Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
lias since then become a triumphant reality , and the general cause o _ . Masonry iu the East has received a most palpable and beneficial impulse from the re-construction of the Provincial Grancl Lodge of Bengal , and we commence our second Masonic year , therefore , under very happy auspices . . . , "I must always consider that Masonry is apt to languish when tne general body of the Fraternity have no place they can properly call Whatever doubts
their own , where to hold their regular meetings . may have existed at first starting on this head , have , I believe , been pretty well set at rest by the experience of the last year . It would indeed , be a very inconsistent thing for us to depend for a general Masonic Hall upon the mere sufferance of any party , or to hold our meetings in a place that we could not feel a rig ht to occupy when we chose and as wc chose . It is true , that objections were started as to the locality , but my answer at the time was the same as it now is , —
show mc a better place , or a tenement better fatted for our purposes , and I shall be ready to enter into an arrangement to take it . " AVe have I think , every reason to be well satisfied with the prosperous state of Masonry during the past year , no less than cause to be most grateful that so many of us have been spared to be now ranged under our proper banners . It has all along been my wish that we might be enabled to point to some conspicuous object , o . general phiof Masonic les
lanthropy , as rising out of the direct operation princip ; something , the practical scope and tendency ot which would be at once understood and felt by those without the Square ; as , for instance , the education ofthe orphans of Masons ; and tho support of indigent aged Masons . So much is not in our power in this respect , as we may desire ; but then much more is effected by us than we have credit for on the part of those who are strangers to our principles , —for wherever box in it there it do
there is a Lodge with a St . John ' s , as were , we behold a perpetual spring of charity pure and undefiled . I appeal to yourselves if there is not something very am eliorating to the heart m habitual exercise of that sp irit of mercy that is prompt , silently and unostentatiously to succour distress and relieve the wants of the poor man , the widow , and the orphan ? Even in a social point of view , surely there is beneficial effect produced ban institution which calls
a very y forth so much mutual kind feelings and amenity , as alasonry does among its members . It is , as you know , an association where conventional rank is but a secondary consideration , and where the noble me al of good character and good dispositions form the all in all , ancl not the stamn which fortune and circumstances may give it . souct
" It is my duty again to enjoin upon you tiie tact urn , u e p usperity of Masonry entirely depends upon a proper choice lor initiation in the first instance , and a just selection of Officers , especially of the Master of a Lodge , in the second . You oug ht to be very wary indeed my Brethren , in both these matters . Pardon me for stating that 1 have sometimes observed-too great a readiness in Loclges to second tie nomination of candidate not known to the Brother secoiding 1 s
a is a pernicious act of complaisance for no Mason oug » " " °° " * nomination of any man whom he does not know , and for whose character he cannot vouch . Of course I would make an exception where an experienced and respected Master Mason gave assurance col the person Look very particularly to the quality of the man whom you Llect to rule over a Lodge . Lot him be ever so smart a man in the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
lias since then become a triumphant reality , and the general cause o _ . Masonry iu the East has received a most palpable and beneficial impulse from the re-construction of the Provincial Grancl Lodge of Bengal , and we commence our second Masonic year , therefore , under very happy auspices . . . , "I must always consider that Masonry is apt to languish when tne general body of the Fraternity have no place they can properly call Whatever doubts
their own , where to hold their regular meetings . may have existed at first starting on this head , have , I believe , been pretty well set at rest by the experience of the last year . It would indeed , be a very inconsistent thing for us to depend for a general Masonic Hall upon the mere sufferance of any party , or to hold our meetings in a place that we could not feel a rig ht to occupy when we chose and as wc chose . It is true , that objections were started as to the locality , but my answer at the time was the same as it now is , —
show mc a better place , or a tenement better fatted for our purposes , and I shall be ready to enter into an arrangement to take it . " AVe have I think , every reason to be well satisfied with the prosperous state of Masonry during the past year , no less than cause to be most grateful that so many of us have been spared to be now ranged under our proper banners . It has all along been my wish that we might be enabled to point to some conspicuous object , o . general phiof Masonic les
lanthropy , as rising out of the direct operation princip ; something , the practical scope and tendency ot which would be at once understood and felt by those without the Square ; as , for instance , the education ofthe orphans of Masons ; and tho support of indigent aged Masons . So much is not in our power in this respect , as we may desire ; but then much more is effected by us than we have credit for on the part of those who are strangers to our principles , —for wherever box in it there it do
there is a Lodge with a St . John ' s , as were , we behold a perpetual spring of charity pure and undefiled . I appeal to yourselves if there is not something very am eliorating to the heart m habitual exercise of that sp irit of mercy that is prompt , silently and unostentatiously to succour distress and relieve the wants of the poor man , the widow , and the orphan ? Even in a social point of view , surely there is beneficial effect produced ban institution which calls
a very y forth so much mutual kind feelings and amenity , as alasonry does among its members . It is , as you know , an association where conventional rank is but a secondary consideration , and where the noble me al of good character and good dispositions form the all in all , ancl not the stamn which fortune and circumstances may give it . souct
" It is my duty again to enjoin upon you tiie tact urn , u e p usperity of Masonry entirely depends upon a proper choice lor initiation in the first instance , and a just selection of Officers , especially of the Master of a Lodge , in the second . You oug ht to be very wary indeed my Brethren , in both these matters . Pardon me for stating that 1 have sometimes observed-too great a readiness in Loclges to second tie nomination of candidate not known to the Brother secoiding 1 s
a is a pernicious act of complaisance for no Mason oug » " " °° " * nomination of any man whom he does not know , and for whose character he cannot vouch . Of course I would make an exception where an experienced and respected Master Mason gave assurance col the person Look very particularly to the quality of the man whom you Llect to rule over a Lodge . Lot him be ever so smart a man in the