Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Correspondents . All Letters must bear the name and address of the writer , not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

APPEOACHING OUE EULEES .

To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —Being anxious to enter into the subject of " Uses and abuses of Freemasonry , " I communicated with , and received from the Prov . G . Sec . a letter from which I extract the following : ¦ — " I regret I cannot see my way to grant your request , " i . e ., an interview . Further he

writes : — " I consider the printed circulars bearing your name to be an impertinent attempt to interfere where you have no right to do , " the impertinence being the pointing out that some Lodges in the Province were swamped with honours , whilst others equally deserving were left high and dry , a remedy for which could easily be found were he ( the Secretary ) to state the circumstances fully to the R . W . P . G . M .

I would now ask the favour of the opinion of your readers whether the Provincial Grand Secretary may or may not be approached on matters of vital importance to the Craft ? Yours fraternally , ¦ EDGARDO A . GAYNE P . M .

SEEV 10 E QUALIFICATION OF OFFICEES

To the Editor of the FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —Your last issue contains two items which raise doubts in my mind as to what is proper in Masonic practice . In the ono instance , on page 111 , you give a letter wherein the writer says that a Junior Warden never attended during his year of office , after his actual investiture ; and in the other , on page 118 , you report the installaton of the Worshipful Master of Lodge No . 2555 , stating that he was " installed into office in his absence " ( which was caused by ill-health ) .

Now , what I want to know is the standing of Brethren who are in such positions as here referred to . 1 . Is the Junior Warden eligible for the Master's chair—the necessary qualification , as set down by Law 130 of the Constitutions , being that a member must " have served for one year the office of .... Warden in a regular Lodge " —and , if so , is it understood that a member who does nothing in his office as Junior Warden is supposed to have qualified by " service " ?

2 . Is a Worshipful Master , installed into office by proxy , supposed to have complied with the requirements of Law 9 , which lays it down that a Brother must be " regularly elected and installed as Master , " and fill "that office for one year " in order to be qualified to sit in Grand Lodge as a Past Master ?

It seems to me that both my questions must be answered in the negative , even if the investiture as a Warden or installation as a Master , by proxy , is not distinctly illegal ; but on the other hand I believe it is a common practice for Wardens to absent themselves from their offices and yet claim they are qualified by the necessary year ' s " service . " They are Wardens in fact , if not in practice , and as such are eligible for preferment .

In the case of the Master installed by proxy I see that he was already a Provincial Officer , and , it may be , had already passed the chair , and on that account I by no means desire my queries to be regarded as anything like personal matters . I only ask what is the standing of Officers who are in the position of the two referred to above ? Yours , & c , ON THE ROAD .

Review.

REVIEW .

Books intended for Eeview should be addressed to the Editor , " Freemason ' s Chronicle , " Mew Sarnet . — : o : — The Great Pyramid . By John Chapman , F . R . Met . Soc . London : J . S . Virtue and Co ., Limited . Bro . Chapman has acceded to the request of many of his friends , and

has issued in one volume the series of papers on the Great Pyramid that appeared in our own and other columns a few months back , and which at that time created considerable interest among those who are acquainted with some one or other of the modern theories in regard to this great monument of the past . Bro . Chapman ' s latest contribution to the literature of the subject will , we hope , prove a useful aid towards the fulfilment of the work he and others are so anxious to see completed .

We may mention that the late Astronomer-Royal for Scotland ( who is a standard writer on the Great Pyramid ) , finding that Bro . Chapman was yielding to the wishes of a number of friends who have investigated the subject , by reprinting the matter , expresses his opinion of the merit of the work as follows : — "My dear Mr . Chapman , —I am very glad to hear that you are taking up in succession each notable part of Great Pyramid , and

describing it up to the extent of modern knowledge of it . Such a publication , if allowed to be complete , must produce considerable effect . " Bro . Chapman has dedicated the book to the writer of this kind and complimentary note , in the following terms : " Eespectfully dedicated to C . Pizzi Smyth , LL . D ., F . R . S . E ., F . R . A . S ., & c . ( late Astronomer-Royal for Scotland ) , in grateful appreciation of his distinguished skill and efforts in unveiling the grand truths contained in the Great Pyramid . " The work is published at 2 s 6 d .

Owing to extensive alterations at the " Castle , " Holloway Eoad , the meetings of the Eoyal Standard Lodge of Instruction , No . 1298 , usually held there on Friday evenings , cannot be commenced until after November . Members will be duly advised when the Lodge resumes , or of any alteration of address , should that course be decided upon .

Christianity And Freemasonry.

CHRISTIANITY AND FREEMASONRY .

THF following further letters have appeared in the " Church Times , " in answer to the one we recently extracted : SIB , —May I be allowed , as a Churchman who found Masonry incompatible with Churchmanship , to add my testimony to the case against the Craft ? Enough has been said as to the gross adsurdity of identifying the purely modern invention of " speculative" Masonry with the ancient Masonic

Guilds , and of claiming William of Wykeham and Peter de Rupibus as members of the fraternity now governed by the Grand Lodge of England Such nonsense is of a piece with the foolish legends of tho craft—as , for instance , that it owes its introduction into this country to St . Alban the Martyr . But there is another and a more practical way in which the matter may be considered . If there is one thing against which every Churchman in the present day is bound to exert all his influence and energies , it is , as your columns abundantly testify , undenominational religion .

