Difference between revisions of "Pentucket"

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* '''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1820 1820]''' (Difficulties, III-281, III-296)
 
* '''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1820 1820]''' (Difficulties, III-281, III-296)
 
* '''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1821 1821]''' (Report of delinquency, III-373)
 
* '''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1821 1821]''' (Report of delinquency, III-373)
 +
* '''[http://www.masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MassachusettsYear1827 1827]''' (Hall Dedication; at dedication of Lowell Masonic Hall, October 1929, 1929-170; see below)
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==== HALL DEDICATION, FEBRUARY 1827 ====
 +
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''From Proceedings, Page 1929-170:''
 +
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<p align=center>
 +
''AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION''<br>
 +
''OF A NEW MASONICK HALL,'' <br>
 +
''FEB. 28, 1827''
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</p>
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 +
An apology is due from me so lately initiated in masonry for presuming to address you at all and especially for standing in the place of my reverend brethren so much my superior in the Craft and so much worthier to appear before you in this capacity on an occasion like this. Whilst I thought only of an opportunity of expressing my thanks to this right worshipful Lodge and this Most Excellent Chapter for the light, instruction and honours which you have so generously conferred upon me and for the respect and tenderness with which you have carried me through the several gradations of masonry — my feelings betrayed me and I felt my incompetence to sustain this honour when it was too late to decline it.
 +
 +
I find myself therefore thrown upon your indulgence and whilst I assume the language of exhortation, shall feel myself only as your pupil.
 +
 +
Having dedicated this Hall to Masonry in the name of Him whose eye ever sees within our Lodge, in the hope that that eye will vouchsafe a benignant look upon this work of charity and love, let us cast a glance at some of the leading features and purposes of the institution with a view to a practical improvement.
 +
 +
It is one of the purposes of Masonry as you all very well know, to put the social feelings of your nature under high and extraordinary cultivation. The perfection of our nature is the perfection of our social character. The reflecting mind reads this truth in the book of nature, of providence and of religion. Yes, nature links us together and prompts us to strengthen the tie. Providence has made us dependent on each other and in that dependence has opened the sources of almost all our valuable improvement and refined enjoyment.
 +
The Christian religion is eminently social through all its departments.
 +
 +
The regeneration of our hearts is a renewal of our social susceptibilities and heaven the ultimate point of blessedness and hope is the sanctification and maturity of our social affections and character. The social character is most effectually cultivated by close contact. That if I mistake not is to be a feature of the heavenly enjoyment.
 +
 +
The more points of close contact, then, the better for good men. I have brothers by the tie of blood. I have brethren in the bonds of a loved profession. I have brethren by the sacred tie of religion. I have brothers by the dear and strong tie of Masonry, an institution in which fraternity is one of its very objects; which brings the social feelings under direct cultivation and put them into vigorous exercise. If there are any generous and social feelings in the heart, the Lodge will cherish them with kindly warmth: it will draw them forth and nourish them.
 +
 +
But when a man enters whose heart is impenetrably wrapped in the cold envelope of some selfish and partial design, he passes rapidly through the degrees: he looks with wary eye to see if there be any thing which he can turn to his own private purpose and finding nothing, he shakes his head at masonry and seldom has time to visit the Lodge any more. But he who has disinterested affections to cultivate; he who brings a heart capable of strong and close and pure attachments, will enter with diligence into your labours and will be content with his wages.
 +
 +
Be true then, brothers and companions, to this feature of your institutions. Bring hearts worthy of friendship and you will find hearts here to meet them. If you walk worthy of the masonick character you cannot but find sympathy — and see that ye weep with them that weep — that ye share in the distress and help the infirmities of a brother.
 +
 +
Brethren, beware how you admit men to your society, who from their situation in life, their habits or their natural temperament you have good reason to believe incapable of warm and generous friendship.
 +
Order is a feature of masonry. The order and regularity that prevails at publick meetings of masons, however large and crowded, over that of every other sort of meeting whatever, is striking even to the eye of a careless observer, and leads the world to suspect the truth that there is some secret power in your institution by which this marked, superior and untiring regularity is maintained. It is even so. Brethren, for the integrity of your masonick character, for the honour you have pledged, for the reputation of your institution let the power of that secret never be diminished among you.
