Old Masonic College Memorial

On May 18, 1934, I dedicated the replica quarter scale of the original building of the Masonic College of Missouri at Lexington, and the Memorial Columns erected at the four corners of the original site of that building, the replica occupying the middle of the site. This event took place on the eighty-seventh anniversary of the laying of the original cornerstone of the building in 1847.

Earlier in the year I had been notified that this replica was being erected as part of the Civil Works Administration program in Lafayette County by R. W. Brother Henry C. Chiles, who was Chairman of the C. W. A. for that county, and I had authorized the marking of the site by a suitable bronze memorial tablet in the name of the Grand Lodge, pursuant to the resolution adopted by the Grand Lodge in 1932 at the suggestion of M. W. Brother Denslow.

The Memorial at the northeast corner, consisting of three steps of stone surrounded by a brick column, capped with stone, was erected by Lexington Lodge No. 149 and on its east side the Grand Lodge Memorial Tablet was placed; on the north side is another memorial tablet placed by Lexington Lodge. The two tablets fully commemorate the Masonic College of Missouri.

The other Memorial Columns were erected by the City of Lexington, which had cooperated with the C. W. A. as the old College Campus is now a City Park. The one at the northwest corner commemorates the Battle of Lexington, September 12 to 20, 1861; the one at the southwest corner the Central College for Women, and the one at the southeast corner the Presidents and former students of the Masonic College of Missouri. Appropriate memorial tablets and pictures provided by the city, ornament these columns.

Following a luncheon in my honor, I opened a specific Grand Lodge in the Hall of Lexington Lodge No. 149 and the Masons in attendance marched in a body to the old College Campus. The dedication program was so arranged that the various addresses unfolded the history of the Masonic College of Missouri, the Battle of Lexington, of the Central College for Women and of the plan for the erection of the replica, etc. The occasion was a most interesting one and the Grand Lodge is to be congratulated upon the fact that all of the important and historic activities and events so intimately connected with the 6.47 acres of ground which were the campus of its College have been suitably memorialized. It is worth the while of any Freemason to make the trip to Lexington and see these things for himself.

Dr. Arthur Mather, and Dr. Z. M. Williams were in attendance and took their places on the dedication program.

Reprinted from 1934 Proceedings, Grand Lodge of Missouri; Frank C. Barnhill, Grand Master.

Thoughts Become Things

On a recent high-school tour, I saw a sign inside a classroom that read, "Thoughts become things." I like that idea.  I had heard it before, but I wasn't sure where.  I thought it might be a quote from an unknown person or something from a book or play.  I decided to research it and maybe use it in an article.

So I went where we always go these days to find out — straight to the Internet.  The first thing I ran into was this, from a Metaphysics site:

"Thoughts become things when they are given substance with feelings in the Mind."

Bunk.

It is true that thoughts can become things but it takes a whole lot more than "feelings in the mind" to make a thought — some might call it an idea — become a reality.

Good ideas are a dime a dozen; they really are.  World peace — there's a good idea.  Well, we've been rolling out "Visualize World Peace" bumper stickers for decades and we're still visualizing, aren't we?  

Every Master or even Grand Master comes into his term filled with good ideas and the intention to make Freemasonry in general or his Lodge in particular better by the time he leaves.  Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.

What are the secret ingredients that make things work?

Think about that… because you and I both I'll bet have sat through many meetings, in the fraternity and in business, where great ideas are kicked around. Those meetings can produce a gold mine of things we can do. Those are the meetings we walk out of feeling energized, but if the ideas are not put into practice nothing gets done.

John Ruark of the Masonic Roundtable and Robert Johnson, host of this podcast, have written a book that, like those meetings, is bursting with ideas.  You may have read the book. You may have told John and Robert it's the greatest thing you've ever read; but then, if you put it on the shelf and do nothing, they have wasted their time writing the book and you have wasted your time reading it.

You see, Brothers, the secret ingredients that make things work… that make thoughts become things… are action, dedication and hard work.  If we take the ideas from that inspiring meeting and do nothing or take the book It's Business Time and put it on the shelf, what have we accomplished?

Let's challenge ourselves to take a single idea from that great meeting, or just one of the chapters from John and Robert's book and put it into practice. That might not solve all our problems, but it would be a great start. Full disclosure: I'm doing this for Robert's podcast, but neither he nor John knew I was going to talk about their book.

Steve Jobs, you may recall, had a lot of good ideas; and he knew how to turn those ideas into a lot of good things.  I like his take about thoughts becoming things: "Most people," he said, "have a disease: they think once they've had a good idea they've done 90% of the work.  Coming up with the idea is easy. Working to make it a reality is the hard part."