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IKpSSic HlU ^^^ M ^¦^^^^^^ STRAT ^ ^^ K ^^ ^^^ ^ f ^^^ E ^^ D ^ .

The Right Of Visitation.

The Right of Visitation .

MANY brethren regard the visits they may pay to lodges not their own as a privilege that has been wholly conferred upon them by the courtesy and good will of the brother who invited them , and the lodge which has admitted them within its portals . Such excellent feelings on all sides ought not to be discouraged , but there is a possibility that

the right of visiting may be lost sight of in the interchange of courtesies . Under certain limitations , any Freemason in good standing has the inalienable right to visit any lodge in the world which is also in good standing , and which holds under a recognised

Grand Lodge . Whilst the chief limitation referred to is that conveyed in the expression , "in good standing , " there are one or two of lesser importance , and we shall notice them in their order . For the purpose under discussion , good standing on the part of the visitor means , iirst of all , that he shall be a member of

some regularly warranted lodge , and that he shall have paid his dues , or at all events shall not be liable to any of the penal provisions of his lodge by-laws on account of his failure to have done so . If he be what is called an unattached Mason , a phrase that ought to describe a brother whose attachment to the Order is declining , he can , however , only

visit the same lodge once during his disability . Now it may be asked , how is it to be known how a brother stands in his own lodge , when he presents himself , say , at the door of a lodge a hundred miles away from home , and where he is unknown to anyone ? A practice

prevails in some lodges of granting a " no dues certificate , " armed with which a brother has been known to go round the world , tasting Masonic hospitality wherever he has willed . Such a certificate is quite illegal . Article 203 allows a certificate to be given of all dues having been paid , but only

for the purpose of "joining another lodge . " Whether the word "join" can be held to include visiting , maybe left to the casuists . Article 213 also deals with the granting of certificates , but only to brethren who have severed their connection with

their lodge , or who have had it severed Tor them . Neither of these articles contemplates a certificate for visiting purposes . It is therefore the practice , in some lodges , for the Tyler to obtain from the visitor an affirmation that he has never been excluded nor expelled , and that he does not labour under any other form of Masonic disability .

Up to this point the visitor has only got as far as the ante-room . Further trials await him . His Grand Lodge certificate has to be produced , and if that important document be framed , as it often is , and hanging up in his stud } - at home , he has only himself to blame if he be sent about his business . He will be asked to sign his name , and

signatures will be compared , ne varietur . This is all preliminary to the real business . The last of the charges read to the Worshipful Master at his installation , enjoin upon him that visitors to his lodge shall be " duly examined . " If the brother be a stranger to all

present , all this procedure is absolutely imperative , but if he be known to some brother present who can vouch for him , some of it may be omitted . But in any case , whether vouched for or not , the Worshipful Master is quite within his rights in insisting upon the visitor standing on his own footing .

Brethren ought to be very careful for whom they vouch . Common report or hearsay is not good enough . The two should have sat in open lodge together , and even then the vouching can only extend to the degree in which the lodge happened to be working .

Carelessness in this respect multiplies itself with great rapidity . For , imagine a case in which a visitor has gained admission into a lodge to which , with proper precautions taken , he could or ought not , henceforth there are some forty brethren to whom , in the future , he can appeal as having sat with him in open lodge , and thus the original error is beyond recall .

The right of an unattached Freemason to visit a lodge once has often been discussed , but it appears reasonable to suppose it was permitted in order to allow a brother to choose for himself a new Masonic home . The objection on the part of some to allow indiscriminate invasion of their lodges by strangers , who , they argue , are actuated only by

curiosity or by the desire to pass a spare evening pleasantly , has its origin in one great mistake . The proceedings of a lodge are not a private concern , in so far as ritual work is concerned . If the business of the evening is to admit a candidate to the Order , it concerns every Freemason in the

world , in a more or less degree . The lodge is not only admitting a new member into its own ranks , but it is admitting him to the light of Freemasonry , and making him a member of the larger brotherhood on which the sun is always at its meridian . To that extent the honour of the whole Order

is for the time being in its keeping , a consideration which ought to invest the ballot box with a good deal of solemnity . The Worshipful Master has a discretionary power to refuse admission to visitors whose presence he thinks may disturb the harmony of the lodge , but it is hard to see how