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Special Grand Lodge.
take rank after such and such a Past Master . Any lodge could do that . Some lodges had a law that a man should have been a Warden of the lodge for 12 months before being eligible for the chair . ( A cry of " no . " ) Did he understand that it was denied that this was the fact ? Because he was quite sure they could , and had done it , from time immemorial . He would
like to ask the brother who said " no , " if he could show him a word in the Constitutions which would prevent a lodge doing it . Let the lodges settle the matter themselves and do not compel them to give a man a position of Past Master when they would not otherwise do it . ( Cheers . )—General
BROWNRIGG thought the whole matter might be settled at once if the Grand Registrar would say that private lodges had the power to give honorary precedence in their lodges as stated by Bro . Havers . —Bro . M CINTYRE said that as far as the law was concerned he did not think it was in the written law , but he believed it had
been a practice adopted in some lodges that by resolution they should give honorary rank to certain members of distinction who came into those lodges . He did not know that it had ever been a fundamental law or princip le in the Grand Lodge of England . Lodges had done it and they had not been interfered with in what they had done . That had occurred
in his knowledge , but beyond that he was not prepared to say . There was no written law against it . ( Hear , hear , and cheers . )—A brother asked what Colonial and Indian Past Masters were to do ? Were they , growing old in Masonry , to come back here and enter as junior joining members . He supported the motion , although he would have preferred that the former
amendment had been carried . He thought some consideration should be shown to Past Masters coming from other provinces or from India or the colonies . But when it was said that a Past Master entering a lodge should ingratiate himself with the brethren in order that he might go into the chair , that was what they did not want to have to do , as they would keep other members
of the lodge a year out of office . —Lord HOLMESDALE put the amendment " In the case of a joining member being a Past Master , he shall have the rank and position of a Past Master of the lodge , ranking next after the then Junior Past Master and the VVorshipful Master of that lodge , provided he
has not ceased to subscribe to a lodge for 12 months . " —The amendment was carried , and clause 186 as amended was ordered to stand part of the Book of Constitutions . Clauses 187 , 188 , and 189 , were agreed to .
On clause 190 , which provided that no person should be initiated for less than five guineas , exclusive of the registration and certificate fees , Bro . G . J . MCKAY moved the substitution of " inclusive" for " exclusive , " and
remarked that in some of the provinces there were persons who would make very good Masons , but who were deterred by the amount of the fees from joining the Order . —The motion was duly seconded , and after a very short discussion Bro . McKay ' s amendment was carried .
There was nothing of striking importance m any of the subsequent clauses till clause 237 was reached . This clause provided that ** when application for relief is made " [ to the Lodge of Benevolence ] " on behalf of a child , or children , only , such application must be made within two years of the death of the father . "—Sir J . B . MoNCKTONsaid there wasan important alteration
suggested , and the Board of General Purposes very heartily recommended it , and that was to substitute five years for two years , and to add " when the child , or children , is , or are , under age . " The Board considered that two
years were a very short time indeed to insist that relief should be applied for on behalf of the children . For that time perhaps a widow might struggle on , but then find herself unable to obtain necessary support . ( Hear , hear ) , —The amendment was carried unanimously .
To clause 240 , which provided conditions for the recommendation of a petition to the Lodge of Benevolence , Bro . LE FEUVRE moved as an amendment" That every such petition shall be forwarded to the Prov . Grand Secretary of the province in which the applicant ' s lodge is situated for his report on the circumstances therein set forth . " His object , he said , was only
to give the Lodge of Benevolence the best information , and they could act on it as they thought proper afterwards . —Sir J . B . MONCKTON thought it would create great delay in many very deserving cases , but the brethren from the provinces would be much better judges of this amendment , and he would not say a word one way or the other . —The Rev . J . S . BROWNRIGG
said no one was more grateful than he to the Provincial Grand Secretaries for their assistance to Provincial and Deputy Provincial Grand Masters ; but he thought this would be putting on Provincial Grand Secretaries a burden very heavy to bear . Some provinces extended over a very large area , and
the Provincial Grand Secretary only knew of the lodge from the reports of those lodges themselves . He could not see that if a petition went to a Provincial Grand Secretary hecould do more than refer it to the particular lodge . The lodges ought to learn , if they had not yet learned , to tell the truth without the assistance of the Provincial Grand Secretaries . —The amendment was
carried . The next important clause was No . 297 : " Deputy Provincial or District Grand Masters and other subordinate provincial or District Grand Officers , present and past , wear collars of garter-blue ribbon , four inches broad , with narrow edging of gold lace or cord , but not bullion or fringe , nor phin .