 +
 +
Now to make a strict subordination of rank and station consistent with that perfect equality upon which all men naturally stand, was long a problem of very different solution. And little does the world know or dream how much it is indebted to freemasonry for its happiest forms of political institutions and for all the most successful experiments in rational and practical liberty.
 +
 +
I have often contemplated the commencement of the American Revolution with amazement, when the leading men of that day had become exasperated by the delay of justice and by repeated unavailing threats; when the pub-lick mind was heated even to desperation; when the oppressive fabrick of provincial government had crumbled away; when the yoke of existing authority was thrown off and no provision made for a substitute; when the civil arm was paralized, when the judiciary was in effect abolished; when every man was left to do that which was right in his own eyes, amenable to no law and liable to no apparent authority. I have often wondered what strong unseen influence at that critical moment, laid its silent, salutary and efficient authority upon this whole mass of excited, disordant materials? What invisible tie bound them together? What did link the machinery then, so that one impulse should give motion to the whole? What effectual checks had those leading spirits upon each other that no one could snatch the sword of ambition and overstep the bounds of due influence and seize upon the prize of arbitrary sway? What light illumined and what genius inspired them? The leaders of that struggle were worthy Masons and it was in the Lodge that they inhaled and cherished the spirit of Liberty, in the Lodge they cemented their indissoluble fraternity. The power of masonry was a curb on ambition and the light of masonry disclosed the true principles of freedom and suggested the happiest models of free government when our own was constituted.
 +
 +
Brethren, when you behold the order of the Lodge, when you witness and I trust experience its influence on the mind, contemplate the moral beauty of the principle as you see it exemplified, and mark well how subordination and equality combine together to form that lovely union which constitutes the life of happy society and the soul of desirable liberty. Never will rational liberty fail of a sanctuary on earth so long as the Temple of Masonry shall endure.
 +
 +
Interwoven throughout the institution, is, as you very well know, a complete system of moral emblems. This the world might have guessed from your charts and other printed documents and from what they see exhibited on publick occasions.
 +
 +
All nature is rich in emblems, we find them in the arts and in the sciences; we find them in morals and in religion. The nature of man is adapted to emblematical instruction and many of our best impressions are received in this way. The postures and ceremonies of religion's worship are emblematical and so are the sacred ordinances of the Gospel.
 +
 +
But when I speak of emblematical morality as constituting a distinctive feature of masonry, you understand me brethren, to allude to our peculiar method of using emblems. These implements of speculative Masonry are so applied in a system of important and very impressive instruction, that they become almost as instrumental in building up the moral character as the square and trowel in erecting our needful habitations. And it is this use of our emblems that makes them so interesting, significant and instructive to us.
 +
 +
When the uninitiated examine your chart, what do they see f Tell them that those pictures are moral emblems and what do they feel or understand? But to you, who are Masons in deed and not in name only, do know how to apply them emphatically and effectually to the edification of your moral character.
 +
 +
When you come before the publick as it is sometimes proper you should, and exhibit the implements with which you work on that noble edifice, what do they see but a mere show, a gay unmeaning pantomime. When the officers of this chapter were publickly installed, having been at that time but recently raised to the third degree of masonry, I knew but little of what was going on. And yet I had learned enough to suspect that rich streams of instruction were overflowing around us, though perceived only by enlightened eyes.
 +
 +
Did I mistake or was it indeed a fact that whilst some looked with a countenance of scorn upon that which seemed to them only a ridiculous show, the hearts of others were full as they could contain of sublime instruction and impressive feeling.
 +
 +
But though Masonry, in the use of its emblems, unfolds to you an admirable system of moral instruction, it is indispensably necessary that you set your selves to understand the nature and use of your tools and that you apply them accordingly in order that your work may be real and your character truly improved.
 +
 +
Although the moral apparatus of the Lodge is efficacious as any thing of the kind can be, yet Masonry has no machinery that can operate on yon against your will or without your will.
 +
 +
