C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander

My duties occasionally take me to the Archives of the House of the Temple, and recently I was there to look through some of the past issues of the New Age Magazine, as the Scottish Rite Journal was titled until January 1990. Many Brethren may not realize how long the Southern Jurisdiction has been publishing "a literary monthly magazine" as a means of "communication between the brethren of the Rite throughout our vast jurisdiction" and for "the education of the people in the highest sense."¹ Whether titled the New Age Magazine or the Scottish Rite Journal, we have published a jurisdiction-wide magazine since June 1904. Indicative of its central purpose as a means of general education, the first issue, 144 pages long, included a variety of materials—art sketches, science, social service, poetry, short stories—along with an article about the House of the Temple and 30 pages on specifically Masonic subjects.

From then to the present, many Grand Commanders have written messages, such as this one, and many more Scottish Rite Masons have shared their beliefs, ideas, and research with the Craft through the articles they contributed to our magazine. Running through all those years and those millions of words, like a bright thread in a tapestry, is the theme of patriotism, a theme still of central importance to Scottish Rite Freemasons everywhere this Fourth of July.

For nearly a century in this publication, we have proudly hailed our country and our flag. It is not surprising that the Scottish Rite has made such a point of patriotism. Albert Pike himself wove it into the rituals and the teachings of the Order. On page 156 of Morals and Dogma, he writes:

The true Mason identifies the honor of his country with his own. Nothing more conduces to the beauty and glory of one's country than the preservation against all enemies of its civil and religious liberty. The world will never willingly let die the names of those patriots who in her different ages, have received upon their own breasts the blows aimed by insolent enemies at the bosom of their country.

Grand Commander Pike honors those willing to defend our country at all costs. But he also stresses it is just as important to remember that the glory of a nation is not only in its battles but also in its administration of justice and the care it takes of all its citizens. Mercy, humanity, and compassion are essentials of true patriotism.

In this sense, patriotism has been the theme uniting the hundreds of articles published by the Southern Jurisdiction over these many decades. We proudly hail those men and women who have fought our country's battles. At the same time, we honor as patriots those who have championed justice, humanity, freedom, religious toleration, and equality. The poet Frederick Gillman captured the sense of Scottish Rite patriotism when he wrote: "God send us men with hearts ablaze/All truth to love, all wrong to hate:/These are the patriots nations need;/These are the bulwarks of the state."

The Scottish Rite will continue to accent the responsibilities of citizenship and the practice of the great personal and civic virtues which alone can make a man, or a nation, great. We will continue to provide educational materials to our youth (such as our June 2000 "Show Your Colors, America!" special issue dedicated to the "Stars and Stripes"), telling them the great story of our nation and our flag. We will proudly hail in the future, as we have in the past, those who have made a difference for good in the world. For this, as Pike understood, is true patriotism. Through nearly two centuries of existence and 97 years of publication, the Scottish Rite, S.J., USA, has carried the central message of patriotism—great men and women make a great nation. May each of us continue to strive for that greatness this Fourth of July and always.