SECTION V.

THE RIGHT OF RELIEF.
The ritual of the first degree informs us that the three principal tenets of a Mason's profession are Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth. Relief, the second of these tenets, seems necessarily to flow from the first, or brotherly love ; for the love of our brother will naturally lead us to the sentiment of wishing " to alleviate his misfortunes, to compas- sionate his misery, and to restore peace 10 his troubled mind."
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As tlie duty of assisting indigent and distressed brethren is one of the most important duties incul- cated by the landmarks and laws of the institution, so the privilege of claiming this assistance is one of the most important rights of a Master Mason. It is what we technically call, in Masonic law, the Right of Relief, and will constitute the subject mat- ter of the present section.
The right to claim relief is distinctly recognized in the Old Charges which were approved in 1722, which, under the head of " Behavior to a strange Brother," contain the following language :
" But if you discover him to be a true and genuine Brother, you are to respect him accordingly ; and if he is . in want, you must relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may be relieved. You must employ him some days, or else recommend him to be employed. But you are not charged to do beyond your ability, only to prefer a poor Brother, who is a good, man and true, before any other people in the same cir cums tances."*
The law thus explicitly laid down, has always been the one on which Masonic relief is claimed and granted ; and, on inspection, it will be found that it includes the following four principles :
1. The applicant must be in distress.
2. He must be worthy.
3. The giver is not expected to exceed his ability in the amount of relief that he grants.
* See ante, p. 62. In a similar spirit, the " xincient Charges at Makings," which were used in the seventeenth century, prescribe that " every Mason wust receive and cherish a strange Brother, giving him employment, if ha has any, and if not, he is directed to " refresh him with money unto the next Lodge.' —See ante, p. 52.
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4. A Mason is to be preferred to any other appli- cant in the same circumstances.
Each of these principles of Masonic relief requires a distinct consideration.
1. The applicant must he in distress. Freemasonry is, strictly speaking, a charitable association : that is to say, it does not, in any way, partake of the nature of a joint stock, or mutual insurance com- pany, which distinguishes so many of the friendly societies of the present day in England and this country. In the Masonic organization, charity is given — as charity should only be given — to the needy, and according to the means of the givers. That principle of mutual insurance by which a so- ciety or association pledges itself, in articles of its constitution, in consideration of the regular pay- ment of a certain annual amount, to contribute, in return, a fixed sum, usually called " a benefit/7 to the member who has so paid his dues, whenever he is sick, whether he needs it or not, making no dis- tinction between rich and poor, but only between punctual payers and defaulters, is a mere matter of commercial bargain and pecuniary calculation. There is not one particle of charity in it. It is the legal and expected result of a previous contract, to be enforced by law if necessary, and as such, can enlist none of the finer emotions of the heart.*
* It is to be regretted that on a few occasions, Masonic Lodges, capti- vated, without sufficient reflection, by the apparent convenience of the sys- tem of benefits, as they are called, have attempted to engraft that system on Masonry. It is. however, clear that the benefit system, %uch as it is prao
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This, therefore, I need scarcely say, is entirely different from the system of charity which is prac- tised in the Masonic institution. Here there is no question of arrears ; the stranger from the most distant land, if he be true and worthy, is as equally entitled to the charities of his brethren, as the most punctual paying member of the Lodge. The only claim that Masonic charity listens to is that of poverty ; the only requisite to insure relief is des- titution. The first claim, therefore, that is neces- sary to substantiate the Masonic right of relief is, that the Brother applying for assistance is really in distressed or needy circumstances. The demand for pecuniary aid can only be made by the poor and destitute.
