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ffi ^ Sc tavanrana

Non-Christian Freemasons.

Non-Christian Freemasons .

THA 1 persons who do not acknowledge the Christian Faith are not on that account alone , ineligible for admission to our Order , litis long ago been decided by competent authority , it is not , therefore , of any practical value to discuss the question from the legal standpoint . Such persons are not only freely admitted , subject

always to the chances of ballot , but many lodges have been warranted for their exclusive enjoyment . One of the earliest examples of a non-Christian being made a Freemason was on April 14 th , 18 35 , when the ambassador of the King of Oudh was initiated in " Lodge Friendship , No . 6 . " The

Grand Master himself supplied a copy of the Koran for purposes of obligation , and the Worshipful Master Avas a clergyman . This might be regarded as exceptional , for it was not till 1865 that the admission of Hindus , Parsis and Muhammadans became common . No legal enactment , of

course , can override the landmarks , but , seeing that a belief in a Supreme Being is a fundamental part of the religions named , these may be said to be safeguarded .

It may , however , be profitable to ask whether sufficient safeguards exist , that those who differ from us so much in religious belief can adequately comprehend the obligations of a Freemason . Up to 18 9 8 , it was always possible to ask whether a

non-Christian could accept the Holy Bible as the great light of the Order . It was possible that he did not believe a word of it , but , nevertheless , up to the year mentioned , it always lay exposed even in lodges warranted as non-Christian , as that whereon the Order was founded , but the Grand Registrar

gave a wider definition of the V . S . L . than before existed in Masonic circles , and allowed it to include the Koran , the Zendavesta , the Shasters , etc ., whatever book , in fact , contained the religious belief of the brother concerned . This ruling had the great advantage that it cleared away one

great initial difficulty , and made it possible to consider the accession of the heathen to our Order with reference to first principles . The V . S . L . is used in two different ways in English lodges . First of all it represents the first great fight ,, and secondly it is used for the purposes of obligation . This

latter employment is the survival of an old custom , and has its counterpart in many other communities . But are the terms of our obligations comprehensible to a non-Christian ? The Hindu , for instance , is morally and intellectually on quite a different plane from his European brother . His ideas of honour , for instance , are not such as would commend themselves to the traditions

of a public school , unless he has been brought into intimate contact Avith Europeans . We doubt whether he would appreciate the beautiful lessons of the Hiramic legend . His conception of what is meant by brotherly love is in the great majority of cases bounded by the extent of his family connections . As to the third of our great principles , no one who

knows the oriental well will be found to contend that an overpowering appreciation of the beauty of the truth is a prominent characteristic of Eastern races . It must be further remembered that practically all our ceremonial references and legends are founded on biblical

incidents , and these references are used in a way that presupposes a knowledge of the event alluded to and its attendant circumstances . So long as the bible held a place of honour in the lodge as the great light of the Order , all these references , or rather their existence in our ceremonies ,

could be explained . But now that a person may enter the Order without knowing that there is such a book in the world as the bible , it would seem as if the ceremonies which accompany his admission must be absolutely meaningless . Then , again , Freemasonry is defined as inculcating the

practice of every moral and social virtue . This comes to the Christian , when he hears the expression for the first time , as but emphasizing what he has been told ever since he could understand anything at all . But it comes to the Hindu as something new . The religion of the Vedas is not one of practising virtue for its own sake . Probably no religions but the Christians and the Buddhist are .

to found a ceremonial system which should be the visible means of conveying what Freemasonry is intended to convey , or any book but the bible , is absolutely impossible . No other religion but the Christian teaches either the Fatherhood of God or the Brotherhood of Man . If the Order is to be open to every sect of every

religion , justice would demand that in India a moulvic , or a Brahman guru , should be appointed at intervals to this high office of Grand Chaplain , and in this connection there seems to be some consistency in the procedure of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , or , we should say , of all Scottish Freemasonry in

India , which numbers among its Grand Officers a Koran bearer , a Zendavesta bearer , and the like . With our present ritual and lectures and traditions , a non-Christian cannot possibly become a Freemason unless a concession lias been made on one side or the other . He will have to modif y

many of his beliefs , to the extent of recasting many of them , or else we shall have to put till our lectures and traditions and beliefs in the melting-pot and recast them , and the latter alternative we do not think either probable or possible .