Ad01001

MidlandGrandHotel, LONDON , N . W . VenetianRoomsnowavailable forMasonicDinners,etc. Other Midland Railway Hotels at Liverpool , Leeds , Bradford , Derby , Morecombe , and Heysham . Chief Office : W . TOWLE , Midland Grand Hotel , Manager . London , N . W . M . R . Hotels , etc .

Ad01002

PERRIER=JOUET&Cos. CHAMPAGNES. FINEST VINTAGE RESERVE-CUVEES . THE FAVOURITE MASONIC BRAND . Agent—A . BOURSOT , 9 , Hart Street , Hark Lane , London .

Ad01003

ROYALEXCHANGE ASSURANCE . INCORPORATED A . D . 1720 . Funds in Hand Exceed - - £ 5 , 000 , 000 Claims Paid Exceed - - £ 42 , 000 , 000 FIRE , LIFE , MARINE , ANNUITIES , ACCIDENTS , BURGLARY , EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY . New and Special Concession to Private House Insurers . Apply for full Prospectus to Hie Secretary . Head Office : —ROYAL EXCHANGE , LONDON , E . C .

Ad01004

THE H ASONIC Jll » STt > ATED ,

Masonic Certificates.

Masonic Certificates .

IN the course of an active Masonic career a brother can manage to acquire a good many certificates and parchments of various descriptions , inasmuch as not only the Craft , but the several concomitant orders provide those who are admitted to their respective ranks with documentary

evidence of the fact . And in many of them each stage of progress is similarly distinguished . The most important of all are the certificates which confer upon their possessors their Masonic existence . These are the lodge warrant and the Grand Lodge certificate . In

strict Masonic law no Masonic business can be carried on at all unless both of them are in immediate evidence . The warrant is confided to the Worshipful Master at his installation , and , constitutionally , he is responsible for its safe custody . In practice , however , the actual custodian is very often the Tyler or even the hall keeper , and in many cases it is framed and

hung up . There can be no objection to this latter procedure , but when as is often the case a number of lodges , chapters , preceptories , & c , meet in the same place , it may happen that the walls are covered with warrants and charters of every description , and a strict regard for what is Masonic

will dictate that the warrant of any particular lodge that may be holding its meeting shall be taken down and made conspicuous . The almost universal practice , however , among the newer lodges is to have this document folded and enclosed in a leather case . There are some half-a-dozen lodges which

have no warrant , having come into existence before such things were , and they naturally prize the superiority thus implied . Still , the acceptance by such lodges of a number and a place on the calendar practically imposes on them each and all of the obligations laid down in the ordinary

warrant . In clays gone by warrants used to be bought and sold , and in places abroad where a local numbering prevailed , it has more than once happened that a new lodge has bought up , not only the furniture of an ancient but moribund lodge , but its warrant and number as well , and has therefore

sprung into Masonic existence with a respectable weight of Masonic antiquity behind it . A warrant which is very highly prized is that which is given to a lodge which can show an uninterrupted existence of a hundred years .

Next in importance to the warrant is the Grand Lodge certificate . Like the warrant it is expected to be in continual evidence . That is to say it should be on the person of its possessor , ready for production whenever called for by competent authority . A form of certificate that is not often claimed , is that

issued to brethren under the rank of M . M . Brethren do not remain on the lower rungs of the Masonic ladder any longer than they can help , but one whose avocations lay upon the high seas might find the intermediate certificate useful , since it might happen , say , that he was able to visit

his mother lodge only at very rare intervals . Very curiously no form of certificate is provided to vouch for what is , in the opinion of many brethren , the most interesting fact of their Masonic career , their accession to the chair of K . S . There is but one member of the lodge who is able to point to documentary evidence outside the minute book , of the

fact that he has ruled over it , and that is the brother whose name adorns the warrant as its first possessor . Not only is a brother supplied with a certificate at the commencement of his Masonic career , but he is also entitled to one at its close . Article 213 gives every member of a lodge the right to a certificate setting forth the circumstances

under which his membership terminated . When a brother retires from his lodge under discreditable circumstance , as for instance to anticipate his possible exclusion for un-Masonic conduct , the remaining members may well hesitate before they give him what may admit him to another lodge . But

the " clearance certificate " has not this meaning . It is a bare statement of his being in good standing or otherwise , but there is no objection to its being more than that . It would be Masonic to embody in it a statement of its possessor ' s official dignities and the offices he may have held in the lodge . A somewhat curious case once came under the writer ' s notice . A brother had been excluded for

nonpayment of dues , and as is usual in such cases he had not applied for a certificate , and none was issued . A long time after he was desirous of joining another lodge , and wrote to the Secretary of the former one to ask what the dues were , with the intention of paying up and then asking for a certificate . But since his exclusion , facts had come to light

which made the brethren doubt whether he were fit to join any lodge at all , and they therefore determined that they could not receive the dues . The point they made without entering into particulars , was that they could not resume any Masonic correspondence with one who was not now a

member , They could not refuse the certificate , but it was simply the curt statement that he had been excluded , and practically that brother ' s connection with the Craft was severed for all time . This was somewhat sharp practice , but the circumstances fully justified it .