In the Grand Lodge they must wear their collars a nd jewels of the lodges and offices respectively , in right of which the atlend as members of the Grind Lodge over their provincial or district Grand Lodge collars . " — Lord HOLMESDALE had an amendment—to substitute the word " under " for "over , " and said his object in moving it was to raise the whole question
° f the status of Provincial Grand Officers in Grand Lodge . With the exception of the Provincial Grand Masters all the other officers had no position out of their own province . Since the day when the old Constitution J were drawn the position of the provinces had very largely changed and nad improved enormously , more so perhaps than London . The Provincial
Special Grand Lodge.
Grand Master was at the top of the room , but the Deputy Provincial Grand Master , who did a great deal of work , had no recognised rank in Grand Lodge . He had read a case in the Masonic papers where a Provincial Grand Master who , from unavoidable causes , had not attended Provincial Grand Lod ge for six years , but his Deputy
had done all the work ; but the Provincial Grand Master had all the rank and the Deputy none . It did not appear to him in the present state of Masonry that that was a desirable state oi things . He proposed to go no further on this question than to move that amendment that night . Jso that Grand Lodge might affirm the principle to recognise Prov . Grand
Officers in Grand Lodge , and then he would bring the question forward in Grand Lodge what the position of Grand Officers should be . He did not intend to lead the President of the Board of General Purposes into a pitfall , and did not think it right to do so ; and therefore he moved this amendment . —Sir J . B . MONCKTON seconded the amendment as far as it went . The
point had been discussed b y himself and a very worthy old Deputy Prov . Grand Master of Kent , Bro . Dobson , years ago . He h id always thought it hard upon Prov . Grand Officers that they should wear their provincial purple everywhere in their province and should have it effaced in Grand Lodge by their blue collars being worn over it . —Bro . G . J . MCKAY had an
amendment somewhat similar in character ; but said he did not wish to press it . —Lord HOLMESDALE said the greater would include the less . —General BROWNRIGG did not wish this subject to pass without bearing his testimony to the value of the services of his Provincial Grand Officers , more particularly of his Deputy Grand Master . ( Hear , hear . )—The amendment was carried .
Lord HOLMESDALE then moved to omit clause 94 , which was postponed on the 29 th June . The clause was as follows : "The Deputy Provincial or District Grand Master , the Provincial or District Grand Wardens , and other Provincial or District Grand Officers , do not take any rank out of
their province or district ; they are , however , entitled to wear their clothing as Provincial or District Grand Officers , or Past Provincial or District Grand Officers , in all Masonic meetings . "—The clause was omitted , and clause 2971 as amended , was ordered to stand part of the Constitutions . Clauses down to 306 inclusive were afterwards considered .
Clause 307 consisted of the schedule of fees and contributions payable to the Fund of Benevolence . —Bro . J AMES STEVENS brought forward his motion to make the quarterages of London and the Provinces the same . He said he knew the provincial brethren felt very strongly on the subject , and he knew the question was worth y ot very grave consideration , and
could not be discussed and disposed of within the limits of a brief hour . It affected really and truly the principle of equality upon which Masonry was based , and it had a still further important effect in relation to the ability of dispensing charity through the Fund of Benevolence . They had heard a great deal of late about
the standing funds ol Grand Lod ge having been somewhat trenched upon in order to meet the pressing necessities of the poorer brethren , and it had been suggested that , at any rate , the present mode of quarterage should be amended . Upon that he felt strongly , and endeavoured to express as strongly his sense of the righteousness ot carrying out
in the direction in which every Mason should pay to the Fund of Benevolence the amount to be paid , whether he wtre made at Berwick or the Land ' s End . Every Mason had an equal right to come to the Lodge of Benevo lence for assistance . The great objection of the provinces to this proposal was that they had their own Charitable Associations to keep up . He
granted that that was a very strong argument if they would carry it out logically and admit that they had two funds to go to instead of one . ( Cries of " no . " ) They could goto their own Provincial Fund , and they could come to the Fund of Benevolence of Grand Lodge afterwards . No member of the Lodge of Benevolence had any desire to keep that assistance
from them because they were from the provinces . He did not desire to press the amendment , and he hardly liked to make his retirement fully and completely , but he would under the circumstances consult the wishes of the brethren . —Several brethren desired Bro . Stevens to press his amendment . —Bro Ai . J . MCINTYE pointed out that this amendment
sought to alter the schedule of fees . The question of fees to be paid had been settled ago j and , therefore , if this schedule was altered it would not carry out the former resolution . The schedule only put i , i figures what had been decided in words long ago . —Lord HOLMESDALE ruled that the amendment was therefore out of order . Clauses 307 and 308 were then agreed to , and Grand Lodge was closed in form .
