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Article FREEMASONRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. ← Page 2 of 2 Article THE TIMES AND FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 1 Article THE TIMES AND FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 1
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasonry In Massachusetts.
ments of Bye-laws were submitted and referred to the standing Committee . Petitions for Charters for Mounford River Lud » 'e , East Douglas , and Saint Georgo Lodge , Brockton , were presented , and together with their Records , Bye-laws , and Returns referred to the Committee for
Charters , which recommended they should be granted . The proceedings of a convention of Lodges in New South Wales , in the formation of a Grand Lodge , and an application to bo recognised as tho regularly organised Grand Lodgo of New South Wales , wero presented and referred
to a Committee , consisting of Bros . Sereno D . Nickerson , Henry Endicott , and Sam . P . Oliver . A Report by the Trial Commissioners , by which a member of the William Parkman Lodge of Winchester , was expelled from all the rights and privileges of Freemasonry , was approved by vote of Grand Lodeo . The Committee on the Grand Master ' s
annual address , submitted their report , and so likewise did the Committees on Healing and on Bye-laws , after which an interesting communication from Past Grand Master Heard on the Seal of Grand Lodge and the propriety of restoring tho old motto it bore , was read by Bro . Titus , and referred
to a Committeo consisting of Bros . W . S . Gardner , Sereno D . Nickerson , Charles L . Woodbury , Charles R . Train , and Tracy P . Cheevcr . A proposed amendment to the Miscellaneous Regulations of the Grand Constitutions , to the effect that persons who have received only the E . A . P ., or
E . A . P . and F . C Degrees , on seeking admittance into a Lodge , should furnish the Tyler with a card , stating their name , the degree in Masonry they have attained , and the
Lodge by which conferred , Avhieh card must be submitted to the W . Master for his approval before such visitor could be admitted , was also referred for consideration to a Committee . A sum of five hundred dollars was voted for
charitable purposes , to bo disbursed by the Committee on Charity . After an annoucement by the Recording Grand Secretary that the Grand Master , the Grand Treasurer , and the Grand Marshal were absent through illness , Grand Lodge was closed in due form , with the customary formalities .
The Times And Freemasonry.
THE TIMES AND FREEMASONRY .
FROM THE TIMES OF 25 TH APRIL . THE Prince of Wales entered yesterday on his fourth year of office as Most Worshipful Grand Master of tho English Grand Lodge of Freemasons . The ceremonies of the occasion , which we describe in
another column , were , of course , most impressive . It is by its external splendours that Freemasonry is best kuown to tho world outside its ranks . Its gorgeous dresses , its mysterious tokens of rank and office , and its dignified method of procedure , aro well calculated to impress
the mind with duo reverence for those awful secrets of the craft which they at once veil and symbolize . Nothing was wanting yestorday to tho full effect of the day . There was a large and distingnished company , including among the guests the Crown Princo of Denmark , Grand Master of the Danish Freemasons . There was a profnse display of tho well-known insignia of tho Freemasons' order . The stm
and tho moon , tho compasses , tho squares , and tho triangles were resplendent amid the gold and silver and blue of the aprons , or shone upon tho breasts of the assembled brethren as marks of a nobility at onco the highest and tho most venerablo of any . Freemasonry has had its dark days . It has met with suspicion and persecution from Church and State . Its practice , even in this country , has been
forbidden by express statute . Elsewhere it has been under tho ban of tho Inquisition , and its members havo suffered accordingly . It has had its martyrs and confessors , its false and weak-hearted brethren , its schisms and discords from within , its relentless enemies who have ever beon on tho watch to surprise ifc and put ifc down . Ifc has passed safely through all theso dangers . It has survived with
unbroken front , guarding its secrets meanwhile from an intrusive and hostile world . In this country it has been its good fortune for somo timo past to enjoy the favour of royalty . The ceremonial of yesterday is not the first of the kind that the English world has seen . From the days of King Henry VI ., who passed suddenly from a persecutor to au admitted member of tho Order , the
connexion of the English Eoyal Family with Freemasonry has been close and frequent . At tho present day , with its sixteen hundred Lodges , its innumerable band of brothers , and with the Heir-Apparent as its Grand Master , English Freemasonry stands moro firmly than ever . Its enemies , if such it has , must be looked for among the sex which is debarred for ever from its privileges . Women , it is
wellknown , unhappily for themselves and for Freemasonry , have an evil reputation for not keeping secrets . The great ceremonial of yesterday was , therefore , less perfect than it might have been made if the sex had been less frail . The Freemasons are , beyond all dispute , a very ancient body indeed .
