Freemasonry: Past, Present, And Future.

FREEMASONRY : PAST , PRESENT , AND FUTURE .

The very admirable address which was recently delivered by the Very Rev . the Dean of York before the Wakefield Masonic Literary Society on " Freemasonry : Past , Present , and Future , " has . come most opportunely just now , when a

discussion , initiated by Bro . WHYTEHEAD , is proceeding in the columns of this journal on the " Future of Freemasonry . " We do not know , nor is it material to inquire , if our reverend brother was led by mere accident or a deliberate purpose to select

this particular subject for his address at this particular juncture , but undoubtedly his paper will exercise a beneficial influence in favour of those who are anxious to protect our Society from

the evils which appear to menace it in the immediate future . The Dean of York did not carry his audience back to a very remote " Past . " He did not concern himself about the constitution

of Freemasonry in the Middle Ages , and the influence it may then have exercised . The " Past" he dealt with was one with which he had been personally familiar in his Undergraduate days at Oxford , and the picture he drew of Freemasonry and

its influence in that ancient and learned city was most flattering , but in all probability not more flattering than it was just . In those days—that is to say about the year 1847—Oxford was little known and difficult of access , and the world generally knew but

little of the kind of life that was led by " the youths who frequented its time-honoured colleges . " It seems , however , that they were left pretty much to their own devices , and the Dean tells us as the result of his own personal

experience that during the whole of the three years he spent at the University he could not remember to have received " one serious word of counsel or advice from any of those under whose authority we were placed . " Nor is this surprising when we are

told that the Dons thought more of the pleasures of the Common Room than of the duties they were charged to fulfil . But what he found not in the College , the Dean tells us he found in the society of Freemasons . Then , as now , there were two lodges

in Oxford , the Alfred and the Apollo University , in the latter of which he was initiated in the year 18 47 , and , says Dean PUREYCuST , within its precincts " I found good-fellowship and social intercourse , based not upon mere jovial and often excessive

eating and drinking , but upon refined and intelligent society , scrupulously combined with the strictest temperance . In my lodge I found conversation of a highly rational character , the opportunity of meeting men more or less distinguished in various

walks in life , musicians like STEPHEN ELVEY , for instance , and with all this charming talk and jest there was nothing to offend . One felt at once it was a beneficent movement , and I was drawn towards it , for within it I found not only pleasant intercourse but

safety . " The value of this picture is materially enhanced by the statements in the following sentences in which he describes how Undergraduates met late in the evening by the Proctor and his bulldogs were closely questioned as to whence they had

come and whither they were going ; but in reply to these questions to be able " to declare yourself a Mason , and to say that you were returning from the Apollo , was a passport at once ; no further question was asked , the excellent character of the

lodge was so well-known and acknowledged . " So much for the " Past" of Freemasonry as delineated by the Dean . As regards the •' Present , " he is hardly less complimentary . Considering , indeed , that the testimony he adduces in support of its present

excellence is that of a non-Mason , his statement is even more flattering , and will undoubtedly command a readier acceptance from the general public . The testimony is that of the Dean of

Ll . NCOLN , in conversation with whom a French Abbe one day laid all the blame for the present unsettled condition of society upon the Freemasons . " It was they , " he declared , " who caused and carried out the horrors of the French Revolution ; they who

Freemasonry: Past, Present, And Future.

upset thrones and destroyed dynasties ; they who formed secret associations for all kinds of iniquity ; they , in fact , who would overthrow all law and order , and substitute no one knew not . They were Republicans , Socialists , and unbelievers , and everything should be done to destroy their pernicious influence , and to

root them out from society . " This is no doubt the stereotyped idea about Freemasonry which prevails everywhere among all classes of the Roman Catholic clergy , and we can more easily imagine than describe the surprise of the French Abbe when , in response to this tirade against our Society , the Dean of

LINCOLN—who , be it remembered , is not one of us—replied that "In England the Freemasons were the very opposite of all this ; that they were loyal , patriotic , and charitable , and that every movement for the public good was invariably supported by them . " To this Dean PUREY -CCST adds from his own

experience , for the benefit of his Wakefield audience , " That so far from our Brotherhood exercising a disturbing influence , it has , on the contrary , done more to bring men together , promote good feeling , and enlist human sympathy than any other institution that could be named . "

As regards its "Future , " the DEAN spoke most hopefully . "I believe , " said he , " that as it is no effete survival of the past , so will it make its influence continue to be felt , and that as time goes on , by means of its three great and eternal principles , it

will help to keep alive the idea that we are all one brotherhood , that we need sympathy and support , and that it will do much to promote a genuine feeling of confidence amongst all classes and all nations . " But in order that it may succeed in fulfilling this object , the DE UN is careful to remind us that we must practice

what we preach . " We have , " he pointed out to his Wakefield brethren , " a great responsibility , we inherit a hi gh prestige , we have a grand opportunity for the future , what shall we make of it ? Only let us keep steadfastly to our principles , and I have no fear for the result . Let us brine our

Freemasonry as it were up to date , let us make it a great beneficial power amongst us , let us remember that its keynote is unselfishness , that it is embodied philanthropy , and that the benefit of humanity and the general good of so . ciety are comprehended within its tenets . " Above all , " we must watch

well our conduct , " and " remove any cause of misrepresentation and prevent any blemish on our Craft . " But in order to effect this purpose " in adding to our number we must try to get the right men , not men of any special grade ; men with right motives , who will understand and appreciate our objects . " This is sound

advice , and our lodges will do well to profit by it . It is , in effect the advice which the present Grand Secretary , like hit , immediate predecessor , the late Bro . JOHN HERVEY , and other brethren of distinction are constantly urging upon our attention , that we must be careful as to the quality of the men we receive into our

lodges . But how can lodges be careful who are thinking more of their balance-sheets than the character of those they elect as members ? Flow can lodges establish and preserve a hi ' o-h standard of excellence when they take pride in mere numerical strength , and that lodge is held to have best fulfilled its duties which

can point to the largest contingent of initiates within a given period ? There must be no touting for candidates , no mere enrolment of members for the sake of obtaining numerical superiority over other lodges , if the " high prestige " we have inherited from the past is to remain unblemished . These are

matters which it is well for Craftsmen everywhere to ponder over , "to read , mark , learn , and inwardly digest . " They lit in admirably with the advice ' which the wisest and best of our brethren are continuall y impressing upon the lodges , and they show that the warnings raised by Bro . WHVTGHEAD and others

ire neither unnecessary nor inopportune . We thank the Dean af York for his address , and we sincerely trust it will be re-Deated on other occasions in the same or in other forms , so that : he Craft in England may learn what is required of them in order . 0 maintain the " high prestige" which has come down to them xom former generations of Craftsmen .