Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Eeeemasons' Quarterly Magazine And Review.
to remove and obliterate all those actions which have tended to lower Freemasonry in the eyes of the popular world , and which were chargeable , not upon the precepts of the Craft , but upon the conduct of those alone who , by converting the means of usefulness belonging to the Order into
social festivity and boisterous niirth , degraded not only their profession but themselves . The task was in many instances difficult , but it was not , as time has proved , hopeless or insurmountable . But a few years have elapsed since the effort was made , and the work
of reformation begun . It met with opposition at first from those who were barely acquainted with the alphabet of Masonic lore , and whose only ability—and that often in the most imperfect manner—was to open and close a Lodge in the first and second degrees . Innovations were complained of ; resolutions which went to make each Brother fully acquainted with his own portions of the work were
in many instances resisted , when it was determined not to be dependent upon the one Brother alone who , perhaps , in the whole Lodge , was practised in the art of initiating , passing , and raising , and who too often sought to aggrandize all honour only to himself , and which was slavishly
rendered , because those who were obedient could not by any possibility act without him . Many and loud were the complaints when the movement began , that the young Mason was attempting to trammel and control those of his elder Brethren , who assumed a sort of prescriptive right to
rule the Lodge as they pleased , and could , therefore , tolerate " no rival near their throne . " But whenever right takes the initiative , and the determination to act fairly and for the good of the whole—rather than for the assumed superiority and authority of the few—passes into honourable ,
fraternal , and faithful action , the parties being alike regardless of the froAA'n of opposition or of the sneer of ignorance , their triumph is sooner or later complete . We could at this moment refer to many Lodges , both in the metropolitan and country districts , were it not invidious
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Eeeemasons' Quarterly Magazine And Review.
to remove and obliterate all those actions which have tended to lower Freemasonry in the eyes of the popular world , and which were chargeable , not upon the precepts of the Craft , but upon the conduct of those alone who , by converting the means of usefulness belonging to the Order into
social festivity and boisterous niirth , degraded not only their profession but themselves . The task was in many instances difficult , but it was not , as time has proved , hopeless or insurmountable . But a few years have elapsed since the effort was made , and the work
of reformation begun . It met with opposition at first from those who were barely acquainted with the alphabet of Masonic lore , and whose only ability—and that often in the most imperfect manner—was to open and close a Lodge in the first and second degrees . Innovations were complained of ; resolutions which went to make each Brother fully acquainted with his own portions of the work were
in many instances resisted , when it was determined not to be dependent upon the one Brother alone who , perhaps , in the whole Lodge , was practised in the art of initiating , passing , and raising , and who too often sought to aggrandize all honour only to himself , and which was slavishly
rendered , because those who were obedient could not by any possibility act without him . Many and loud were the complaints when the movement began , that the young Mason was attempting to trammel and control those of his elder Brethren , who assumed a sort of prescriptive right to
rule the Lodge as they pleased , and could , therefore , tolerate " no rival near their throne . " But whenever right takes the initiative , and the determination to act fairly and for the good of the whole—rather than for the assumed superiority and authority of the few—passes into honourable ,
fraternal , and faithful action , the parties being alike regardless of the froAA'n of opposition or of the sneer of ignorance , their triumph is sooner or later complete . We could at this moment refer to many Lodges , both in the metropolitan and country districts , were it not invidious