Their descent has been variously traced down from the patriarchs of old days . Solomon , Noah , and Adam have all beeu claimed as founders orprominent members of the Order . Probable evidence in all its degrees must be taken for what it is worth in a case of this kind , where strict proof has now ceased to be possible . The finisher of tho great Temple
The Times And Freemasonry.
must , in all reason , ho thought to havo been conversant with the builder ' s art . His workmen , if not himself , were certainly masons ; and , as tho presumption is that a man is freo in the absence of proof to tho contrary , wo may venture to speak of them as Freemasons . From these early membors of the Masonic Order , through Pythagoras , and with a process of filiation not very strictly mado out ,
wo como next to tho masons of tho early middlo ages , to the constructors of tho magnificent Gothic churches , which iu this country and on tho Continont aro among tho most precious monuments of antiquity . Tho men who erected these bnildings were certainly possessed of secrets which havo not yet been divulged . Their nnapproached supremacy as artists is sufficient proof of this . Nor need
we havo any difficulty in behoving that thoy wore frequently unitod iu a kind of brotherhood of tho craft , known to ono another in their necessary wanderings from place to place by signs of their own , aud possessed of professional knowledge which they guarded jealously from outsiders . All this is so likely that it would need proof that tho old builders wero not something of this kind rather than that fchov wore
whereas , in point of fact , the evidence , such as ifc is , is almost wholly confirmatory . Hut between theso men and tho modern Freemasons thero is only ono moro chasm to be bridged ovor , and it is not nearly as broad and difficult as tho previous one which wo havo already passed . As timo went on , and as tho constitution of society changed , the early trade companies of Europe lost , together with their nses , a
good deal of their original meaniug . Thero has been a process of transformation in a good many of them . Tho guild has survived , bufc it has been less and less closely connected with the craffc or busiuess from which ifc took its name . Modern Freemasonry has no very closo connexion with tho building trade . It scarcely , indeed , affects to have any in the ordinary sense of tho words . Its buildings are of a kind
not mado with hands . Virtue and brotherhood and good-fellowship aro the intangible results at which ifc is contented to aim . Bufc we may still , in spito of tho wide difference between old and new Masonry , trace somo , at least , of the steps by which the process of development has been carried on . Before the time of modern Freemasonry there had already been something of mystification introduced into the
Masonic Order . When tho obvious uses of that Order were at an end , it was thought wise to devise something or other by way of justifying its continued existence . Curiosity was piqued by half glances which tho world was suffered to have into the inner secrets of the Order . This was the state of things which went on apparently until the seventeenth century and tho genius of Elias Ashmole gavo
Freemasonry a fresh start . Ashmole , in his various charactei' 3 as herald , astrologer , aud antiquary , was well fitted for tho work ; and Freemasonry riponed into a perfection which could scarcely havo been expected . Ifc is of the symbolism of Frcomasonry that we must be understood as speaking . Of its real secrets wo can , of course , say nothing . They
have been made public a dozen times since Ashmole s day . Scotchmen and Americans , with an imperfect sense of humour , or with a want of love for the mysterious , have come forward to divulge them . Weak members have been forced into betraying them , sometimes by downright violence . Tho Grand Inquisitor of Portugal—so tho record runs —joined the order of the Freemasons for the express purpose of
betraying them to their enemies . But , from whatever cause it has happened , tho secret of the order—if secret indeed there be—has never been mado known . Tbo world sees it as a society which unites practical benevolence with good-fellowship , and is contented to honour ifc for its more obvious as well as for its more occult excellencies .
