Lodge Histories.

following other Extraordinary Lodges were held , to arrange a similar sad mission , a member having died on the former date and his funeral taking place on tho latter . The expenses on this occasion were £ 1 8 s .

A disagreement occurred in 1766-7 , which was settled , so far as the Lodge was concerned , in a somewhat novel manner . A ballot was taken whether one or both the disputants should be expelled . As a result one of tho

members had his half-year ' s subscription repaid him . Later on it appears the excluded brother was again put to tho test of tho ballot , when 12 voted for him and 0 against . Ho was not admitted , but was " at liberty to

visit when ho chose . " On 11 th February 1767 £ 10 was voted " to the distress'd people of Halifax , and others who are represented as worthy of Charity , or in real distress . " New Bye-Laws were introduced at this

time , and the copy then signed by each member being Btill in possession of the Lodge , a transcript ia appended to the History . This is interesting in many ways , but principally from the fact that "the office of Deacon ,

which was not known previously to exist in Lodges under the Grand Lodge of England , is described , and the duties set forth , even as at the present day . " It is to be noted that the office of Inner Guard had not then been

inaugurated . In these Bye-laws the Lodge is named the Lodge of St . John the Baptist , and this appears to have been its title until 1795 , when the name was changed to " Lodge of Probity . " On 11 th May 1768 it is " ordered

y the Lodge will be always glad to see Bro . Senior without any expense to him , he being an old Standard and Well-wisher . " About this time the members appear to have been in difficulties—monetary difficulties of a

peculiar character . They did not know what to do with a balance of £ 20 odd they then possessed . They

accordingly agreed to pay all Lodgo expenses out of this for a year , at the conclusion of which it appears the Lodge was in debt 13 s 6 d . This is pointed out by Bro . Crossley as being a rather Btrange proceeding ,

especially as about this time the Lodgo excused its contributions to Grand Lodge , ou the plea that so much distress prevailed at home , and to relieve which heavy

payments had been made by the Lodge . The Probity had a neighbour established in 1769—the Bacchus—to which we have already referred , and which was erased in 1783 .

This concludes the history of the Lodge so far as its first minute hook goes , namely , from June 1762 to June 1769 . As Bro . Crossley observes , many changes took place in that

period , short though it was . The fortunes of tho Lodge ebbed and flowed , its members showed themselves full of good intentions and high aims , a fairly good roll of members resulted , but at the conclusion its record was a roll of

twelve members and a balance to the debit of tho Lodge . In Chapter IV . we havo the career of the Lodge from 1769 to 1780 , and we are told that the heading to this should be "The Dark Ages "— " the Lodgo was simply

struggling on aimlessly , like a ship without a rudder , or an army without a leader . " At one time the membership fell BB low as five , yet regular meetings wero held , and , above all , it would seem , tho regulation number of suppers

were enjoyed . The extracts of minutes given in this chapter are interesting , and we have little doubt the perusal of tho minutes themselves proved even more so , especially to those who are now on the roll of the Lodge .

At the close of this period ( 1780 ) the Lodge had a balance in hand of £ 20 , so that there appears to have been a cer . tain amount of good management , at least towards the end

of the term , and we may accordingly look forward to an improvement when wo have an opportunity of dealing with the fifth chapter of tho History . ( To be continued . )

Masonic Ritual: Its Purpose And Treatment.

MASONIC RITUAL : ITS PURPOSE AND TREATMENT .

From an Address Delivered by Bro . J . Edwin Thomas , V . 1 Y . Grand Lecturer before the Masters' and Wardens' Association , Adelaide , 29 th April 1889 .

COMPLYING with tho request made to me , that I should endeavour to provide for the consideration and thought of tho brethren present somo material whereon we all might ^ exercise our intellectual faculties , I havo

Masonic Ritual: Its Purpose And Treatment.

ventured to reduce to writing some few crude and unpolished ideas of my own on the subject of " Masonic Ritual : Its Purpose and Treatment . " Standing as I do before many brethren of known experience and deserved repute , it behoves me to guard

against any appearance of elevating my own ideas into undue and silly prominence or of arrogating to myself any assumptions which by their inflated character could but cover me with confusion . Admirer as I am of all true

manliness and self confidence , I am , I trust , equally profound in my contempt for the distinguishing characteristics of the egotist and pretender . Let me hope , therefore ,

I shall succeed this evening in steering clear of all tendency to unduly magnify the wisdom of my remarks , and to be enabled to keep rightly within those bounds which are set between want of individuality on the one hand and a

repugnant assertion of self-confidence on the other . I shall not pretend to exhaust the subject , or to define within rigid and unalterable limits the height and the depth and tho profundity of the subject set before ns . It will entirely suffice me , if I succeed in initiating here this evening some organised effort on the part of able and

enthusiastic Masons—many of whom are present with us , and very many more who are absent—which shall have for its object the more effectual elucidation and more general enlightenment of this most interesting and important subject . I sincerely trust , therefore , that my attempt will thus be but the first of many succeeding ones ventured on

by brethren who ought and can from past study and experience help to the general improvement which is certainly needed . Our chief object being , then , to attempt some inquiry

as to the best method of interpreting and improving the rendering of our ritual , our primal duty is to form some true conceptions as to its use and aim . I can hardly

imagine that we have among our members any of so crude Masonic education , or so devoid of intelligent thought , as to harbour any idea that our ritual means nothing ; that it forms but an imposing function intended to enhance the solemnity of our proceedings by merely parading a mock

ceremonial ; that it affords an opportunity for certain brethren placed in superior rank to air their importance by cabalistic utterances ; or that it is resorted to as a moaus whereby the initiate is awed or frightened into a

serious conclusion as to the terrible degree of patronage which has been accorded him in suffering him to cross the mystic borderland which exists between the Freemason and the profane .

Brethren , I dare not assert that in no single instance has such deplorable result not be brought about in many a Lodge . 1 trust I am not over-depreciatory when I venture to assert that the manner , unconth and often grotesque , in

which I have heard the pregnant and full-meaning words of our ritual rendered by some brethren are capable of producing nothing hut a gibe and a sneer from those who enter our fold , and find nothing therein upon their first

entrance bnt husks and stubble and the empty paradings of a mock ceremonial and a badly performed function . It is no use attempting to conceal the well-known fact that many a brother has taken upon himself to be the employer

and instructor of his brethren in Freomasonry with no other serious qualification than being the possessor of an inordinate craving for going through the whole series of offices with as little delay as ho can coutrol and as little

application of thought as he cannot well avoid giving . Many , I regret to say , do not even attempt to carry out their work in such a manner as to gain any credit for themselves This aim , at least , is human , if not strictly commendable ,

What , then , does our ritual mean ? The answer cannot be difficnlt to find . To me it is this—if Freemasonry be , as wo are so taught , a peculiar system of morality , its ritual must bo the allegory figurative of that system , and

be tho medium through which its " signs and secrets " are conveyed . To the superficial and unitiated it presents hut a series of warnings , exhortations and charges , generally couched in language closely allied with geometrical figures

and references which apparently mean nothing , and only serve the purpose of investing it with a peculiarity which renders it distinctively esoteric . To n move this should bo the duty of every conscientious Master . His should be the

task of elucidating its inward meaning , of leading the thoughts and serious consideration of his brethren to the truths which underlie its peculiar style of expression ; and if he succeed , but in scant measure , he will lay the foundations whereon his brethren may raise a substantial super-