Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Bruno, Swick, and Literski on the Masonic Sign of Distress

Taken from Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, and Nicholas S. Literski, Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2022), 403-5

 

The Masonic Grand Hailing sing of Distress was taught to nineteenth-century brethren of the Craft in the Master Mason Degree. The sign was given “by raising both hands and arms to the elbows, perpendicularly, one on each side of the head, the elbows forming a square.” The words “O Lord, my God! is there no help for the widow’s son?” were taken spoken, as the hands were solemnly lowered. The phrase is reportedly what King Solomon said when he learned of Hiram Abiff’s murder. [51] Freemasons of the day took an obligation that “should I ever see that sign given or the word accompanying it, and the person who gave it, appearing to be in distress, I will fly to his relief at the risk of my life.” [52]

 

Smith’s close associates clearly imputed Masonic intentions to his last spoken words. John D. Lee, secretary of the Council of Fifty, left an embellished later account which included the entire phrase from the ritual: “Joseph left the door, . . . and cried out, ‘Oh Lord my God, is there no help for the widows’ son!’ as he sprang from the window, pierced with several balls.” [53] Likewise, Zina D. H. Young, a member of the Quorum of the Anointed, later president of the Relief Society, and one of Smith’s plural wives, proclaimed:

 

I am the daughter of a master mason! I am the widow of a master mason, who, when leaping from the window of Carthage jail pierced with bullets, made the masonic sign of distress; but, gentlemen (addressing the representatives of the press that were present), those signs were not heeded except by the God of heaven. That man, the Prophet of the Almighty, was massacred without mercy! Sisters, this is the first time in my life that I have dared to give utterance to this fact, but I thought I could trust my soul to say it on this occasion; and I say it now in the fear of Israel’s God, and I say it in the presence of these gentlemen, and I wish my voice could be heard by the whole brotherhood of masons throughout our proud land. [54]

 

Thus, the men and women surrounding Smith were unanimous on this point. With apparent pride in his standing as a Freemason, they called the Masons in the crowd of assassins to task for failing to come to his aid.

 

Another possibility why Smith might have given the Masonic call is suggested by a closer look at the legend behind the distress call in William Morgan’s 1826 exposé. There, the brother representing King Solomon is told at the grave by Hiram Abiff that his body has been searched carefully for the Master’s word and nothing has been discovered but “a feint resemblance of the letter G! that is not the Master’s word nor a key to it. I fear the Master’s word is forever lost!” He repeats this phrase three times, and upon the third repetition adds the words, “O Lord my God, is there no help for the widow’s son?” [55] Perhaps Smith, in the final moments of his life, feared that the “Master’s word was forever lost”—that the Temple ordinances in their unfinished state, and the Mormon lodges in their current clandestine condition, would not be sufficient to bring to pass the restoration he had envisioned.

 

As mentioned, some modern Latter-day Saints, uncomfortable with the Masonic associations of this phrase, construe Smith’s exclamation as a prayer. This interpretation is not completely at odds with a Masonic view of the Grand Hailing sign. Every Masonic obligation ends with a plea, “SO help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.” The Grand Hailing cry can thus be given as a way to alert God to a man’s distress when no human ear is there to hear.

 

Inside the jail, Willard Richards, a Freemason himself dragged John Taylor to safety in another room and concealed him under a mattress. Not completely sure that the Smith brothers were dead, he elevated his hands three times and exclaimed, “Oh Lord, my God, spare Thy servants!” [56] Both Richards and Smith, in their hour of extremity, turned to Masonically inspired ritual to express their deepest longings.

 

[51] William Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry by One of the Fraternity Who has Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject, 69.

 

[52] Morgan, 67.

 

[53] John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled: Or The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee; (Written by Himself), 153.

 

[54] Zina D. H. Young, “Woman’s Mass Meeting, Salt Lake Theater, Nov. 16, 1878,” 98.

 

[55] Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry, 75.

 

[56] B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor: Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 140.