2. The applicant must he icovtliy. In the lan- guage of the Charge already quoted, he must be " a true and genuine Brother." The word true is here significant. It is the pure old Saxon treowe, which means faithful, and implies that he must be one who
tised by modern friendly societies, would be an innovation upon Masonry, and any effort to introduce it should be promptly discouraged. On this sub- ject, a special committee of the Grand Ledge of the District of Columbia used, in 1849, the following appropriate language :
" It is therefore clear that it is not part and parcel of Ancient Craft Ma- sonry, and if, as the majority of your committee believe, it is in violation of the spirit and essence of the principles thereof, it is an innovation that should be promptly checked by this Grand Lodge, and one so modern in its charac- ter, that it may be strangled, as it were, in its birth. If need be that the same individuals must congregate together, upon principles of this charac- ter, it should be accomplished under the banner cf some one of the organiza- tions of the day, where those principles are the polar star, and the great and zeading characteristics/' — Proceedings of ihe G. L. of the D. of Col^ 1849, p. 47.
10*
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has "been faithful to his duties, faithful to his trusts, faithful to his obligations. The bad man, and especially the bad Mason, is unfaithful to all these, and is not true. There is no obligation either in the written law, or the ritualistic observances of the Order, that requires a Mason to relieve such an un- worthy applicant. By his infidelity to his promises, he brings discredit on the institution, and forfeits all his rights to relief. A suspended or expelled Mason, or one who, though neither, is yet of bad character and immoral conduct, cannot rightfully claim the assistance of a Mason, or a Lodge of Masons.
3. The giver is not expected to exceed his ability in the amount of relief that he grants — that is to say, a Brother is expected to grant only such relief as will not materially injure himself or family. This is the unwritten law, and conformable to it is the written one, which says, " You are not charged to do beyond your ability.'7 This provision is not in- consistent with the true principles of charity, which do not require that we should sacrifice our own wel- fare, or that of our family, to the support of the poor ; but that with prudent liberality, and a due regard to the comforts of those who are more nearly dependent on us, we should make some sacri- fice of luxury out of our abundance, if we have been blessed with it, for the relief of our distressed brethren.
4. A Mason is to he "preferred to any other appli* cant in the same circumstances. The dutv of reliev*
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ing a distressed Brother, in preference to any other persons under similar circumstances, although one of the objections which has often been urged against the Masonic institution by its opponents, as a mark of its exclusiveness, is nevertheless the identical principle which was inculcated eighteen centuries ago by the great Apostle of the Gentiles : " As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men. especially unto them who are of the household of faith."*
The principle thus taught by the Apostle seems to have been, by the very necessities of our nature, the principle which has governed the charities and kindnesses of every religious community, of every benevolent association, and. every political society that has existed before or since his day. Its foun- dations are laid in the human heart, and the senti- ment to which this doctrine gives birth is well ex- pressed by Charles Lamb, when he says : I can feel for all indifferently, but not for all alike. .....
I can be a friend to a worthy man, who, upon another account, cannot be my mate or fellow. I cannot like all people alike. "t
The practice, then, of Freemasonry, to borrow
* Galatians vi. 10. Dr. Adam Clarke explains this passage, on precisely the principle which governs the Masonic theory of charity : " Let us help all who need help, according to the uttermost of our power ; but let the first objects of our regards be those who are of the household of faith— the mem- bers of the church of Christ* who form one family, of which Jesus Christ is the head. Those have the first claims on our attention ; but all others have their claims also, and therefore we should do good unto aU.r— Comment in loc.
1 Essays of Elia.
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language which I have already used on a former occasion, is precisely in accordance witl' the doc- trine of the apostle already quoted. It strives to do good to all ; to relieve the necessitous and the deserving, whether they he of Jerusalem or Sama- ria ; to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, and to comfort the distressed, always, however, giving a preference to those of its own household — those who, in the day of their prosperity, supported and upheld that institution on which, in the time of their distress, they have called for aid — those who have contributed out of their abundance to its funds, that those funds might be prepared to relieve them in their hour of want — those who have borne their share of the burden in the heat of the clay, that when their sun is setting, they may be entitled to their reward. And in so acting, Freemasonry has the warrant of universal custom, of the law of nature, and of the teachings of Scripture.
Perhaps it is hardly necessary to add that the wives and children of Masons, while claiming re- lief through the right of their husbands and fathers, are subject to the same principles and restrictions as those which govern the application of Masons themselves. The destitute widow or orphans of a deceased Mason have a claim for relief upon the whole fraternity, which is to be measured by the same standard that would be applied if the Brother himself were alive, and asking for assistance.*
* " The obligations of Master Masons and their Lodges are common to all in reference to the widows and orphans of deceased worthy Masons. The?