of them , allgemetnes mystik , universal mysticalness ( as Johnson has ii ) , relates to the inner form and source of religious life ; specifisches mystik is a one-sided subjectivity , which oversteps the limits ol revealed religion ; while to mysticismus they ascribe the " stalius" of the two hurtful extremes of pi-re subjective religion , which take to superstiiion or Hyper-ianaticis-m and hyper-asceticism , or to mystic theosophy . It is very difficult for the
MYSTICISM . —A word commonly employed , rightly or wrongly , to represent , so to say , the teaching of the internal consciousness as regards things sacred and divine . The Germans , fond of definition , have divided ( at least some of them have done so ) this special form of psychological emotional dogma into mystik and mysticismus , while they have again separated mystik into allgemeines mystik and specifisches myslik . According to some
practical Anglo-Saxon mind to follow the reveries of the Teutonic philosophy , which sometimes seem lost in a haze of mists orincontjruities . There has been another meaning attached to mysticism , which it can hardl y bear , as that of Pantheism , Deism , S pinozaism , for this reason—thnt mysticism , when simply given up to a good object , is the siudy , more or less , ol the innerward emotions and sympathies which connect man with God , eaith with heaven , time with eternity . But in Freemasonry the mysticism of ihe hermetic theosophic grades cannot be praised . —Kenning ' s Cyclopedia .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Special Grand Lodge.
take rank after such and such a Past Master . Any lodge could do that . Some lodges had a law that a man should have been a Warden of the lodge for 12 months before being eligible for the chair . ( A cry of " no . " ) Did he understand that it was denied that this was the fact ? Because he was quite sure they could , and had done it , from time immemorial . He would
like to ask the brother who said " no , " if he could show him a word in the Constitutions which would prevent a lodge doing it . Let the lodges settle the matter themselves and do not compel them to give a man a position of Past Master when they would not otherwise do it . ( Cheers . )—General
BROWNRIGG thought the whole matter might be settled at once if the Grand Registrar would say that private lodges had the power to give honorary precedence in their lodges as stated by Bro . Havers . —Bro . M CINTYRE said that as far as the law was concerned he did not think it was in the written law , but he believed it had
been a practice adopted in some lodges that by resolution they should give honorary rank to certain members of distinction who came into those lodges . He did not know that it had ever been a fundamental law or princip le in the Grand Lodge of England . Lodges had done it and they had not been interfered with in what they had done . That had occurred
in his knowledge , but beyond that he was not prepared to say . There was no written law against it . ( Hear , hear , and cheers . )—A brother asked what Colonial and Indian Past Masters were to do ? Were they , growing old in Masonry , to come back here and enter as junior joining members . He supported the motion , although he would have preferred that the former
amendment had been carried . He thought some consideration should be shown to Past Masters coming from other provinces or from India or the colonies . But when it was said that a Past Master entering a lodge should ingratiate himself with the brethren in order that he might go into the chair , that was what they did not want to have to do , as they would keep other members
of the lodge a year out of office . —Lord HOLMESDALE put the amendment " In the case of a joining member being a Past Master , he shall have the rank and position of a Past Master of the lodge , ranking next after the then Junior Past Master and the VVorshipful Master of that lodge , provided he
has not ceased to subscribe to a lodge for 12 months . " —The amendment was carried , and clause 186 as amended was ordered to stand part of the Book of Constitutions . Clauses 187 , 188 , and 189 , were agreed to .
