Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Tidings From The Crapt M The United Stat...
members ; Texas , 184 lodges ; Virginia , 150 lodges , 4 , 600 members ; Wisconsin , 76 lodges , 1 , 768 members . Twenty-three Grand Lodges give an aggregate of 2 , 930 subordinates . The whole number of lodges in the United States at present comes nearly up to 4 , 500 , with a membership of about 160 , 000 . Three-fourths of this aggregate is is the labour of the last twelve years .
I have no new publications of importance on my table . The manual of Royal Arch Masonry to which I alluded in a previous conununicatvon , is announced as in the press , under the following title : '¦ " The Book of the Chapter ; or Monitorial Instructions in the Degrees of Mark , Past , and Most Excellent Masters , and the Holy Royal Arch , by Albert G . Mackey , M . D ., Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of South
Carolina , author of C A Lexicon of Freemasonry , c Principles of Masonic Law , ' etc . " The work will be printed on fine white paper , price one dollar per copy , bound in cloth . It is to be published by Robert Macoy , New York , publisher of the Masonic Quarterly , ^\\ A will be unquestionably an accession to the ritual literature invofirue among :-us : The learning of Dr . Mackey is well set off by a pleasing and chaste style peculiarly his
own , and no department of Masonry is more indebted to him for careful researches than capitular Masonry . Mr . Macoy also announces as in preparation for the press , a series of Masonic works , to be entitled " The Foreign Masonic Library , " to consist standard works from the French and German , translated by Albert G . Mackey , M . D . and Albert Pike , The series will comprise translations of some of the most important and interesting treatises on Freemasonry that have been written by French and German authors . The first two volumes
will consist of extracts and documents connected with the history of treemasonry in France , translated by Albert Pike , These will be followed by the acts of the Freemasons , translated from Thory by Albert G . Mackey , M . D ., and succeeded at regular intervals , if the enterprise should be favourably received , hy translations from the writings of Bo wbrick , Ribold , Ragon , Kloss , Chemin de Pontes , Levesques , Lenning , and other distinguished French and German writers on Freemasonry ; the whole to extend to ten or fifteen volumes . The first work is now ready for the press , and will be issued in the course of the present year .
Amongst all the questions of a Masonic character debated among us , none has awakened more discussion or proved more difficult of solution than that of the true status of a demitted or non-affiliating Mason . There are very many of this sort floating about in the country , possessed of Masonic secrets , claiming with more than Masonic assurance participation in the charities , sympathies , and other benefits of the institution , yet refusing to contribute to the labours and funds of the brotherhood . How shall we view them ? Refuse them admission to our Lodges—deny them
pecuniary aid—decline to give them Masonic countenance while living or Masonic burial when dead ? This seems to be the prevalent conclusion , yet there are many difficulties surrounding the question . A reference to the ancient charges of Masonry , which enjoin that every Brother should belong to a Lodge , may be contrasted with certain duties growing out of the O . B ., and thus complicate the case . I predict that less and Jess favour will be shown to this class of Masons , whose only merit is that of the sponge ; and that Brethren will ere long be forbidden by the Grand Lodges to recede from their memberships , save for the purpose of uniting with other Lodges or aiding in the formation of new ones .
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Tidings From The Crapt M The United Stat...
members ; Texas , 184 lodges ; Virginia , 150 lodges , 4 , 600 members ; Wisconsin , 76 lodges , 1 , 768 members . Twenty-three Grand Lodges give an aggregate of 2 , 930 subordinates . The whole number of lodges in the United States at present comes nearly up to 4 , 500 , with a membership of about 160 , 000 . Three-fourths of this aggregate is is the labour of the last twelve years .
I have no new publications of importance on my table . The manual of Royal Arch Masonry to which I alluded in a previous conununicatvon , is announced as in the press , under the following title : '¦ " The Book of the Chapter ; or Monitorial Instructions in the Degrees of Mark , Past , and Most Excellent Masters , and the Holy Royal Arch , by Albert G . Mackey , M . D ., Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of South
Carolina , author of C A Lexicon of Freemasonry , c Principles of Masonic Law , ' etc . " The work will be printed on fine white paper , price one dollar per copy , bound in cloth . It is to be published by Robert Macoy , New York , publisher of the Masonic Quarterly , ^\\ A will be unquestionably an accession to the ritual literature invofirue among :-us : The learning of Dr . Mackey is well set off by a pleasing and chaste style peculiarly his
own , and no department of Masonry is more indebted to him for careful researches than capitular Masonry . Mr . Macoy also announces as in preparation for the press , a series of Masonic works , to be entitled " The Foreign Masonic Library , " to consist standard works from the French and German , translated by Albert G . Mackey , M . D . and Albert Pike , The series will comprise translations of some of the most important and interesting treatises on Freemasonry that have been written by French and German authors . The first two volumes
will consist of extracts and documents connected with the history of treemasonry in France , translated by Albert Pike , These will be followed by the acts of the Freemasons , translated from Thory by Albert G . Mackey , M . D ., and succeeded at regular intervals , if the enterprise should be favourably received , hy translations from the writings of Bo wbrick , Ribold , Ragon , Kloss , Chemin de Pontes , Levesques , Lenning , and other distinguished French and German writers on Freemasonry ; the whole to extend to ten or fifteen volumes . The first work is now ready for the press , and will be issued in the course of the present year .
Amongst all the questions of a Masonic character debated among us , none has awakened more discussion or proved more difficult of solution than that of the true status of a demitted or non-affiliating Mason . There are very many of this sort floating about in the country , possessed of Masonic secrets , claiming with more than Masonic assurance participation in the charities , sympathies , and other benefits of the institution , yet refusing to contribute to the labours and funds of the brotherhood . How shall we view them ? Refuse them admission to our Lodges—deny them
pecuniary aid—decline to give them Masonic countenance while living or Masonic burial when dead ? This seems to be the prevalent conclusion , yet there are many difficulties surrounding the question . A reference to the ancient charges of Masonry , which enjoin that every Brother should belong to a Lodge , may be contrasted with certain duties growing out of the O . B ., and thus complicate the case . I predict that less and Jess favour will be shown to this class of Masons , whose only merit is that of the sponge ; and that Brethren will ere long be forbidden by the Grand Lodges to recede from their memberships , save for the purpose of uniting with other Lodges or aiding in the formation of new ones .
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