No power can give you effectual instruction unless your own minds be exercised upon it and your hearts opened to receive it. It depends upon you to make it a school of Virtue, after all. The purpose of speculative Masonry is a moral one interwoven with religion. He who looks not at the moral edifice which you build, he who likes to witness and engage in your work whilst he sees not or feels not the moral influence is a Mason in name only but not in truth. Such a Mason reminds us of a little child, when by chance he got hold of a book. He is delighted to put his hand on the gay smooth cover, to turn over the rustling leaves and perhaps to jabber in imitation of reading, but what knowledge does he thereby gain of the subject matter of the book. You must regard the moral of what you see and hear within the Lodge if you would be worthy of your calling.
 +
 +
And here I cannot but recommend the union of Christian faith and Christian motives with instrumentality of masonry. I say this, dear brothers and companions, not only because I know that in your indulgence you will consider me entitled to say so, but it is from the deepest and sincerest convictions of my heart. Masonry is indeed all that it claims to be. It is an admirable system of means and apparatus adapted to a noble end. It has been judiciously placed on the broadest platform possible. Its covering is the canopy of Heaven, its sphere is the round world itself. All however have not the light of Christianity as we have it and in us it requires a greater degree of moral pravity to resist it than is implied in the ignorance of the barbarian.
 +
 +
There is a divinity and inspiration in Christianity which Masonry lays no claim to. And brethren, we must borrow from Christianity the influence of its spirit to give sincerity to our devotions and purity to our motives, power to the means of virtue and genuine life to our morality.
 +
 +
As another prominent feature of our society, I will only remind you that it is a charitable institution. I know of no charitable fund that is placed upon a footing so sure and so unexceptionable as yours.
 +
 +
The world sometimes cries — "Where are your charities, we see nothing of your charities." That is as it should be, my brethren. They have no occasion to know when and where you distribute your funds — Let the streams of your bounty flow on silently and unperceived. Let every Mason make it a part of his business and duty to search in secret for worthy deserving participants of this fund. Let every brother feel that he has done an essential service to his Lodge when he has found out where and how the Masonick charity may be silently bestowed. Let it be more honorable to present the claims of suffering in your Lodge than even to wear
 +
the badge of distinction. Let the tears of the widow whose wants you may relieve be more precious than pearls. Let the crying of a brother's orphan infant, possess a power over your soul like the sound of the mallet. Here it shall be your honour and your reward to find out ways and means of relieving the suffering. Here when you bring a worthy claim on Masonick charity, you should feel that you offer a prize to the Lodge.
 +
 +
Then when your wife shall be a widow the watchful eye of the brethren shall unperceived be over her, unknown to her, the stream of relief shall be made to flow in her way; and her safety, her reputation and her comfort shall be guaranteed by the pledged honour of every brother. When your children are fatherless they shall not have to ask for friends, the finger of oppression shall not touch them if a Mason can prevent it. A door of hopeful exertion by some invisible hand shall be opened before them and every stumbling stone in the pathway of honorable distinction shall be privately removed.
 +
 +
Beware then, how you pervert funds destined to so sacred and benevolent a purpose and though I would not be in favor of defeating a worthy object by an ill timed parsimony, yet beware how you now put your finger on that which might cheer the heart of your widow or feed your hungry orphans. On worthy objects and to a proper extent, spare not and God will bless your basket and replenish your store.
 +
 +
These, brethren, are among the well known purposes and characteristicks of freemasonry. You must have perceived already what is necessary to be a true Mason. The world has no other means of judging of the tendency of the institution than by our lives—shall they have the power to point to the intemperate man, the dissolute, the profane, the unjust, the oppressor, the immoral and say with a sneer "is that Man a Mason".
 +
Alas, that we should ever be obliged to confess that some men do sin not only against the restraints of society, the light of conscience, the yearnings of religion but against the influence of the Masonick institution, the remonstrances of their brethren and against the obligation of Masons.
 +
 +
On this happy occasion, while we dedicate this hall to Masonry, and morality let us dedicate our lives anew to virtue and to religion.
 +
 +
Let us all from this moment, resolve to redeem our Masonick character, to use the means of virtue that are here to be offered us to repair the breaches of our moral edifice, to build up the waste places of our character and in humble dependence on the presiding spirit of all true Lodges on earth — Let us humbly strive to train our better part for the service and presence of the same spirit in the Lodge of Heaven.
 +
 +
''Note — The Spelling and Capitalization follow the old form as written by Dr. Edson in his original manuscript.''
  
