Page 14 - MFM Jan Feb 2024

Lodge are suffi ciently conversant with
the rules of propriety, and the laws of the
institution, to avoid exceeding the powers
with which they are entrusted; and you are
off too generous dispositions to envy their
preferment. I, therefore, must that you will
have but one aim, to please each other, and
unite in the grand design of being happy
and communicating happiness.

The earliest version of this language is found
in a charge given in 1765 by Right Worshipful
Brother John Whitmash, in Taunton,
England, and has a diff erent, but signifi cant
ending to the opening sentences:
“...humility therefore in both, becomes an
essential duty, for pride and ambition,
like a worm at the root of a tree, will prey
on the vitals of our peace, harmony, and
brotherly-love.”

Any brother who wishes to be elected to an
offi ce in Masonry, in any capacity, must take
this to heart. The goal of Freemasonry is not
to assure that all of us will become offi cers or
Masters of lodges, but to put the concerns
of the Craft fi rst, and focus on what is best
for the lodge and its health. An ill-prepared
offi cer can never be justifi ed in serving that
aim.

One may well respond that the health of
the lodge is also not served by disrupting
the harmony of it, by having contentious
elections for offi ce. But this is putting the
cart before the horse; every brother should
know what is expected of him if he seeks to
serve the lodge. The harmony of a lodge will
never be served by allowing brothers to gain
preferments that they have not merited, be
it for reasons of perceived seniority, cliquish
friendships, or other profane concerns. by their Brethren hurrying them indiscreetly into
Offi ces, wherein their slender Knowledge of Masonry
Lawrence Dermott’s Ahiam Rezon,another document of rendered them incapable of executing the Business
the Craft published in 1756 (as well as a guidepost for the committed to their Charge, to the great Detriment of
foundation of most American grand lodges), gives a fi rm the Craft and their own Dishonour.
opinion of this kind of timid, meritless “harmony”:
Harmony in the Masonic sense is not an acceptance of
Here I cannot forbear saying, that I have known Men poor performance, and in the end it cannot be preserved
whose Intentions were very honest, and without any by mediocrity. Eventually, as Dermott says, the lodge
evil design commit great Errors, and sometimes been will be destroyed, even if the remaining brethren do not
the Destruction of good Lodges; and this occasioned realize that it is destroyed. If Master after Master arrives