CHAPTER XII

LODGES OF INSTRUCTION
_*A YOUNGER Brother shall be instructed in working, to prevent spoiling the materials
for want of judgment; and for increasing and continuing of brotherly love.’
No Lodge of Instruction may be holden unless under the sanction of a regular war- ranted Lodge, or by the special licence and authority of the Grand Master.
This special licence has never been granted. There is only one instance of its having been applied for, and it was then refused (1830), on the ground that the licence ought to be given only in cases of a very special nature -where the application of an extraordinary remedy had become requisite.
. The Lodge giving its sanction, and the
Brethren to whom such licence is granted,
must be answerable for the proceedings, and
responsible that the mode of working ik
Freemasonry and its Etiquette
adopted has received the sanction of the Grand Lodge.
The object of this Law is that Grand Lodge may have a known responsible party . in the event of irregularity; and the refusal of the special licence mentioned above was based on this important principle.
If a Lodge which has given its sanction for a Lodge of Instruction being held under: its warrant shall see fit, it may at any regular meeting withdraw that sanction by a resolution of the Lodge, to be communi- cated to the Lodge of Instruction; provided notice of the intention to withdraw the sanction be inserted in the summons for that meeting.
Lodges of Instruction should be con- stituted as formally as Regular Lodges, and should meet with as much pg geil but more frequently.
Notice of the times and places of meeting of Lodges of Instruction within the London district must be submitted for approval to the Grand Secretary, otherwise to the Pro- vincial or District Grand Secretaries respec- tively.
Lodges of Instruction should, for con- tinuity of management and policy, be
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Lodges of Instruction
governed by a Committee, including one or more competent Preceptors; and all the Officers, permanent and rotational, should be elected and appointed, with as much regularity and formality as in Regular Lodges.
Lodges of Instruction must keep minutes recording the names of all Brethren present at each meeting and of Brethren appointed to hold office, and such minutes must be produced when called for by the Grand Master, the Provincial or District Grand Master, Board of General Purposes, or the Lodge granting the sanction.
The Furniture, Working Tools, and Ap- pointments should be as complete as pos- sible.
‘All the tools used in working shall be approved by the Grand Lodge.’
The Officers should all wear Masonic clothing during the performance of their duties.
All the ‘ proceedings’ should be carried out in such a methodical way as to be a tareful, elaborate, and complete education, not only in the ceremonies, but in all those matters which the Mason will encounter in Regular Lodges; in fact, all the proceedings
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should be object-lessons in Masonic Eti- quette.
Everything should be watched with much
more strictness than in Regular Lodges, as a mistake uncorrected in a Lodge of In- struction is more likely to create a precedent of evil, than the same error in a Regular Lodge. \ In Lodges of Instruction the Preceptor’s, word is Law; and there must be no ques- tioning of his ruling or discussion about the Ritual while Lodges of Instruction are open for Masonic business.
Prompt obedience to all ‘signs’ is the motto for workers in Lodges of Instruction.
It is quite permissible, and, indeed, de- sirable, that from time to time, in addition to the ordinary routine work of Ceremonies and Lectures, miscellaneous instruction should be afforded to members upon -all matters which interest them, care being taken to distinguish between those points which are matters of Law and those which are matters of individual taste and dis- cretion.
Needless to say, there should be complete unanimity and uniformity among the Pre- ceptors as to the mode of working.
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Brethren, able and willing to conform to _ these conditions, are not too numerous. '. Those who are capable are often unwilling, and those who are willing are often un- able. Educationai enthusiasm, however, is spreading, and educational facilities are in- creasing. The true standard is becoming more and more widely recognized. The desirability—indeed, the necessity—for con- formity is more readily accepted.
Brethren nowadays are more desirous of _ doing the work,’ and in doing it the desire
of doing it well is engendered and fostered.
The Masonic Year Book gives a list of 221 Lodges of Instruction meeting under sanction in London, and 345 Lodges of Instruction meeting under sanction in the Provinces.
No doubt there are others which have not complied with the prescribed rules, and are therefore not mentioned in the Year Book; while there are, of course, various unauthor- ized, clubs meeting on Sundays the existence of which is officially ignored.
In June, 1874, certain Brethren were sum-
moned to Grand Lodge and reprimanded 115
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for holding a ‘ Club of Instruction,’ without |
due authority, in an Inn, and advertising the same in the public journals.
A great responsibility is cast by Grand Lodge upon those ‘ answerable for the pro- ceedings’ of Lodges of Instruction; and it is to be feared that this responsibility is in- sufficiently realized in many quarters.
Many Lodges of Instruction meet, by force of circumstances, on Licensed Premises, where the use of a room is granted for a nominal sum in the expectation of further profit resulting from the sale of drinks and smokes to be consumed in the Lodge Room !
Nothing more derogatory to the dignity of the proceedings can well be conceived, and the repetition of the beautiful phrases of the Ritual in such an atmosphere amounts. to a desecration of it. On the practical side of the question, nothing could be more con- ducive to an imperfect rehearsal than the petty interruptions caused (say) by lighting a pipe in the middle of a ceremony. Very little self-denial would be needed to dispense with these indulgences until the ‘ call off,’ while the profit of ‘ the house’ would not be
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less—it might even be more—by postponing the slaking of thirst for a brief season.
What says the ‘ Antient Charge’ on this point ? ‘ After the Lodge is over you may enjoy yourselves with innocent mirth, treat- _ ing one another according to ability.’
But, apart from and above ‘ the proceed- ings’ of the Lodge of Instruction, there is the far more important responsibility ‘ that the mode of working adopted has received _ the sanction of the Grand Lodge’; and this ‘is a matter about which much argument often arises, argument which for the most part arises from want of knowledge of cer- tain cardinal facts. Indeed, it may often be said with truth, the more vehement the argument, the less the foundation for it.
It is an excellent rule in cases of doubt to go to the fountain-head in search of knowledge; and, to apply this rule to the case in point, if a Preceptor of a Lodge of Instruction wishes to discharge his responsi- bility, and wishes to be sure that ‘ the mode of working adopted has received the sanc- tion of the Grand Lodge,’ the surest and most direct method for him is obviously to ascer- tain ‘whether Grand Lodge sanctions any
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‘
particular ‘‘ mode of working” or form of Ritual, and, if so, what it is, and where it can be obtained.’
This is the course recently followed by the writer, who is a Preceptor of a Lodge of Instruction, and the important and con- vincing reply of the Grand Secretary will be found on pp. 128 and 129.
The subject of ‘ mode of working’ or Ritual is so important that it will be treated at length in the next chapter.
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