 
<hr>
 
<hr>

Revision as of 02:38, 5 December 2014

MA_Pentucket.gif

PENTUCKET LODGE

Location: Chelmsford (Lowell)

Chartered By: Timothy Bigelow

Charter Date: 03/09/1807 II-353

Precedence Date: 03/09/1807

Current Status: Active

NOTES

Note that Lowell was formed from Chelmsford and did not exist as an entity when this lodge was chartered.

PAST MASTERS

  • Isaac Colburn, 1807-1812
  • Artemus Holden, 1813, 1815, 1816
  • Jonathan Fletcher, 1814
  • Charles Blood, 1817, 1818
  • Israel Hildreth, 1819-1823
  • Zacheus Fletcher, 1824
  • John Fletcher, 1825, 1826
  • Jesse Phelps, 1827, 1828, 1832-1834, 1846; Mem
  • Jefferson Bancroft, 1829, 1830
  • Richmond Jones, 1831
  • DARK 1835-1846
  • Daniel Balch, 1845
  • Prentice Cushing, 1847, 1848; SN
  • William North, 1849-1855
  • Isaac Cooper, 1856, 1857
  • James B. Trueworthy, 1858, 1859
  • Hiram N. Hall, 1860-1862
  • Thomas G. Gerrish, 1863, 1864
  • Fred T. North, 1865, 1866
  • Ruel J. Walker, 1867, 1868
  • Samuel S. Fuller, 1869
  • Albert B. Hall, 1870, 1871
  • Oliver Ober, 1872, 1873
  • Frederick Frye, 1874, 1875
  • Charles H. Richardson, DDGM, 1876, 1877; Mem
  • Wesley R. Batcheler, 1878
  • Benjamin C. Dean, 1879, 1880
  • George F. Morgan, 1881
  • William D. Brown, 1882, 1883
  • Henry Caril, 1884, 1885
  • Adelbert N. Huntoon, 1886, 1887
  • Herbert A. Wright, 1888, 1889
  • Charles A. Cross, 1890, 1891
  • Frank W. Emerson, 1892, 1893
  • Avery B. Clark, 1894, 1895
  • Charles S. Proctor, 1896, 1897; N
  • George H. Smith, 1898, 1899
  • Winslow S. Clark, 1900, 1901
  • Horace C. Page, 1902, 1903
  • Benjamin W. Clements, 1904, 1905; SN
  • Frank W. Hall, 1906, 1907
  • George P. Howes, 1908, 1909
  • Martin L. Kirkeby, 1910, 1911
  • Frank D. Proctor, 1912, 1913
  • William R. Foster, 1914, 1915
  • Edson K. Humphrey, 1916, 1917; Mem
  • Robert A. Kennedy, 1918, 1919
  • Garfield A. Davis, 1920, 1921; N
  • A. Gordon Foster, 1922, 1923
  • Percy J. Wilson, 1924, 1925
  • Willard A. Parker, 1926, 1927
  • Roscoe C. Turner, 1928, 1929
  • Harry Priestly, 1930, 1931
  • Alexander Semple, Jr., 1932, 1933
  • Everett T. Reed, 1934, 1935
  • Ralph A. Johnson, 1936, 1937
  • Walter W. Colby, 1938, 1939
  • Raymond W. Sherburn, 1940, 1941
  • Elton L. F. Silk, 1942, 1943
  • Wilbur H. Roberts, 1944, 1945; N
  • Edmond H. Gunther, 1946, 1947
  • Herbert G. Pascall, 1948, 1949
  • Ray Pike, Jr., 1950, 1951
  • Francis A. Mathews, 1952, 1953
  • John P. Wood, 1954
  • Raymond V. Ullom, Jr., 1955, 1956; SN
  • Millis C. Pelton, 1957, 1958
  • Roland E. Mosley, 1959, 1960; N
  • Willis A. Clark, Jr., 1961, 1962
  • Richard C. Gillis, 1963, 1964
  • Donald A. Pelton, 1965, 1966
  • Walter F. Bujnowski, 1967, 1968
  • Robert S. Gibson, 1969
  • Bradley H. Tuttle, 1970, 1971
  • Ainsworth C. Pedersen, 1972, 1973
  • Charles Boyajian, 1974, 1975
  • Philip G. Tays, 1976, 1977
  • Robert A. Silk, 1978, 1979
  • William B. Roberts, 1980, 1981
  • H. Mark Leonard, Jr., 1982, 1983
  • David B. Ullom, 1984, 1985
  • John E. Ullom, 1986, 1987
  • Douglas A. Hanks, 1988, 1989
  • Joseph L. Husson, 1990, 1991
  • David B. Hanks, 1992, 1993
  • Robert G. Wallace, 1994, 1995
  • Linscott Fadden, 1996, 1997
  • Raymond R. A. Bul, 1998, 1999
  • Jeffrey A. Northrup, 2000, 2001
  • Robert J. Walsh, 2002, 2003
  • George N. Tournas, 2004, 2005
  • Wayne L. Standley, Sr., 2006, 2007
  • Wayne L. Standley, Jr., 2008, 2009
  • Jason A. Standley, Sr., 2010-2012

REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS

  • Petition for Charter: 1807
  • Petition for Restoration of Charter: 1845

ANNIVERSARIES

  • 1897 (90th Anniversary)
  • 1907 (Centenary)
  • 1957 (150th Anniversary)

VISITS BY GRAND MASTER

BY-LAW CHANGES

1876 1877 1880 1883 1886 1888 1891 1903 1906 1907 1912 1922 1928 1933 1934 1943 1952 1953 1966 1972 1977 1990 2003 2012

HISTORY

  • 1957 (150th Anniversary History, 1957-56)

OTHER

  • 1809 (Constitution of lodge, II-432)
  • 1819 (Irregularities, III-253, III-264)
  • 1820 (Difficulties, III-281, III-296)
  • 1821 (Report of delinquency, III-373)
  • 1827 (Hall Dedication; at dedication of Lowell Masonic Hall, October 1929, 1929-170; see below)

HALL DEDICATION, FEBRUARY 1827

From Proceedings, Page 1929-170:

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION
OF A NEW MASONICK HALL,
FEB. 28, 1827

An apology is due from me so lately initiated in masonry for presuming to address you at all and especially for standing in the place of my reverend brethren so much my superior in the Craft and so much worthier to appear before you in this capacity on an occasion like this. Whilst I thought only of an opportunity of expressing my thanks to this right worshipful Lodge and this Most Excellent Chapter for the light, instruction and honours which you have so generously conferred upon me and for the respect and tenderness with which you have carried me through the several gradations of masonry — my feelings betrayed me and I felt my incompetence to sustain this honour when it was too late to decline it.

I find myself therefore thrown upon your indulgence and whilst I assume the language of exhortation, shall feel myself only as your pupil.

Having dedicated this Hall to Masonry in the name of Him whose eye ever sees within our Lodge, in the hope that that eye will vouchsafe a benignant look upon this work of charity and love, let us cast a glance at some of the leading features and purposes of the institution with a view to a practical improvement.

It is one of the purposes of Masonry as you all very well know, to put the social feelings of your nature under high and extraordinary cultivation. The perfection of our nature is the perfection of our social character. The reflecting mind reads this truth in the book of nature, of providence and of religion. Yes, nature links us together and prompts us to strengthen the tie. Providence has made us dependent on each other and in that dependence has opened the sources of almost all our valuable improvement and refined enjoyment. The Christian religion is eminently social through all its departments.

The regeneration of our hearts is a renewal of our social susceptibilities and heaven the ultimate point of blessedness and hope is the sanctification and maturity of our social affections and character. The social character is most effectually cultivated by close contact. That if I mistake not is to be a feature of the heavenly enjoyment.

The more points of close contact, then, the better for good men. I have brothers by the tie of blood. I have brethren in the bonds of a loved profession. I have brethren by the sacred tie of religion. I have brothers by the dear and strong tie of Masonry, an institution in which fraternity is one of its very objects; which brings the social feelings under direct cultivation and put them into vigorous exercise. If there are any generous and social feelings in the heart, the Lodge will cherish them with kindly warmth: it will draw them forth and nourish them.

But when a man enters whose heart is impenetrably wrapped in the cold envelope of some selfish and partial design, he passes rapidly through the degrees: he looks with wary eye to see if there be any thing which he can turn to his own private purpose and finding nothing, he shakes his head at masonry and seldom has time to visit the Lodge any more. But he who has disinterested affections to cultivate; he who brings a heart capable of strong and close and pure attachments, will enter with diligence into your labours and will be content with his wages.

Be true then, brothers and companions, to this feature of your institutions. Bring hearts worthy of friendship and you will find hearts here to meet them. If you walk worthy of the masonick character you cannot but find sympathy — and see that ye weep with them that weep — that ye share in the distress and help the infirmities of a brother.