Tho patronage of tho Prince of Wales , however honourable , is not needed for keeping ifc in popular favour . Its great charity alone suffices to give ifc real merit , by which tho outer world may be satisfied to judge of ifc . Its secrets are its own affair , and wo arc not bold enough to indulge even the wish of prying into them .
Tho Committee of the Royal Masonic Benenolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and Widows of Freemasons have invited the brothren who acted as Stewards at the late Festival to visit tho Institution at Addiscombe Road , Croydon , on Tuesday next , between the hours of 12 a . m . and 4 p . m .
_ ACCIDENTS . —The business of accident insurance ought to ba considerably extending itself through the exertions that aro being made by the several offices . Whore there were only threo or four ten year 3 ago , there are now something liko fifteen . Yet there are very many thousands who are ignorant of the advantages a solid well-founded Company offers to those who avail themselves of an
Accident Policy . The best illustration we have seen is the Annual Claim List published by the Accident Insurance Company , of 7 Bankbuildings , Lothbnry . By the ono for 1877 , recently issued , wo make out that over 1 , 200 cases of compensation were settled during the year ; the chief number being paid for horse accidents—388 . Business and professional risks bronght 333 ; street accidents numbered
130 . We are reminded , too , of tho terrible bridge accident during the Bath Agricultural Meeting , in which the Company had three cases . Carriage accidents numbered 17 , and railway casualties produced 28 . Accidents at home seem rather numerous , as there wero so many as 120 . The innumerable other claims are spread over
sports and pastimes , such as hunting , fishing , shooting , athletics , bicycliug , bathing , boating , cricketing , football , tennis , croquet , rinking , dancing , & c . Fires and storms , attacks of cattle , and animal and insect bites , are nil detailed in a way to show how varied are the iujuries we aro all liable to sustain . It is clear everybody should hare an accident policy by him .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasonry In Massachusetts.
ments of Bye-laws were submitted and referred to the standing Committee . Petitions for Charters for Mounford River Lud » 'e , East Douglas , and Saint Georgo Lodge , Brockton , were presented , and together with their Records , Bye-laws , and Returns referred to the Committee for
Charters , which recommended they should be granted . The proceedings of a convention of Lodges in New South Wales , in the formation of a Grand Lodge , and an application to bo recognised as tho regularly organised Grand Lodgo of New South Wales , wero presented and referred
to a Committee , consisting of Bros . Sereno D . Nickerson , Henry Endicott , and Sam . P . Oliver . A Report by the Trial Commissioners , by which a member of the William Parkman Lodge of Winchester , was expelled from all the rights and privileges of Freemasonry , was approved by vote of Grand Lodeo . The Committee on the Grand Master ' s
annual address , submitted their report , and so likewise did the Committees on Healing and on Bye-laws , after which an interesting communication from Past Grand Master Heard on the Seal of Grand Lodge and the propriety of restoring tho old motto it bore , was read by Bro . Titus , and referred
to a Committeo consisting of Bros . W . S . Gardner , Sereno D . Nickerson , Charles L . Woodbury , Charles R . Train , and Tracy P . Cheevcr . A proposed amendment to the Miscellaneous Regulations of the Grand Constitutions , to the effect that persons who have received only the E . A . P ., or
E . A . P . and F . C Degrees , on seeking admittance into a Lodge , should furnish the Tyler with a card , stating their name , the degree in Masonry they have attained , and the
Lodge by which conferred , Avhieh card must be submitted to the W . Master for his approval before such visitor could be admitted , was also referred for consideration to a Committee . A sum of five hundred dollars was voted for
charitable purposes , to bo disbursed by the Committee on Charity . After an annoucement by the Recording Grand Secretary that the Grand Master , the Grand Treasurer , and the Grand Marshal were absent through illness , Grand Lodge was closed in due form , with the customary formalities .
