Masonic Equality.

MASONIC EQUALITY .

WHENEVE R and wherever Freemasons congregate in Lodges , they " meet on the Level . " Princes and presidents , philosophers and statesmen , the learned and the unlearned , are only Brethren there . Their distinctions , and even their virtues , they may flaunt before the world , but there all

inequalities are veiled ; Mr . President is but Brother , and his lowliest fellow-citizen greets him as an equal . There is a lofty principle underlying this practice , and this principle gives birth to tbe noblest of Masonic efforts ; to both of these we would devote a few thoughts .

The socialist , anarchist and the Utopian have brought into disrepute the great doctrine of moral equality , but they can only pervert it—never annul it . It is an outgrowth of the better part of every man ' s nature , and it is the declared truth of the Father of ns all . The Prophet Malachi asks : " Have we not all one

Father ? Hath not one God created us ? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother ? " While Solomon , whom we acknowledge as the first Grand Master of Freemasonry , says : " The rich and the poor meet together ; the Lord is the Maker of them all . " So , in apostolic times , St . Paul wrote : " The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of

one soul , and had all things common . " We are all the children of one Father ; we enter and leave the world in like manner , at birth and death , to appear before T . G . A . O . T . U ., who is no respecter of persons . The doctrine of complete equality , social and political , as well as moral , while desirable in itself , numberless experiments

have proved to be fallacious and unattainable this side of the stars . This , Masonry does not teach . It strikes at no form of government , no rank of society . While it closes its doors upon all outside distinctions , and admits only the man , it allows him to assume all again as soon as he has recrossed its portals . While it has been demonstrated that life is too long , and the spirit of

man is too much biased by time and sense , to justify a complete community of interest , it has been equally proven that it is possible for a band of Brothers to meet periodically , to lose all sense of their earthly distinctions in the Lodge , while there to be engaged only in labours of love , and on parting to carry away with them so much of the spirit of their meeting as to bias for good all of their subsequent actions .

Freemasonry is essentially democratic in this feature of equality . It teaches the truth that we have mutual wants and need mutual assistance ; tha ' t every Brother must aid , to the extent of his ability , his Brother in sickness , need or other adversity ; that being all subject to the same perils of fortune , all should minister alike to those having need . But while democratic in this leading doctrine of equality of rights , in another aspect it

is essentially aristocratic . The power of the W . M . is absolute . We will not discuss this now ; we only note it in passing to show how complex , and at the same time complete a system Masonry is , containing the germs of many systems , of government as well as of justice and right—ever seeking to find the good in every system , weed it of its possibly accompanying evils , and retain only those parts which tend to the well-being of man and the honour of God .

This leading Masonic feature strikes at the very root of the chief human imperfection—pride , which caused alike tbe fall of angels and of man . It perhaps is the first well defined feeling of the human heart , the firmest to retain its hold , the last to yield its sway , according to the course of nature ; while humility is a golden virtue , giving grace to the life , and exalting it in the very

act of abasement . Equality and humility are twin-sisters ; they always coexist . Masonry in teaching the one teaches the other , and , so far as it successfully does this , spreads abroad the practice of one of the noblest virtues known to man , the sincere exemplification of which purifies the heart , and so far fits it for the Grand Lodge . above . Of pride it has been forcibly said , " Masonry has banished it from the Lodge and sung its requiem . "

But the chief glory of the doctrine of Masonic equality is , that is has given birth to all of our efforts in behalf of our needy , worthy Brethren and the distressed of every name the wide world over . The " Brotherhood of man " once acknowledged , we must aid and succour our fellows , for they are , if Masons , joined to us by the " mystic tie ; " if not , still of one blood with us , with a

common Father , and journeying to the same goal , pursued by the same great leveler—Death . All our benevolences have their origin in the acknowledgment of a common equality ; hence it is the foundatiou-stone of the Fraternity , the first to be taught , the last to be forgotten . In the language of Job , God " aceeptetb not the jjerson of princes , nor regardefcli the rich more than the poor , for

all are the work of his hands . " Masons have a double reason for treating their Brethren in every respect as their equals , their second selves . First , there is the example just quoted , which in itself is an injunction to go and do likewise ; and we may , in a much lower , but no irreverent sense say , that every Mason as such is the work of our Craft ' s hands—our ancient and venerated

Masonic Equality.

system has taken him , a profane , and cast upon him the privileges of the Fraternity . He is one of us by our own act , and hence it becomes us to love him with a Brother ' s love , and aid him with a Brother ' s hand . — " Keystone . "

Bro . Biggs , of the Enfield Lodge , London , when responding as a visitor at the Orion Lodge , Victoria , remarked upon the readiness with which he , as a young Mason , had been accepted by the Graft in Victoria since his arrival there , and , whilst admiring personally their confidence in him , related an amusing anecdote . " Passing along Fleet Street one afternoon ,

Douglas Jerrold was accosted by a casual acquaintance , who mildly enquired if he had sufficient confidence in him ( the applicant ) to lend him half-a-guinea . Jerrold replied that he had any amount of confidence , but he really had not the halfguinea . " The speaker evidently intended to point a moral by this tale .

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