Brethren, beware how you admit men to your society, who from their situation in life, their habits or their natural temperament you have good reason to believe incapable of warm and generous friendship. Order is a feature of masonry. The order and regularity that prevails at publick meetings of masons, however large and crowded, over that of every other sort of meeting whatever, is striking even to the eye of a careless observer, and leads the world to suspect the truth that there is some secret power in your institution by which this marked, superior and untiring regularity is maintained. It is even so. Brethren, for the integrity of your masonick character, for the honour you have pledged, for the reputation of your institution let the power of that secret never be diminished among you.

Now to make a strict subordination of rank and station consistent with that perfect equality upon which all men naturally stand, was long a problem of very different solution. And little does the world know or dream how much it is indebted to freemasonry for its happiest forms of political institutions and for all the most successful experiments in rational and practical liberty.

I have often contemplated the commencement of the American Revolution with amazement, when the leading men of that day had become exasperated by the delay of justice and by repeated unavailing threats; when the pub-lick mind was heated even to desperation; when the oppressive fabrick of provincial government had crumbled away; when the yoke of existing authority was thrown off and no provision made for a substitute; when the civil arm was paralized, when the judiciary was in effect abolished; when every man was left to do that which was right in his own eyes, amenable to no law and liable to no apparent authority. I have often wondered what strong unseen influence at that critical moment, laid its silent, salutary and efficient authority upon this whole mass of excited, disordant materials? What invisible tie bound them together? What did link the machinery then, so that one impulse should give motion to the whole? What effectual checks had those leading spirits upon each other that no one could snatch the sword of ambition and overstep the bounds of due influence and seize upon the prize of arbitrary sway? What light illumined and what genius inspired them? The leaders of that struggle were worthy Masons and it was in the Lodge that they inhaled and cherished the spirit of Liberty, in the Lodge they cemented their indissoluble fraternity. The power of masonry was a curb on ambition and the light of masonry disclosed the true principles of freedom and suggested the happiest models of free government when our own was constituted.

Brethren, when you behold the order of the Lodge, when you witness and I trust experience its influence on the mind, contemplate the moral beauty of the principle as you see it exemplified, and mark well how subordination and equality combine together to form that lovely union which constitutes the life of happy society and the soul of desirable liberty. Never will rational liberty fail of a sanctuary on earth so long as the Temple of Masonry shall endure.

Interwoven throughout the institution, is, as you very well know, a complete system of moral emblems. This the world might have guessed from your charts and other printed documents and from what they see exhibited on publick occasions.

All nature is rich in emblems, we find them in the arts and in the sciences; we find them in morals and in religion. The nature of man is adapted to emblematical instruction and many of our best impressions are received in this way. The postures and ceremonies of religion's worship are emblematical and so are the sacred ordinances of the Gospel.

But when I speak of emblematical morality as constituting a distinctive feature of masonry, you understand me brethren, to allude to our peculiar method of using emblems. These implements of speculative Masonry are so applied in a system of important and very impressive instruction, that they become almost as instrumental in building up the moral character as the square and trowel in erecting our needful habitations. And it is this use of our emblems that makes them so interesting, significant and instructive to us.

When the uninitiated examine your chart, what do they see f Tell them that those pictures are moral emblems and what do they feel or understand? But to you, who are Masons in deed and not in name only, do know how to apply them emphatically and effectually to the edification of your moral character.

When you come before the publick as it is sometimes proper you should, and exhibit the implements with which you work on that noble edifice, what do they see but a mere show, a gay unmeaning pantomime. When the officers of this chapter were publickly installed, having been at that time but recently raised to the third degree of masonry, I knew but little of what was going on. And yet I had learned enough to suspect that rich streams of instruction were overflowing around us, though perceived only by enlightened eyes.

Did I mistake or was it indeed a fact that whilst some looked with a countenance of scorn upon that which seemed to them only a ridiculous show, the hearts of others were full as they could contain of sublime instruction and impressive feeling.

But though Masonry, in the use of its emblems, unfolds to you an admirable system of moral instruction, it is indispensably necessary that you set your selves to understand the nature and use of your tools and that you apply them accordingly in order that your work may be real and your character truly improved.

Although the moral apparatus of the Lodge is efficacious as any thing of the kind can be, yet Masonry has no machinery that can operate on yon against your will or without your will.