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One interesting question, however, arises here. U nder what circumstances, and at what time does the right to claim assistance pass from the widow and orphans of a Mason ?
The Committee on Foreign Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of New York, in 1851, announced the doctrine that the widow of a Mason does not forfeit her right to claim relief, although she may have married a second time.* ' I regret that I cannot concur in this too liberal view. It appears to me that the widow of a Mason derives her claim to Masonic relief from the fact of her widow- hood only, and therefore, that when she abandons that widowhood, she forfeits her claim. On her second marriage, her relations to the Order are obliterated as completely as are her relations to him whose name she has abandoned for that of another. If her new husband is not a Mason, I cannot see upon what ground she could rest her claim to Masonic protection ; not as the wife of her second husband, for that would give no founda-
are not limited to fixed boundaries. Wherever the poor, destitute, or help- less widow or orphan of a deceased worthy brother is found, there the relief should be provided by the fraternity. There is no usage or regulation by which, like our State poor laws, the destitute are to be traced back to a for- mer settlement or residence. Each Lodge or Master Mason will administer relief to true objects of Masonic charity, where and when they may be found to exist." — Hubbard, Masonic Digest, p. 28.
* " We think a wife, or widow of a Mason, although she may have married a second husband, or become widowed a second time, does not lose her claim upon Masons while she lives, and ought to be assisted whenever she may need it. if she is a worthy and reputable woman." — Proc. of G. L. of N. Y., 1851, p. 147. A similar opinion is entertained by the Grand Lodge of Virginia.
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tion for such a claim — not certainly as the widow of the first, for she is no longer a widow.
The orphans of a "brother Mason are of course entitled to the protection of the Order, so long as their unprotected situation needs that protection. Boys, on arriving at adult age, and girls when they marry, place themselves, I think, in that situation which exonerates the Order from their further pro- tection. A hale and hearty man of twenty-five could scarcely venture to claim relief from the Order, on the ground that he was the son of a Mason ; nor could the wife of a man, in a similar worldly condition, make the same request, from the fact that she was a Mason's daughter. The widows and orphans of Masons are, I suppose, entitled to the charities of the institution only while they re- main widows and orphans. A second marriage necessarily dissolves widowhood, and by the custom of language, the idea of orphanage is connected with that of childhood and youth. The condition is lost on arrival at adult age.*
Lastly, it must be remarked that the right of claiming relief is confined to Master Masons. Un- doubtedly, in the very early periods of the insti- tution, Fellow Crafts were permitted to make this claim ; and the older Constitutions refer to them as being entitled to relief. Subsequently, Apprentices were invested with the right ; but in each of these
* Orbus, an orphan, and vidua, a widow, are respectively from the verbs orbo and viduo, which signify to bereave. Both words convey the idea of helplessness and destitution, and this makes their Masonic claim.
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cases the right was conferred on these respective classes, because, at the time, they constituted the, main body of the craft. When in 1717, Apprentices were permitted to vote, to visit, and to enjoy all the rights of membership in Masonic Lodges — when they were in fact the chief constituents of the fra- ternity— they, of course, were entitled to claim relief. But the privileges then extended to Appren- tices have now been transferred to Master Masons. Apprentices no longer compose the principal part of the fraternity. They in fact constitute but a very small part of the craft. To remain an Appren- tice now, for any time beyond the constitutional period permitted for advancement, is considered as something derogatory to the Masonic character of the individual who thus remains in an imperfect condition. It denotes, on his part, either a want of Masonic zeal, or of Masonic ability. Apprentices no longer vote — they no longer visit— they are but inchoate Masons — Masons incomplete, unfinished — and as such are not entitled to Masonic relief.
The same remarks are equally applicable to Fel- low Crafts.
As to the right of relief which may or may not belong to Masons, who are not affiliated with any Lodge, that subject will be more properly discussed when we come, in a subsequent part of this work, to the consideration of unaffiliated Masons.
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