W. Howard Coop, 32
Lancaster, Kentucky

The influence of a few good men may appear to be of little or no consequence to society, but silently and powerfully that influence works like leaven in dough to produce amazing results.

Sodom, an ancient city located somewhere in the vicinity of the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea, is remembered as the epitome of wrongdoing and an example of God’s righteous wrath striking down wickedness and evil.

Another element of the story of the destruction of Sodom reveals an even more profound truth. Wicked though Sodom was, the city could have been saved from total annihilation. Abraham, a just and good man who lived in another part of the country by the oaks of Mamre, pleaded for the doomed city to be saved from the certain destruction it faced. Out of his intervention came the assurance from the Creator that the city could be saved by the influence of good men.

In a society accustomed to violence, sexual immorality, drug abuse, corruption in government at all levels, and a tendency on the part of many to ignore traditional family values that have been basic to our society, the influence of a few good men in America today may appear to be of little or no consequence to society, but silently and powerfully that influence works like leaven in dough to produce amazing results.

When that influence takes hold in human life, it can create the moral courage to obey one’s conscience and do what is right regardless of the consequences or the hostility of an uncaring and even wicked society. That strength of character becomes a redeeming factor in human society with power sufficiently strong to change the course of whole civilizations.

An old saw, familiar to anyone whoever used a typewriter, says, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” It is time to take that old saw seriously, for American society in particular and the world generally need the redeeming and stabilizing influence of good men.

Freemasons in our nation and around the world can be the men of good character who respond to the challenge and allow the influence of their lives to become the redeeming factor that impacts on human society to bring about positive change.

So mote it be.

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