The Times And Freemasonry.
THE TIMES AND FREEMASONRY .
FROM THE TIMES OF 25 TH APRIL . THE Prince of Wales entered yesterday on his fourth year of office as Most Worshipful Grand Master of tho English Grand Lodge of Freemasons . The ceremonies of the occasion , which we describe in
another column , were , of course , most impressive . It is by its external splendours that Freemasonry is best kuown to tho world outside its ranks . Its gorgeous dresses , its mysterious tokens of rank and office , and its dignified method of procedure , aro well calculated to impress
the mind with duo reverence for those awful secrets of the craft which they at once veil and symbolize . Nothing was wanting yestorday to tho full effect of the day . There was a large and distingnished company , including among the guests the Crown Princo of Denmark , Grand Master of the Danish Freemasons . There was a profnse display of tho well-known insignia of tho Freemasons' order . The stm
and tho moon , tho compasses , tho squares , and tho triangles were resplendent amid the gold and silver and blue of the aprons , or shone upon tho breasts of the assembled brethren as marks of a nobility at onco the highest and tho most venerablo of any . Freemasonry has had its dark days . It has met with suspicion and persecution from Church and State . Its practice , even in this country , has been
forbidden by express statute . Elsewhere it has been under tho ban of tho Inquisition , and its members havo suffered accordingly . It has had its martyrs and confessors , its false and weak-hearted brethren , its schisms and discords from within , its relentless enemies who have ever beon on tho watch to surprise ifc and put ifc down . Ifc has passed safely through all theso dangers . It has survived with
unbroken front , guarding its secrets meanwhile from an intrusive and hostile world . In this country it has been its good fortune for somo timo past to enjoy the favour of royalty . The ceremonial of yesterday is not the first of the kind that the English world has seen . From the days of King Henry VI ., who passed suddenly from a persecutor to au admitted member of tho Order , the
connexion of the English Eoyal Family with Freemasonry has been close and frequent . At tho present day , with its sixteen hundred Lodges , its innumerable band of brothers , and with the Heir-Apparent as its Grand Master , English Freemasonry stands moro firmly than ever . Its enemies , if such it has , must be looked for among the sex which is debarred for ever from its privileges . Women , it is
wellknown , unhappily for themselves and for Freemasonry , have an evil reputation for not keeping secrets . The great ceremonial of yesterday was , therefore , less perfect than it might have been made if the sex had been less frail . The Freemasons are , beyond all dispute , a very ancient body indeed .
Their descent has been variously traced down from the patriarchs of old days . Solomon , Noah , and Adam have all beeu claimed as founders orprominent members of the Order . Probable evidence in all its degrees must be taken for what it is worth in a case of this kind , where strict proof has now ceased to be possible . The finisher of tho great Temple
The Times And Freemasonry.
