-conception, this question is not limited to this doctrine and has been debated across the spiritual spectrum.

Freemasonry, as I have stated in previous papers, has its roots in Christianity, but since the turn of the eighteenth century has served all men on the spiritual spectrum.

So how, or what, does Freemasonry offer the man to answer the question of extension to humanity, posed by Tolstoy?

Freemasonry in its real essence is a system of spiritual development, and shows a way by which our body, soul, and mind may be made a fit temple for our true self, to dwell in, and work for the evolution of the world. Across the spiritual spectrum man is told he is the embodiment of God. Within him, is the temple of the G.A.O.T.U.

It is the temple to this embodiment, which is to be built by the Freemason, which the true will and love of humanity may be extended. Hence a Freemasons body, soul, and mind form a vehicle through which his divine Self may be manifested on earth. But this can not be until we have completed the temple, which is the true work of the Freemason.

This great work is to erect the three typical pillars of beauty, strength, and wisdom, and so manifest the inner temple in the outer world. We ourselves, if we could only realise it, are the embodiment of the G.A.O.T.U.

But, as identified and vilified by Leon Tolstoy, this personal self has to be denied, we have to learn to stand aside from it, to retreat to the inner temple where the personal man can be viewed with impartiality, and so become identified with the embodiment of the G.A.O.T.U. within and become him in fact and actuality. To do this, is to find the lost word.

Now, how is it that a Freemason is able to accomplish this, which men, such as Leon Tolstoy, struggled with?  The Freemason is given the tools to build the temple in three stages of development, or, as we call them, degrees.

Awakening and self-discipline – the stage of an Entered Apprentice.

Illumination – the stage of a Fellow Craft.

Self-surrender and union – the stage of a Master Mason.

As the Entered Apprentice embarks upon this great venture, he is given the Chisel of intellect, the Common Gavel of will, and the Twenty-four Inch Gauge of feeling and is shown how to square the stones of conduct with which to build the temple of his character. 

The Fellow Craft, having attained self-discipline and the power of concentration, is therefore able to enter the state of meditation in which he can draw, insight, inspiration, and intuition, symbolised by the Plumb Rule, the Square, and the Level. Through the use of these tools he attains the stage of illumination, and is able to penetrate the mysteries of nature and of science. 

The Master Mason experiences a re-birth to a state of union with all of mankind, with the tools provided in this stage, the Master Mason is able to surrender, finally, that state of personal love, which so perplexed Tolstoy, and embrace the embodiment of the G.A.O.T.U. which dwells in the temple.

Thank you Brethren.

W. Bro. Wm. David Maddin

District Masonic Education,

Beaverhills District,

Grand Registry of Alberta