No power can give you effectual instruction unless your own minds be exercised upon it and your hearts opened to receive it. It depends upon you to make it a school of Virtue, after all. The purpose of speculative Masonry is a moral one interwoven with religion. He who looks not at the moral edifice which you build, he who likes to witness and engage in your work whilst he sees not or feels not the moral influence is a Mason in name only but not in truth. Such a Mason reminds us of a little child, when by chance he got hold of a book. He is delighted to put his hand on the gay smooth cover, to turn over the rustling leaves and perhaps to jabber in imitation of reading, but what knowledge does he thereby gain of the subject matter of the book. You must regard the moral of what you see and hear within the Lodge if you would be worthy of your calling.

And here I cannot but recommend the union of Christian faith and Christian motives with instrumentality of masonry. I say this, dear brothers and companions, not only because I know that in your indulgence you will consider me entitled to say so, but it is from the deepest and sincerest convictions of my heart. Masonry is indeed all that it claims to be. It is an admirable system of means and apparatus adapted to a noble end. It has been judiciously placed on the broadest platform possible. Its covering is the canopy of Heaven, its sphere is the round world itself. All however have not the light of Christianity as we have it and in us it requires a greater degree of moral pravity to resist it than is implied in the ignorance of the barbarian.

There is a divinity and inspiration in Christianity which Masonry lays no claim to. And brethren, we must borrow from Christianity the influence of its spirit to give sincerity to our devotions and purity to our motives, power to the means of virtue and genuine life to our morality.

As another prominent feature of our society, I will only remind you that it is a charitable institution. I know of no charitable fund that is placed upon a footing so sure and so unexceptionable as yours.

The world sometimes cries — "Where are your charities, we see nothing of your charities." That is as it should be, my brethren. They have no occasion to know when and where you distribute your funds — Let the streams of your bounty flow on silently and unperceived. Let every Mason make it a part of his business and duty to search in secret for worthy deserving participants of this fund. Let every brother feel that he has done an essential service to his Lodge when he has found out where and how the Masonick charity may be silently bestowed. Let it be more honorable to present the claims of suffering in your Lodge than even to wear the badge of distinction. Let the tears of the widow whose wants you may relieve be more precious than pearls. Let the crying of a brother's orphan infant, possess a power over your soul like the sound of the mallet. Here it shall be your honour and your reward to find out ways and means of relieving the suffering. Here when you bring a worthy claim on Masonick charity, you should feel that you offer a prize to the Lodge.

Then when your wife shall be a widow the watchful eye of the brethren shall unperceived be over her, unknown to her, the stream of relief shall be made to flow in her way; and her safety, her reputation and her comfort shall be guaranteed by the pledged honour of every brother. When your children are fatherless they shall not have to ask for friends, the finger of oppression shall not touch them if a Mason can prevent it. A door of hopeful exertion by some invisible hand shall be opened before them and every stumbling stone in the pathway of honorable distinction shall be privately removed.

Beware then, how you pervert funds destined to so sacred and benevolent a purpose and though I would not be in favor of defeating a worthy object by an ill timed parsimony, yet beware how you now put your finger on that which might cheer the heart of your widow or feed your hungry orphans. On worthy objects and to a proper extent, spare not and God will bless your basket and replenish your store.

These, brethren, are among the well known purposes and characteristicks of freemasonry. You must have perceived already what is necessary to be a true Mason. The world has no other means of judging of the tendency of the institution than by our lives—shall they have the power to point to the intemperate man, the dissolute, the profane, the unjust, the oppressor, the immoral and say with a sneer "is that Man a Mason". Alas, that we should ever be obliged to confess that some men do sin not only against the restraints of society, the light of conscience, the yearnings of religion but against the influence of the Masonick institution, the remonstrances of their brethren and against the obligation of Masons.

On this happy occasion, while we dedicate this hall to Masonry, and morality let us dedicate our lives anew to virtue and to religion.

Let us all from this moment, resolve to redeem our Masonick character, to use the means of virtue that are here to be offered us to repair the breaches of our moral edifice, to build up the waste places of our character and in humble dependence on the presiding spirit of all true Lodges on earth — Let us humbly strive to train our better part for the service and presence of the same spirit in the Lodge of Heaven.

Note — The Spelling and Capitalization follow the old form as written by Dr. Edson in his original manuscript.

GRAND LODGE OFFICERS

DISTRICTS

1807: District 2 (Newburyport and North Shore)

1821: District 5

1845: District 3

1849: District 3

1867: District 7 (Lowell)

1883: District 11 (Lowell)

1911: District 12 (Lowell)

1927: District 12 (Lowell)

2003: District 12

LINKS

Lodge web site

Massachusetts Lodges

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