What motive leads the Masonic candidate out of the world and up the winding stairway to the light? He alone can truly know for in his heart is hidden the motive of his works. Is he seeking the light of the East? Is he seeking wisdom eternal? Does he bring his life and offer it upon the altar of the Most High? Of all things, motive is most important. Though we fail again and again, if our motive be true, we are victorious. Though time after time we succeed, if our motive be unworthy, we have failed. Enter the temple in reverence, for it is in truth the dwelling place of a Great Spirit, the Spirit of Masonry. Masonry is an ordainer of kings. Its hand has shaped the destinies of worlds, and the perfect fruitage of its moulding is an honest man. What nobler thing can be accomplished than the illumination of ignorance? What greater task is there than the joyous labour of service? And what nobler man can there be than that Mason who serves his Lights, and is himself a light unto his fellow men?
I wonder if some are motivated from within as a seeker while others are drawn by the magnetic character of Masonry and some pushed from on high to join Masonry.
I was approached by a mason who thought I would make a good one ? At the time I didn't know women could be masons.
Twenty years later I am still a mason, but must admit to sometimes wondering whether to remain one. It is an 'inner thing' that keeps me where I am, and an inner energy that keeps me on this forum, even when we had times that it was just you and I talking to each other. I had little energy for a lot of other things, but always some for the forum.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth