Consecration Of The Woodgrange Lodge, No. 2409.

doing ? " is a solemn one . On the answer depends our qualification for admittance to or rejection from a Mason ' s lodge . Thirdly , exact from him who seeks to enter our Craft that he should be a man of industry . We have no vacancies for idlers in our Craft . A man without a profession or without useful work is a blot upon the face of God ' s fair creation . To most of us work is a necessity as without work we should starve—to all work is a moral obligation , as without work man ' s

higher and better life starves and dies . It should be one of the questions which a Iodge should propose to itself in considering the qualifications of a candidate for admission . What is the man doing ? How is the world the better for him ? In his profession as well as in his home what character does he bear for industry , and perseverance , and the constant desire to do all things , whatsoever his hand findeth to do , well ? Do you tell me that I have fixed my standard too high , and

that few if any can on these qualifications gain admittance . My answer is that I regret it , for I would gladly see an even larger increase to our Craft than we are getting year by year , but also that it will be far better for your lodge to have the standard too high rather than too low . I have no hesitation in saying that the one thing which at the present moment is very distinctly injuring the Craft , both in England and abroad , is the too common admission of men of low moral standard into our Order . Men perhaps who can afford to spend large sums of money upon

our Order and even upon our Charities . Men who rise to important offices in their lodges , and who are even expert workers of our ceremonies , who pass before the world as good Masons , but who nevertheless are bringing upon us the just accusation from the outside world , that anyone who can pay the initiation fee is able to gain admittance to a lodge . Forgive me if I have very plainly warned a young lodge , to which from the bottom of my heart I wish God-speed of a real and present danger .

General applause followed the delivery of this address . The various ceremonies were then gone through , and the Woodgrange Lodge was consecrated and dedicated to Freemasonry . Bro . Col . Shadwell H . Clerke installed Bro . Archibald B . Trew as W . M ., who appointed to act as his first I . P . M . the veteran John G . Stevens ( of the " Province of

East London . " ) The W . M . invested Bro . Robert H . Brannon as S . W ., Bro . Robert James Tucker , as J . W . ; Henry William Clarke , Sec . ; Alfred James Hardwick , S . D . ; James Hall Brown , J . D . ; Octavius E . Riche , I . G . ; Alfred Hagan , D . C . ; William Wilkinson , Org . ; James Everett and William Munro , Stewards ; and Thomas Bowler , Tyler .

Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE thereafter delivered the addresses , and the Consecrating Officers , in addition to having a vote of thanks unanimously passed to them , were elected honorary members of the lodge . On their behalf Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE returned thanks , and hoped at a future time these officers would visit the lodge , and have the happ iness of witnessing a steady progress .

The SECRETARY read out numerous propositions for joining the lodge , which was subsequently closed formally till October . A banquet of a very superior description followed , and the loyal and Masonic toasts received due recognition . After " The Queen and the Craft , " " The M . W . G . M . " and " The Pro G . M ., Deputy G . M ., and the rest of the Grand Officers , Present and Past , " had been honoured ,

Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE , G . Sec , responded to the last of these toasts . As he was called upon by the W . M . to respond , he was bound to do so , but he begged to say that in doing so he felt himself a Masonic fraud , and he would tell the brethren why . Although at the consecration of the Iodge he was representing the M . W . G . M ., still , after the ceremony was over , when the health of the Grand Officers was drunk , he was not the

senior Grand Officer present . He felt with two distinguished and very eloquent senior officers present like Bro . Philbrick and Bro . Brownri gg , it was not his duty or his privilege to return thanks for the Grand Officers . But those two brethren were very modest men , and hated talking , and they asked him to say a few words , while they contented themselves with standing still . On behalf of the Grand Officers , he might say they were always

delighted to take any part they possibly could in the work of Masonry . They were brethren who had deserved the honour that had been conferred upon them , and they were always delighted and pleased to show in any way they could their thankfulness for the offices which the Grand Master had conferred upon them . As to their illustrious chiefs , good wine needed no bush ; refined gold did not require gilding . He thanked the brethren for their kind recognition of him that day . It had

been a great pleasure to him to perform the ceremonies , and he thanked those excellent and distinguished coadjutors he had had to hel p him . Without them his services would have been of small avail , but with the sweet silver tongue of the Grand Chaplain and the assistance of the other brethren he hoped he had done the work somewhat to the satisfaction of those who attended . The best wishes of all the Grand Officers would go for the prosperity of the Woodgrange Lodge .

Bro . F . A . PHILBRICK , G . Reg ., for whom there were loud calls , said it was not for him to say that an unkindness had been done him ; if it had , he was sure it was done for the kindest of motives , from the best of dispositions , and because nothing else could have been done in the circumstances . The result was as they logically saw , he was " done . " But on the part of the Grand Officers he would say they were sensible of thc honour that

had been done them . He wished he was as well assured of everything he had to say ( sometimes ) as that ; but of this one thing he had a clear conscience , in assuring the brethren that thc Grand Officers—except Colonel Clerke , who had answered for himself—had been hi ghly delighted to take part in the ceremony of the day . They had been glad to see the consecration of a lodge in that neighbourhood . If he might speak for himself in the

name of his colleagues , they saw that the lodge had elements of success in it , and if he might take up the text that had been already well worn by our Grand Secretary and our Grand Chaplain , if the honour of the lodge was not kept up by those who had been created and consecrated members of this new lodge the fault rested with them . Forgive him for having used such an ugly ^ word as " fault , " but he happened to be connected with a neighbouring

province—Essex—and it was with the greatest pleasure that the Essex Masons—and on the part of the province of Essex let him express their hearty good wishes for the success of the lodge—saw in the consecration of a lodge so near their border the greatest encouragement . There were 15 brethren who were petitioners for that lodge , and who had been in that Masonic ceremony which the Grand Secretary had performed with such infinite grace , who were formed

mto a lodge . A brother said "None of your chaff ; " but the chafl ¦ was of very solid oak , and they all knew corn had risen in price . Well , there were 15—that was a Masonic number . In thc Province of Essex they heard of that number , but they did not think the } ' were the 15 original conspirators . Nor would he point to any of a more atrocious character than the J " est who filled offices which the brethren had honoured , and who were breth ren they respected . On the contrary . But still he would say that this

Consecration Of The Woodgrange Lodge, No. 2409.

proved how universal Masonry was , and how its old traditions were repeated in its modern practice . Well , whether it be fifteen , or whether it be five and fifty , or whether it be five , the faithful brethren gathered together had the sincere wishes of the Grand Officers , and to this venture which had thus happily been inaugurated under Bro . Trew , W . M ., under whom they prophesied a great success — on the part of the Grand Officers he had to say they wished the ship thus launched

might fill its sails with a most favouring gale , that it might go forward in its career and show to the brethren in the neighbouring Province of Essex what was thc right thing to be done in Masonry , that he might have the pleasure of calling the attention of the lodges in Essex to what was being done in this lodge , and pointing out this lodge as an example , and he trusted the lodge would justify him in calling attention to it as showing what true Masonic work was . He concluded by again thanking the brethren . Bro . the Rev J . S . BROWNRIGG also replied .

Bro . Col . SHADWELL H . CLERKE proposed " The W . M ., " a toast which on this occasion was more important than at an ordinary installation where the Master attained to the chair by seniority and by work . It was quite right that a newly-installed Master should be congratulated on attaining that rank ; but in this instance where many good and worthy brethren had joined together to petition the Grand Master for a warrant , and those brethren

had looked for a brother more worthy than the rest to preside over them , then a special compliment had been paid that brother by the founders of the lodge , and it was a compliment all Masons cheerfully recognised . The founders of this lodge selected Bro . Trew as their first Master . Bro . Trew was a good and worthy Mason , a long resident in the nei ghbourhood where the Woodgrange Lodge was now established , and this was a very great point ;

but still , Bro . 1 rew had been connected by family ties with other parts of England , and had joined Masonry in the Province of Suffolk where he had also early attained eminence , and he now held a hi gh position as a Provincial Grand Officer of Suffolk . He was highly esteemed in Suffolk , in proof of which the Grand Secretary of Suffolk , Bro . Tracy , had attended Bro . Trew ' s installation . The fact spoke for itself . Bro . Trew living in the Forest Gate

neighbourhood , and knowing a lodge was being formed , joined it , and became one of-the petitioners . He was selected as first Master , and that selection was approved by the M . W . G . M ., and now Bro . Trew had the satisfaction of sitting in the proud position of W . M . of the Woodgrange Lodge . He ( Col . Shadwell Clerke ) congratulated Bro . Trew , but at the same time he congratulated the lodge upon having the services of so excellent ,

worthy , and experienced a brother to preside over its destinies for the first year . When he said " its destinies " he said it advisedly , because the first year of a new lodge was the most important . It was in the first year the brethren cast in their lot for good or for ill , they were either going to be a good steady lodge , not picking their men wildly , or else not going to be so careful and going for large numbers , that depended a great deal on the man

who was at the helm for the first year . He was sure Bro . Trew would guide the ship so carefully that there would be no mishap , and therefore he had very great confidence in asking the brethren to join him in drinking the health of Bro . Trew , the first Master of the Woodgrange Lodge , and let them hope he would have a good , happy , and pleasant year as Master of the lodge .

The WORSHIPFUL MASTER , in reply to the very kind and flattering remarks of the Grand Secretary and the hearty reception given to them by the brethren , said Colonel Shadwell Clerke had spoken of the great responsibilities of a brother holding the high position of first Master of a lodge , and he quite concurred with him , for those responsibilities had had his fullest consideration before he allowed his name to be put forward so prominently .

Bro . J . G . Stevens would bear him out when he said that point pressed very strongly with him , and he thought Bro . Stevens was a far superior man to him , and consequently he wanted Bro . Stevens to accept the important position . Bro . Stevens , however , preferred to do all he could to assist him , and that was one of the greatest points that induced him ( Bro . Trew ) to accept the office of first Master . Having done so , however , Col . Shadwell

Clerke and the other Grand Officers and the brethren mi ght rely upon it that there should be nothing wanting on his part during his year of office and for many years to come , he hoped , to make the Woodgrange one of the most successful lodges . He had his heart in Freemasonry , principally for the good the Charities of the Order did ; that was one of his greatest items .

Lie was proud of what Masonry did in this way , and it was something to be proud of . He was pleased to see so many brethren of the Langthorne and West Ham Abbey Lodges present , and he thanked them very heartily for their company . It augured well for the future of the lodge . As Colonel Shadwell Clerke had said in lodge , there was plenty of room for a Masonic lodge at the Princess Alice Hotel .

The Rev . Dr . SULLIVAN , of New York , responded for " The Visitors . " They had had a baptism in New York , and he supposed he was about to give the brethren a small piece of information when he told them that the brother Mason whom English Masons called Col . Shadwell Clerke , they in New York called Col . "Sunshine" Clerke . It rejoiced his heart as a Master Mason to know that from Edinburgh on the north down to Rome

upon the south Col . Clerke was known as " Sunshine , " and across the ocean , in the city of New York , wherever his name was spoken there was a sunshine on the face of every man who heard it . He was indebted to Col . Clerke for having the pleasure of being now present . And now he wished

he could send into the heart of some young man and Mason what Masonry had sent into his soul as he had travelled with something more than one eye open from Edinburgh on the north to Rome on the south . If there was one thing that had gone into his soul it was the manhood of Masonry , the like of which he did not find in the church in which he was . He would be

second to no man in speaking honourably , comprehensive ! }' , and broadly of the church ; but the majority of men in our parishes were outside our churches ; he put the telescope to his eye and he found that there was a large amount of strong , intelligent men outside our churches , but inside Masonry ; and that was one of the impulses that made him try to increase the number of the Order . In the Bible they read that in heaven

they neither married nor were given in marriage . A parishioner asked him once to explain it . In the United States in gaols it was six to one in favour of men ; in churches it was six to one in favour of women . He said suppose this thing goes on ; surely the text means this—that if there was marriage in heaven there would not be men enough to " go round . " If some of the

men he had met in Masonry were too bad to go to heaven , then he wanted a through ticket for—he would not tell them where . There was another principle in Masonry . We are living in an age of scepticism and interrogation- —north , east , south , and west . What did Masonry stand for ? It stood for assertion , for belief . They might talk to him about agnosticism ; but Herbert Spenser , John Tyndall , Professor Huxley , and John Stuart Mill