Now , as everyone knows , Masonic ceremonies are performed with religious worship , the Deity being conceived and addressed as the Grand Architect of the Universe . In the act of worship the Catholic is required to ignore the last Divine Revelation of tho Godhead , and to join with Jews and Turks and Unitarians on the lower footing of a Faith which is neither more nor less than Unitarianism . True , that in England the large majority of Masons are Christians , perhaps even Churchmen . Yet I ask , where is the consistency of voluntarily joining a religious society based upon agreement

as to the Monotheistic idea underlying the Jewish , Mohammedan , and Christian faiths , and then protesting against the application of such a principle of agreement to the religious education of the young ? I ask again , how can a priest accept the chaplaincy of a Lodge , and have to submit to a reprimand from the W . M . if he inadvertently ( I ) name the name of Christ in saying grace ( as I know from personal knowledge has been the case ) , or if in his lectures he tries by a sidewind to give a Christian dross to Masonio precepts ?

Believe me , Sir , the association of Churchmen with Masonry is one of the strongest arguments in favour of undenominationalism ; and I , for one , am at a loss to understand how anyone that is opposed to the latter can have anything to do with the former . ONCE A MASON . 3 rd August .

SIR , —It is , of course , difficult to know whether it is necessary or worth while to reply to the accusations and statements of your correspondents ( every one anonymous ) who out of the plenitude of their partly necessary ignorance attack Freemasonry , which is interesting and dear to so many of your readers . But silence might be considered identical with being silenced . Let me say , therefore , that none of the craft have any heed to be taught that one of our parents , and only one , is the ancient Guild or Trades Union

of operative Masons . That exists no longer , and we make no pretence of being it , although many individuals , as your correspondent "Architect " might know , like Sir Christopher Wren , have been both operative Masons or builders and also Freemasons in the present meaning of the word . Let mo say also that he builds on a non-existent foundation when he says twice over that infidels can join our brotherhood . It is impossible , unless they perjured themselves , and their disbelief was unknown to their proposers and all members of the Lodge .

" Architect also describes the secrets , which he cannot know , as childish , and as given amidst farcical surroundings . Does he not consider that the character and reputation of many well-known Masons—say , the Bishop of Llandaff , the Deans of York , Rochester , and Hereford , and the Archdeacon of London—is such as to give an assurance to the outside public that he speaks unadvisedly with his lips ? Again , he speaks of the " absurd

symbolism " of the emblematic tools of Masonry . He might as well speak in the same terms of St . Paul's symbolising of the weapons and armour of his military warders . One of the minor benefits of Freemasonry is that it kept alive a knowledge of the truth and value of symbolism and ritual when the abomination of desolation in the Georgian period had nearly abolished the capacity and the desire to understand that anything might underlie the material and the external .

Again , his confusion between faith and the Catholic faith deprives his argument of any force , unless he means that one is never to join any society , even an architectural one or a trades union , unless all members thereof are Catholics . It is just this narrowness that has worked untold harm here and abroad ; which also on the Continent is chiefly responsible for the masculine revolt from a representation of religion which has become not altogether unworthy of its nicknames , Clericalism and Papalism . He seems able also to

distinguish between a morality which emanates from Christ , and some other morality which he imagines to be that which Masonry teaches and practices . I am unable to follow him . Masonry has no distinctive morality , any more than the church of England has any distinctive doctrines apart from those of the Catholic Church ; but it does most usefully , impressively , and continuously impress the morality of the cardinal and the theological virtues upon those who , either from infrequent attendance at church , or , perhaps , still more from the common neglect of priests and preachers to give definite

moral teaching , are in danger of forgetting that doctrine needs a moral basis . Any priest who becomes a Blason neither adds to his knowledge of doctrine or morals , nor has to surrender one jot of what he possesses and treasures ; but when he observes the value of the constant inculcation of a high ideal of morality , and moreover of the advantage to the inner man of a system that requires that reverence shall be given to order and symbolism , then he will not want to ask whether the Pope has been inspired or rightly persuaded to anathematise generally what only locally has become degraded . -

J . W . HORSLEY . SIR , —The correspondence upon Freemasonry which has appeared in your columns is very interesting to Christians in general , and to Catholics in particular . It raises a question which many like myself have been in doubt how to answer when appealed to , as to ( 1 ) the lawfulness of joining secret societies ; and ( 2 ) their usefulness . Your correspondent " Offeiriad " has given voice to the distrustful feelings of many Catholics in regard to the craft . His question was , " Is it advisable , or even allowable , for Catholics in England to be Freemasons ? "

Surely so reasonable a question should have met with courteous consideration by clergymen of the Church of England who have been able to reconcile their consciences to continue the exercise of their ministry with membership of a secret society . But none of the letters in your last week ' s issue deal with this question at all , although they appear to have been