THE LOST KEYS OF FREEMASONRY or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by MANLY P. HALL

The steady demand and increasing popularity of this volume, of
which eighteen thousand copies have been printed since it first
appeared a few years ago, have brought the present revised and
rearranged edition into being. The text can be read with profit by
both new and old Mason, for within its pages lies an interpretation
of Masonic symbolism which supplements the monitorial instruction
usually given in the lodges.

The leading Masonic scholars of all times have agreed that the
symbols of the Fraternity are susceptible of the most profound
interpretation and thus reveal to the truly initiated certain
secrets concerning the spiritual realities of life. Freemasonry is
therefore more than a mere social organization a few centuries old,
and can be regarded as a perpetuation of the philosophical
mysteries and initiations of the ancients. This is in keeping with
the inner tradition of the Craft, a heritage from pre-Revival days.

The present volume will appeal to the thoughtful Mason as an
inspiring work, for it satisfies the yearning for further light and
leads the initiate to that Sanctum Sanctorum where the mysteries
are revealed. The book is a contribution to Masonic idealism,
revealing the profounder aspects of our ancient and gentle
Fraternity - those unique and distinctive features which have
proved a constant inspiration through the centuries.

Freemasonry, though not a religion, is essentially religious. Most
of its legends and allegories are of a sacred nature; much of it is
woven into the structure of Christianity. We have learned to
consider our own religion as the only inspired one, and this
probably accounts for much of the misunderstanding in the world
today concerning the place occupied by Freemasonry in the spiritual
ethics of our race. A religion is a divinely inspired code of
morals. A religious person is one inspired to nobler livi ng by
this code. He is identified by the code which is his source of
illumination. Thus we may say that a Christian is one who receives
his spiritual ideals of right and wrong from the message of the
Christ, while a Buddhist is one who molds his life into the
archetype of morality given by the great Gautama, or one of the
other Buddhas. All doctrines which seek to unfold and preserve
that invisible spark in man named Spirit, are said to be spirit
ual. Those which ignore this invisible element and concent rate
entirely upon the visible are said to be material. There is in
religion a wonderful point of balance, where the materialist and
spiritist meet on the plane of logic and reason. Science and
theology are two ends of a single truth, but the world will never
receive the full benefit of their investigations until they have
made peace with each other, and labor hand in hand for the
accomplishment of the great work - the liberation of spirit and in
telligence from the three-dimensional prison-house of ignora nce,
superstition, and fear. That which gives man a knowledge of himself
can be inspired only by the Self - and God is the Self in all
things. In truth, He is the inspiration and the thing inspired. It
has been stated in Scripture that God was the Word and that the
Word was made flesh. Man's task now is to make flesh reflect the
glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself. It is
this task which has created the need of religion - not one faith
alone but many creeds, each searching in its own way, e ach meeting
the needs of individual people, each emphasizing one point above
all the others.