My Grand Lodge Certificate.

MY GRAND LODGE CERTIFICATE .

IT is very old and worn now . It bears the scars of honourable conflict upon it . It has been rolled up and folded up . It is in creases in every possible direction . It has been inspected by numberless Lodge Secretaries and others who have tried to bar my entrance to a Lodge where I was not known , and who in a last endeavour to keep me out have asked for it , and who have always been discomfited by its invariable production . My

signature runs down one side of it , " ne varietur , " but it is almost illegible by this time , and quite useless for purposes of identification . The back of it is divided into sections . In one of these I put down all offices I have held , both Craft and Provincial , with dates . In another all the various Lodges I have visited , in two or three others I should say , for I strongly insist upon my right to visit when and where I please , and it is a source of satisfaction to me to know that I have sat in every Lodge which has met when I have been anywhere within reasonable distance . ,

But I am much afraid my Grand Lodge certificate ' s working days are coming to an end . I turned it up a day or two ago , and found , " horribile dictu , " a rat had been at it . However , there are statements in a G . L . certificate that even a rat cannot swallow , and consequently some of it is still left . Now I maintain that the only place Masonry affords for a rat is within the Lodge organ . We tolerate him there , but when his thirst for knowledge

induces him to consume my G . L . certificate , he must be sternly dealt with , and I am going to write home and suggest a special make for India , soaked in prussic acid or anything else that will make them respected by the tribes on the frontier . There is , however , no provision in the Constitutions—at all events that I have been able to turn up—and I may here remark in confidence that I never yet found the Masonic difficulty that could be solved by

the Constitutions—which says anything about rats getting at the G . L . C ., or about a new one being provided . I therefore , whilst still carrying the old one about with me as my most treasured possession , carry also for working purposes my no dues certificate which I persuaded Bro . Secretary to give me . These , my " Tit-Bits " ( with its £ 100 insurance policy ) and a pocket handkerchief constitute all my personal equipment when travelling . My son got

at it a few days ago , and operated on it with a pair of scissors . 'He certainly told the truth on the subject , probably recollecting the well-known story which some of your readers may not have heard , Mr . Editor , how that great man George Washington once hacked at his father ' s cherry tree , but confessed it like a man when taxed with it , the result being that his father , instead of weilding the expected horsewhip , took the youth on his knee and

an affecting scene followed . As to my son , I certainly took him aoross my knee , and , from his point of view , an affecting scene followed , though not exactly on the same lines . But this is a digression , Mr . Editor . Let us proceed to look at that certificate . It is not pretty . The most ardent Mason cannot say that . The legend on it is of the baldest description . The picture does not appeal either to the eye or

the imagination . The legend is in English on one side , and in what I was told was Latin on the other . My own Latin Btudies have not carried me beyond Virgil and Cicero and a slight dip into Thucydides , so I did not know . It would have occurred to me that Hebrew or Greek or an inscription in cuneiform characters would have been more appropriate . It has the Boyal arms at the top , not because of the Prince of Wales being M . W . G . M ., but because the Queen is patron of the Order . Most prominent in it are the

three columns of the Ionic , Doric and Corinthian Order , representing Wisdom , Strength , and Beauty , or S . K . I ., H . K . T ., and H . A . B ., and denoting again the Master , Senior and Junior Wardens . There are two globes at the foot of the centre column representing the universality of the science—two , because it is well known that never more than half a sphere can be seen at the same time , so that , with the aid of two , the whole of the earth is shown , but it should be made clear that each displays a separate hemisphere .

There is an open volume also , which we trust is the volume of the sacred law , and a suitable passage might be shown on the open page . For anything shown to the contrary it might be a ritual , or a book of the constitutions . There is an arrangement at the bottom which looks like a cribbage board . There rests on it what I presume is meant to be the twenty-four inch guage , but I am only able to make out twenty-three divisions on it . Possibly the

steel plate wants touching up . The remainder of the fragment of tesselated pavement on which all this rests , is littered about with tools of all sorts . Leaning against the Doric column is the level , whilst the plumb line reposes against the Corinthian . The perfect and rough ashlars are also near the columns of the respective Officers to whom they are entrusted . Two of the

three great lights lean against the Master's column , the third great li ght , the compasses , being for some unexplained reason left on the perfect ashlar . What the chisel and mallet have to do with the rough ashlar I am unable to make out , but there they are altogether . As a thing of beauty , therefore , my Grand Lodge certificate leaves much to be desired .

To turn once more to the legend inscribed on it , I find that the English version describes me as an Entered Apprentice and a Master Mason and gives the dates of those degrees . It must not be supposed from this circumstance that I am not also a Fellow Craft , but the omission might be injurious . The version in the foreign tongue—which as I have already mentioned is alleged to be Latin—repairs the omission , but fails to give any dates for my admission either into the second or third degrees .

Whatever pride I might feel in all this , however , is annulled by the qualification at the bottom : " This certificate shall not entitle a Brother to admission to any Lodge without due examination . "

My Grand Lodge Certificate.

After a , considerable amount of thought I have come to the conclusion that the production of a certificate only entitles a Brother to be examined , and I have acted on this principle during my tenure of the chair , with the untoward result that a vote of thanks in very qualified terms was passed in my favour on the recommendation of the audit committee , and no mention made of a P . M . ' s jewel . The fact was , six visiting Brethren turned up one

evening , each introduced by a well known member of the Lodge , who was willing to vouch for his guest . The instructions on my Grand Lodge certificate being very precise , I would not admit any of them without production of his certificate or without examination . Two of the visitors had never had a G . L . certificate , and presumably were not registered , whilst the other four were so lamentably ignorant of the first principles of

Masonry that I found it necessary to rebuke the Brethren who had so rashly offered to vouch for them . There was then a bit of a squabble , or would have been , had I not sternly repressed it , but at dinner it broke out with vehemence . And in the course of recriminations it transpired that the vouching Brethren had never sat in Lodge with their respective vouchees

and in fact had only their bare word on the subject . Why , Mr . Editor , I would not admit my own father into my Lodge on such terms . At all events my stern sense of duty has left me to suffer in the way described , and I claim the sympathy of the readers of the I . M . B . — " Indian Masonic Beview . "

We last week mentioned that the Herefordshire Charity Association had contributed a total of £ 1 , 002 15 s to the three Institutions since its formation in 1878 . This sum has been distributed as follows : £ s . d .

To the Boys School 414 15 0 To the Girls School 283 10 0 To the B . M . B . Institution : — Male fund 162 15 0 Female fund HI 15 0

The District Grand Lodge of Queensland has determined to employ a reporter . Doubtless in future a Collar in that District Grand Lodge will be reserved for some Brother of phonetic distinction .

Ad00502

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