On clause 190 , which provided that no person should be initiated for less than five guineas , exclusive of the registration and certificate fees , Bro . G . J . MCKAY moved the substitution of " inclusive" for " exclusive , " and
remarked that in some of the provinces there were persons who would make very good Masons , but who were deterred by the amount of the fees from joining the Order . —The motion was duly seconded , and after a very short discussion Bro . McKay ' s amendment was carried .
There was nothing of striking importance m any of the subsequent clauses till clause 237 was reached . This clause provided that ** when application for relief is made " [ to the Lodge of Benevolence ] " on behalf of a child , or children , only , such application must be made within two years of the death of the father . "—Sir J . B . MoNCKTONsaid there wasan important alteration
suggested , and the Board of General Purposes very heartily recommended it , and that was to substitute five years for two years , and to add " when the child , or children , is , or are , under age . " The Board considered that two
years were a very short time indeed to insist that relief should be applied for on behalf of the children . For that time perhaps a widow might struggle on , but then find herself unable to obtain necessary support . ( Hear , hear ) , —The amendment was carried unanimously .
To clause 240 , which provided conditions for the recommendation of a petition to the Lodge of Benevolence , Bro . LE FEUVRE moved as an amendment" That every such petition shall be forwarded to the Prov . Grand Secretary of the province in which the applicant ' s lodge is situated for his report on the circumstances therein set forth . " His object , he said , was only
to give the Lodge of Benevolence the best information , and they could act on it as they thought proper afterwards . —Sir J . B . MONCKTON thought it would create great delay in many very deserving cases , but the brethren from the provinces would be much better judges of this amendment , and he would not say a word one way or the other . —The Rev . J . S . BROWNRIGG
said no one was more grateful than he to the Provincial Grand Secretaries for their assistance to Provincial and Deputy Provincial Grand Masters ; but he thought this would be putting on Provincial Grand Secretaries a burden very heavy to bear . Some provinces extended over a very large area , and
the Provincial Grand Secretary only knew of the lodge from the reports of those lodges themselves . He could not see that if a petition went to a Provincial Grand Secretary hecould do more than refer it to the particular lodge . The lodges ought to learn , if they had not yet learned , to tell the truth without the assistance of the Provincial Grand Secretaries . —The amendment was
carried . The next important clause was No . 297 : " Deputy Provincial or District Grand Masters and other subordinate provincial or District Grand Officers , present and past , wear collars of garter-blue ribbon , four inches broad , with narrow edging of gold lace or cord , but not bullion or fringe , nor phin .
In the Grand Lodge they must wear their collars a nd jewels of the lodges and offices respectively , in right of which the atlend as members of the Grind Lodge over their provincial or district Grand Lodge collars . " — Lord HOLMESDALE had an amendment—to substitute the word " under " for "over , " and said his object in moving it was to raise the whole question
° f the status of Provincial Grand Officers in Grand Lodge . With the exception of the Provincial Grand Masters all the other officers had no position out of their own province . Since the day when the old Constitution J were drawn the position of the provinces had very largely changed and nad improved enormously , more so perhaps than London . The Provincial
Special Grand Lodge.
Grand Master was at the top of the room , but the Deputy Provincial Grand Master , who did a great deal of work , had no recognised rank in Grand Lodge . He had read a case in the Masonic papers where a Provincial Grand Master who , from unavoidable causes , had not attended Provincial Grand Lod ge for six years , but his Deputy
had done all the work ; but the Provincial Grand Master had all the rank and the Deputy none . It did not appear to him in the present state of Masonry that that was a desirable state oi things . He proposed to go no further on this question than to move that amendment that night . Jso that Grand Lodge might affirm the principle to recognise Prov . Grand
Officers in Grand Lodge , and then he would bring the question forward in Grand Lodge what the position of Grand Officers should be . He did not intend to lead the President of the Board of General Purposes into a pitfall , and did not think it right to do so ; and therefore he moved this amendment . —Sir J . B . MONCKTON seconded the amendment as far as it went . The
point had been discussed b y himself and a very worthy old Deputy Prov . Grand Master of Kent , Bro . Dobson , years ago . He h id always thought it hard upon Prov . Grand Officers that they should wear their provincial purple everywhere in their province and should have it effaced in Grand Lodge by their blue collars being worn over it . —Bro . G . J . MCKAY had an
amendment somewhat similar in character ; but said he did not wish to press it . —Lord HOLMESDALE said the greater would include the less . —General BROWNRIGG did not wish this subject to pass without bearing his testimony to the value of the services of his Provincial Grand Officers , more particularly of his Deputy Grand Master . ( Hear , hear . )—The amendment was carried .
