Part 10 (1/2)

Pa.s.sing from the consideration of the law, which refers to Masons in their congregated ma.s.ses, as the const.i.tuents of Grand and Subordinate Lodges, I next approach the discussion of the law which governs, them in their individual capacity, whether in the inception of their masonic life, as candidates for initiation, or in their gradual progress through each of the three degrees, for it will be found that a Mason, as he a.s.sumes new and additional obligations, and is presented with increased light, contracts new duties, and is invested with new prerogatives and privileges.

Chapter I.

Of the Qualifications of Candidates.

The qualifications of a candidate for initiation into the mysteries of Freemasonry, are four-fold in their character--moral, physical, intellectual and political.

The moral character is intended to secure the respectability of the Order, because, by the worthiness of its candidates, their virtuous deportment, and good reputation, will the character of the inst.i.tution be judged, while the admission of irreligious libertines and contemners of the moral law would necessarily impair its dignity and honor.

The physical qualifications of a candidate contribute to the utility of the Order, because he who is deficient in any of his limbs or members, and who is not in the possession of all his natural senses and endowments, is unable to perform, with pleasure to himself or credit to the fraternity, those peculiar labors in which all should take an equal part. He thus becomes a drone in the hive, and so far impairs the usefulness of the lodge, as ”a place where Freemasons a.s.semble to work, and to instruct and improve themselves in the mysteries of their ancient science.”

The intellectual qualifications refer to the security of the Order; because they require that its mysteries shall be confided only to those whose mental developments are such as to enable them properly to appreciate, and faithfully to preserve from imposition, the secrets thus entrusted to them. It is evident, for instance, that an idiot could neither understand the hidden doctrines that might be communicated to him, nor could he so secure such portions as he might remember, in the ”depositary of his heart,” as to prevent the designing knave from worming them out of him; for, as the wise Solomon has said, ”a fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.”

The political qualifications are intended to maintain the independence of the Order; because its obligations and privileges are thus confided only to those who, from their position in society, are capable of obeying the one, and of exercising the other without the danger of let or hindrance from superior authority.

Of the moral, physical and political qualifications of a candidate there can be no doubt, as they are distinctly laid down in the ancient charges and const.i.tutions. The intellectual are not so readily decided.

These four-fold qualifications may be briefly summed up in the following axioms.

_Morally_, the candidate must be a man of irreproachable conduct, a believer in the existence of G.o.d, and living ”under the tongue of good report.”

_Physically_, he must be a man of at least twenty-one years of age, upright in body, with the senses of a man, not deformed or dismembered, but with hale and entire limbs as a _man_ ought to be.

_Intellectually_, he must be a man in the full possession of his intellects, not so young that his mind shall not have been formed, nor so old that it shall have fallen into dotage; neither a fool, an idiot, nor a madman; and with so much education as to enable him to avail himself of the teachings of Masonry, and to cultivate at his leisure a knowledge of the principles and doctrines of our royal art.

_Politically_, he must be in the unrestrained enjoyment of his civil and personal liberty, and this, too, by the birthright of inheritance, and not by its subsequent acquisition, in consequence of his release from hereditary bondage.

The lodge which strictly demands these qualifications of its candidates may have fewer members than one less strict, but it will undoubtedly have better ones.

But the importance of the subject demands for each cla.s.s of the qualifications a separate section, and a more extended consideration.

Section I.

_Of the Moral Qualifications of Candidates._

The old charges state, that ”a Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey the moral law.” It is scarcely necessary to say, that the phrase, ”moral law,”

is a technical expression of theology, and refers to the Ten Commandments, which are so called, because they define the regulations necessary for the government of the morals and manners of men. The habitual violation of any one of these commands would seem, according to the spirit of the Ancient Const.i.tutions, to disqualify a candidate for Masonry.

The same charges go on to say, in relation to the religious character of a Mason, that he should not be ”a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine.” A denier of the existence of a Supreme Architect of the Universe cannot, of course, be obligated as a Mason, and, accordingly, there is no landmark more certain than that which excludes every atheist from the Order.

The word ”libertine” has, at this day, a meaning very different from what it bore when the old charges were compiled. It then signified what we now call a ”free-thinker,” or disbeliever in the divine revelation of the Scriptures. This rule would therefore greatly abridge the universality and tolerance of the Inst.i.tution, were it not for the following qualifying clause in the same instrument:--

”Though in ancient times Masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves; that is, to be good men and true, or men of honor and honesty, by whatever denominations or persuasions they may be distinguished.”

The construction now given universally to the religious qualification of a candidate, is simply that he shall have a belief in the existence and superintending control of a Supreme Being.