must , in all reason , ho thought to havo been conversant with the builder ' s art . His workmen , if not himself , were certainly masons ; and , as tho presumption is that a man is freo in the absence of proof to tho contrary , wo may venture to speak of them as Freemasons . From these early membors of the Masonic Order , through Pythagoras , and with a process of filiation not very strictly mado out ,
wo como next to tho masons of tho early middlo ages , to the constructors of tho magnificent Gothic churches , which iu this country and on tho Continont aro among tho most precious monuments of antiquity . Tho men who erected these bnildings were certainly possessed of secrets which havo not yet been divulged . Their nnapproached supremacy as artists is sufficient proof of this . Nor need
we havo any difficulty in behoving that thoy wore frequently unitod iu a kind of brotherhood of tho craft , known to ono another in their necessary wanderings from place to place by signs of their own , aud possessed of professional knowledge which they guarded jealously from outsiders . All this is so likely that it would need proof that tho old builders wero not something of this kind rather than that fchov wore
whereas , in point of fact , the evidence , such as ifc is , is almost wholly confirmatory . Hut between theso men and tho modern Freemasons thero is only ono moro chasm to be bridged ovor , and it is not nearly as broad and difficult as tho previous one which wo havo already passed . As timo went on , and as tho constitution of society changed , the early trade companies of Europe lost , together with their nses , a
good deal of their original meaniug . Thero has been a process of transformation in a good many of them . Tho guild has survived , bufc it has been less and less closely connected with the craffc or busiuess from which ifc took its name . Modern Freemasonry has no very closo connexion with tho building trade . It scarcely , indeed , affects to have any in the ordinary sense of tho words . Its buildings are of a kind
not mado with hands . Virtue and brotherhood and good-fellowship aro the intangible results at which ifc is contented to aim . Bufc we may still , in spito of tho wide difference between old and new Masonry , trace somo , at least , of the steps by which the process of development has been carried on . Before the time of modern Freemasonry there had already been something of mystification introduced into the
Masonic Order . When tho obvious uses of that Order were at an end , it was thought wise to devise something or other by way of justifying its continued existence . Curiosity was piqued by half glances which tho world was suffered to have into the inner secrets of the Order . This was the state of things which went on apparently until the seventeenth century and tho genius of Elias Ashmole gavo
Freemasonry a fresh start . Ashmole , in his various charactei' 3 as herald , astrologer , aud antiquary , was well fitted for tho work ; and Freemasonry riponed into a perfection which could scarcely havo been expected . Ifc is of the symbolism of Frcomasonry that we must be understood as speaking . Of its real secrets wo can , of course , say nothing . They
have been made public a dozen times since Ashmole s day . Scotchmen and Americans , with an imperfect sense of humour , or with a want of love for the mysterious , have come forward to divulge them . Weak members have been forced into betraying them , sometimes by downright violence . Tho Grand Inquisitor of Portugal—so tho record runs —joined the order of the Freemasons for the express purpose of
betraying them to their enemies . But , from whatever cause it has happened , tho secret of the order—if secret indeed there be—has never been mado known . Tbo world sees it as a society which unites practical benevolence with good-fellowship , and is contented to honour ifc for its more obvious as well as for its more occult excellencies .
Tho patronage of tho Prince of Wales , however honourable , is not needed for keeping ifc in popular favour . Its great charity alone suffices to give ifc real merit , by which tho outer world may be satisfied to judge of ifc . Its secrets are its own affair , and wo arc not bold enough to indulge even the wish of prying into them .
Tho Committee of the Royal Masonic Benenolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and Widows of Freemasons have invited the brothren who acted as Stewards at the late Festival to visit tho Institution at Addiscombe Road , Croydon , on Tuesday next , between the hours of 12 a . m . and 4 p . m .
_ ACCIDENTS . —The business of accident insurance ought to ba considerably extending itself through the exertions that aro being made by the several offices . Whore there were only threo or four ten year 3 ago , there are now something liko fifteen . Yet there are very many thousands who are ignorant of the advantages a solid well-founded Company offers to those who avail themselves of an
Accident Policy . The best illustration we have seen is the Annual Claim List published by the Accident Insurance Company , of 7 Bankbuildings , Lothbnry . By the ono for 1877 , recently issued , wo make out that over 1 , 200 cases of compensation were settled during the year ; the chief number being paid for horse accidents—388 . Business and professional risks bronght 333 ; street accidents numbered
130 . We are reminded , too , of tho terrible bridge accident during the Bath Agricultural Meeting , in which the Company had three cases . Carriage accidents numbered 17 , and railway casualties produced 28 . Accidents at home seem rather numerous , as there wero so many as 120 . The innumerable other claims are spread over
sports and pastimes , such as hunting , fishing , shooting , athletics , bicycliug , bathing , boating , cricketing , football , tennis , croquet , rinking , dancing , & c . Fires and storms , attacks of cattle , and animal and insect bites , are nil detailed in a way to show how varied are the iujuries we aro all liable to sustain . It is clear everybody should hare an accident policy by him .