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Article THE REPORTER. ← Page 4 of 11 →
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The Reporter.
time-honoured Masons , are delivered in the Temple , and are attended on every occasion by a large assemblage of the Fraternity , —an assemblage increasing upon each meeting , —and the Members are desirous to impress upon the minds of the Brethren whom they now address , that they consider themselves as Public Stewards for the observance of the landmarks of the Order , holding such duty in trust as representatives of the past , and always with the hope of handing down the trust reposed in them to
all succeeding Stewards . In former times , a public vote of the Grand Lodge made the Grand Stewards' Lodge the " means recommendatory" for higher preferment , and this protective enactment conduced to its prosperity , for the records of the Lodge prove that it then became the general practice of the Grand Stewards to enter it on their accession to office . Since the alteration , however , in the Constitutions , this practice has so
generally declined , that the entrances have not been proportionate to the casualty or retirement of Members , and the natural consequence is , that a Lodge which has recorded in its archives the most satisfactory evidence of its utility during a hundred years , and closed its centenary with a masonic brilliancy equal to its most prosperous rera , now in a spirit of inquiry exemplifying the most honourable candour , addresses its general constituency on a topic which has for its object the means of its future conservancy .
Its members stand pledged to each other to maintain and support the high reputation of the Lodge , and to flinch from none of those public duties which it is their pride to fulfil , and this effort they feel bound to continue , in the hope that their ranks will be increased by the spirit of the ardent and high-minded Brethren whom they now address with confident hope and with the proudest expectation . Indeed to what else can the Grand Stewards' Lodge look for the means to carry out the behests of the Orderthan by recruiting themselves
con-, stitutionally as their phalanx becomes thinned by time and circumstance ? It would be disingenuous not to state , that there are no other advantages to be obtained in the Grand Stewards' Lodge than the honourable consciousness of continuing its utility to the Craft ; it is unnecessary to point out that , although the present Members can and will maintain , for the few years they may exist , its honour and reputation unsullied , yet the possible decadence and extinction of the Grand Stewards' Lodge will
be the first receding step from that zenith , to attain which has been the object of the labours of a century ; such retrogression may the Great Architect avert by the rallying around the banner of the Grand Stewards Lodge those who have at heart the fraternal virtues of Disinterestedness and Friendship , and who , possessing sight of mind , will only perceive in this Address that there are " a few words in their proper places . " We request the favour of having this communication read in open Lodge , and hopefully abide the issue .
Signed , by desire of the Lodge , J . P . Acklam , Secretary , R . W . J . RODGERS , W . M . G . S . L . London , March , 1839 . To Brother Herbert Williams , Esq . Prov . Senior Grand Warden for the Province of Dorset . SIR AND B ROTHER , —The Master Wardens and Brethren of the Grand Stewards' Lodge , are desirous of expressing their feelings upon the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Reporter.
time-honoured Masons , are delivered in the Temple , and are attended on every occasion by a large assemblage of the Fraternity , —an assemblage increasing upon each meeting , —and the Members are desirous to impress upon the minds of the Brethren whom they now address , that they consider themselves as Public Stewards for the observance of the landmarks of the Order , holding such duty in trust as representatives of the past , and always with the hope of handing down the trust reposed in them to
all succeeding Stewards . In former times , a public vote of the Grand Lodge made the Grand Stewards' Lodge the " means recommendatory" for higher preferment , and this protective enactment conduced to its prosperity , for the records of the Lodge prove that it then became the general practice of the Grand Stewards to enter it on their accession to office . Since the alteration , however , in the Constitutions , this practice has so
generally declined , that the entrances have not been proportionate to the casualty or retirement of Members , and the natural consequence is , that a Lodge which has recorded in its archives the most satisfactory evidence of its utility during a hundred years , and closed its centenary with a masonic brilliancy equal to its most prosperous rera , now in a spirit of inquiry exemplifying the most honourable candour , addresses its general constituency on a topic which has for its object the means of its future conservancy .
Its members stand pledged to each other to maintain and support the high reputation of the Lodge , and to flinch from none of those public duties which it is their pride to fulfil , and this effort they feel bound to continue , in the hope that their ranks will be increased by the spirit of the ardent and high-minded Brethren whom they now address with confident hope and with the proudest expectation . Indeed to what else can the Grand Stewards' Lodge look for the means to carry out the behests of the Orderthan by recruiting themselves
con-, stitutionally as their phalanx becomes thinned by time and circumstance ? It would be disingenuous not to state , that there are no other advantages to be obtained in the Grand Stewards' Lodge than the honourable consciousness of continuing its utility to the Craft ; it is unnecessary to point out that , although the present Members can and will maintain , for the few years they may exist , its honour and reputation unsullied , yet the possible decadence and extinction of the Grand Stewards' Lodge will
be the first receding step from that zenith , to attain which has been the object of the labours of a century ; such retrogression may the Great Architect avert by the rallying around the banner of the Grand Stewards Lodge those who have at heart the fraternal virtues of Disinterestedness and Friendship , and who , possessing sight of mind , will only perceive in this Address that there are " a few words in their proper places . " We request the favour of having this communication read in open Lodge , and hopefully abide the issue .
Signed , by desire of the Lodge , J . P . Acklam , Secretary , R . W . J . RODGERS , W . M . G . S . L . London , March , 1839 . To Brother Herbert Williams , Esq . Prov . Senior Grand Warden for the Province of Dorset . SIR AND B ROTHER , —The Master Wardens and Brethren of the Grand Stewards' Lodge , are desirous of expressing their feelings upon the