THE The NeW Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1908. THE MASONIC GRAND LODGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13744, 8 May 1908, Page 4

THE The NeW Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1908. THE MASONIC GRAND LODGE

The annual communication of the New Zealand Grand Lodge of Freemasons is an event of very considerable interest to a very large number of our worthiest citizens. And very rightly so! Making all allowance for the natural infirmities of human organisation and recognising, in the words of the Grand Master,' Lord Plunket, that " weak brethren, careless ones, and even bad, there must be .in every community," Masonry may justly claim that it has had a humanising and ennobling influence wherever, it has become established in chartered,order. In practically every civilised country and even in countries which are struggling into civilisation, grand lodges of greater or less standing in the Masonic world have, been established, while lodges connected with parent bodies are to be found in the furthermost corners of the earth. . With the differences existing between some of the grand lodges the New Zealander has very little concern, for the United Kingdom is the home and stronghold of the ancient orders, and i the New Zealand Grand Lodge has J received its .: lore directly from the unsullied fountain heads. What-

ever may be thought of the origin and foundation of the Masonic institution ; whether it was horn under Chaldean stars or under the cloudier skies of Mediaeval Europe whether it was in its ;beginning a league whose members sheltered truth and fostered art and science against the perils of barbarism and the tyranny of despots, or whether it was only a great craft-guild whose travelling members used it for mutual assistance and protection when Right and I Might were oftener opposed than ! allied; does not affect its rela- •■ fcions with human society to-day. Wherever it comes from, however it first took root among us, we know that it grew and gathered strength and has earned the devotion of countless thousands and the respect of uncounted millions, in that Britain which was for so long the only country in the world wherein men could speak and think as they would; and that from the home of its adoption it spread far and wide among the nations and has been carried wherever they went by wandering or colonising Englishmen. Which should teach us all, Masons and nonMasons, that there is an inherent i and instinctive sympathy between i the British peoples and Masonry as. i we have it, and that it has flourished I among us like the green bay tree because it meets in a peculiar fashion some craving of the British character. Nor is that craving I doubtful .or the relation- mysterious. : Behind all its symbolising and its rituals, Masonry carries an appeal to fill that is highest and best in the "heart of the Northern races: to their charity and to their loyalty, to .their desire for truth, and to their passion for order, to their longing to stand side "by side with all men who accept the same ideals and- seek the same aspirations, to the fundamental democracy which would bind kings and peasants into one great brotherhood of virtue, and to the ineradicable belief that every man must seek the truth for himself. It is this which has. made Masonry great—not the mere . form of it, however impressive, but the living faith and truth of it which through that form has won entry and admission to the innermost circle of men's most sacred thoughts.

Every human institution must be tested by its fruits, and is so tested —not by human criticism, naturally imperfect, naturally prone to exaggerate the apparent and to overlook the actual, but by the never-failing and inexorable judgment of .Time. And among many things that are failing to-day, among many ancient institutions which are falling into decay, many great influences which nq'longe.r exert their old authority, none will class Masonry. The breadth and tolerance which make it possible for Jew and Gentile, New Zealander and Chinaman, Rus- j sian and Japanese and American, to | join together in unpretentious fraterriity and recognise one another as members of a. common humanity have not brought it to the ground. While classes are antagonising one •another and nations hating one another, and races preparing for "life-an'd-dcath struggles, .Masonry still sees in its lodges men of every class, . creed,- colour, and condition. The mail must be prejudiced indeed who cannot perceive that in the lesson thus silently taught, in the unpretentious inculcation which enters thus into human life and moulds with un- ' ceasing pressure the thoughts of j men, there is much that is good • and the persistence and haltering j strength of Masonry shows that the ' work it does is net only felt but tip- j predated, even in this changing and ! unsettled generation. And if we J come to examine the matter it must I be borne in upon us that Masonry \ : gives to its members and through its j ; members to the nation and to the j : world, something more than mere : | fellowship and fraternity. Charity :is good and •fellowship;is good, but I these things of themselves do not i wholly meet the need of modern so- ; ciety—and Masonry inculcates furi thermore the self-discipline and the | self-subordination to simple ; law and essential order, . without which the civilised world must perish. The Grand Master of New Zealand Masons followed ancient. precedent in impressing this upon the brethren, j and if we look around the world we can easily see that it is a phase of the order which profoundly affects civil organisation and political life. Wherever Masonry is strong order is strong wherever Englishmen go to establish justice and affirm the right of the humblest to live unmolested they carry with them .Masonic institutions'; and wherever (alien nations and alien races begin to feel the need for better and -freer institutions their pioneers instinctively turn to Masonry for help, sympathy, and support. We might less readily commend the Masonic order for its known and admitted .virtues were it not that those who 'hold its highest offices are never backward in pointing out that its members ever tend to fall short of its ideals. But though its ideals are so lofty that men can hardly live up to them, Ave all know that it is the striving after unattainable ideals which moves humanity upward and onwards. W r e may rightly judge Masonry, as Ave should judge every human institution, not by the shortcomings of individual men, but by the evident result of its existence. And as we have pointed out, Masonry stands the test of Time ■ and because of its existence and its influence the 'world is a better, a braver, and a safer world.