This Is Freemasonry*

and handed down to posterit y by the old building associations of Germany ancl England , arose a new and beautiful erection . Modern Freemasonry was UOAV to be taught as a spiritualizing art , and the Fraternity of Operative Masons was now exalted to a brotherhood of symbolical builders , who , in place of perishable temples , are engaged in the erection of one eternal , invisible temple of human hearts and minds . "

After some preliminary negotiations , the four ancient lodges of London met and constituted themselves a Grand Lodge , and elected a Grand Master on St . John ' s Day , one hundred and sixty-two years ago . Among other resolutions carried at this meeting was one , that " with the exception of these four lodges which had met from time immemorial , every lodge to be afterwards convened should meet onl y in virtue of a Warrant , granted by the Grand

Master , on petition , legally authorising the members to act as a lodge . " Ancl , to-day , these four lodges are the onl y lodges in the world meeting without a charter . Formerly a sufficient number of Masons , whenever and wherever they might see fit , might open a lodge and initiate new members , a custom Avhich , however proper in the times when it was practised , would be open to great abuse in these days . From this time Freemasonry has continued to

flourish in England , and was received back from England by Germany—where , in the meantime , the brotherhood of Operative Masons had become almost extinct—and has spread to every land known to civilization . We are indebted to the ancients , possibly to King Solomon , for Operative Masonry and architecture as a science ; to the ancient Romans for an organized system of Operative Masons ; to the Germans of the Middle Ages for a universal

brotherhood of Free Operative Masons ; and to the English for Free and Accepted Speculative Masonry , which to-day encircles the earth with a chain of benevolence and brotherly love . In presenting these views and facts , I have not intended , nor been willing , to wantonly shake the faith of any brother in the legend , of the Craft , that King-Solomon organized and presided over a lodge similar to the lodges in which we

now convene . But it rather gives me more pleasure to view Masonry as an institution that , in all ages , has adapted itself to the then better instincts ancl ivants of men—an institution which , in all ages , has kept pace , and heart , and . sympathy , with the progress of humanity . Freemasonry seems ahvays to have groAvn more vigorously when it has , to some extent , been under the hand of oppression , orat leastunder the ban of popular opinionor whenin some

, , , , way , it cost a man something to be a Mason . Then not so many knocked for admission at the door of Masonry simply for the benefits they might derive from it—the " loaves ancl fishes . " Then a greater proportion of the applicants came actuated by a desire , not onl y to enjoy Freemasonry themselves , but to have the good of the institution at heart , ancl to pass it down , not only unimpaired , but richer ancl purer for the enjoyment of those ivho came after .

It is a grave question , one that demands the earnest consideration of all true Masons , whether or no the institution , in the remarkable prosperity it has enjoyed in the last half century , is not gathering about it so much dead weight as to ultimately mar , if not ruin , the beauty of proportion and the solidity of structure of its ideal temple . This can be avoided onl y by a more honest , unprejudiced , and unsparing use of the black-ball ; by a more honest

appreciation , on the part of each and all of us , of the injunction of the Master to vote Avithout fear , favour , or prejudice , but alone for the good of the Order . It cannot be too strongly insisted that Freemasonry is not a benefit society , as is often supposed by the uninitiated . A benefit society is an insurance office Avhere a man pays stated sums , and in the event of certain contingencies , such as misfortunesicknessor deathheor his familreceives certain pecuniary

, , , , y , assistance , Avhich he claims as a matter of right , a kind of quid pro quo . All Masonic relief ancl assistance , on the contrary , is voluntary , is dependent on the merits of the particular case , is fixed iu amount or character by no hard 2 N 2