Lord HOLMESDALE then moved to omit clause 94 , which was postponed on the 29 th June . The clause was as follows : "The Deputy Provincial or District Grand Master , the Provincial or District Grand Wardens , and other Provincial or District Grand Officers , do not take any rank out of
their province or district ; they are , however , entitled to wear their clothing as Provincial or District Grand Officers , or Past Provincial or District Grand Officers , in all Masonic meetings . "—The clause was omitted , and clause 2971 as amended , was ordered to stand part of the Constitutions . Clauses down to 306 inclusive were afterwards considered .
Clause 307 consisted of the schedule of fees and contributions payable to the Fund of Benevolence . —Bro . J AMES STEVENS brought forward his motion to make the quarterages of London and the Provinces the same . He said he knew the provincial brethren felt very strongly on the subject , and he knew the question was worth y ot very grave consideration , and
could not be discussed and disposed of within the limits of a brief hour . It affected really and truly the principle of equality upon which Masonry was based , and it had a still further important effect in relation to the ability of dispensing charity through the Fund of Benevolence . They had heard a great deal of late about
the standing funds ol Grand Lod ge having been somewhat trenched upon in order to meet the pressing necessities of the poorer brethren , and it had been suggested that , at any rate , the present mode of quarterage should be amended . Upon that he felt strongly , and endeavoured to express as strongly his sense of the righteousness ot carrying out
in the direction in which every Mason should pay to the Fund of Benevolence the amount to be paid , whether he wtre made at Berwick or the Land ' s End . Every Mason had an equal right to come to the Lodge of Benevo lence for assistance . The great objection of the provinces to this proposal was that they had their own Charitable Associations to keep up . He
granted that that was a very strong argument if they would carry it out logically and admit that they had two funds to go to instead of one . ( Cries of " no . " ) They could goto their own Provincial Fund , and they could come to the Fund of Benevolence of Grand Lodge afterwards . No member of the Lodge of Benevolence had any desire to keep that assistance
from them because they were from the provinces . He did not desire to press the amendment , and he hardly liked to make his retirement fully and completely , but he would under the circumstances consult the wishes of the brethren . —Several brethren desired Bro . Stevens to press his amendment . —Bro Ai . J . MCINTYE pointed out that this amendment
sought to alter the schedule of fees . The question of fees to be paid had been settled ago j and , therefore , if this schedule was altered it would not carry out the former resolution . The schedule only put i , i figures what had been decided in words long ago . —Lord HOLMESDALE ruled that the amendment was therefore out of order . Clauses 307 and 308 were then agreed to , and Grand Lodge was closed in form .
of them , allgemetnes mystik , universal mysticalness ( as Johnson has ii ) , relates to the inner form and source of religious life ; specifisches mystik is a one-sided subjectivity , which oversteps the limits ol revealed religion ; while to mysticismus they ascribe the " stalius" of the two hurtful extremes of pi-re subjective religion , which take to superstiiion or Hyper-ianaticis-m and hyper-asceticism , or to mystic theosophy . It is very difficult for the
MYSTICISM . —A word commonly employed , rightly or wrongly , to represent , so to say , the teaching of the internal consciousness as regards things sacred and divine . The Germans , fond of definition , have divided ( at least some of them have done so ) this special form of psychological emotional dogma into mystik and mysticismus , while they have again separated mystik into allgemeines mystik and specifisches myslik . According to some
practical Anglo-Saxon mind to follow the reveries of the Teutonic philosophy , which sometimes seem lost in a haze of mists orincontjruities . There has been another meaning attached to mysticism , which it can hardl y bear , as that of Pantheism , Deism , S pinozaism , for this reason—thnt mysticism , when simply given up to a good object , is the siudy , more or less , ol the innerward emotions and sympathies which connect man with God , eaith with heaven , time with eternity . But in Freemasonry the mysticism of ihe hermetic theosophic grades cannot be praised . —Kenning ' s Cyclopedia .