A Charge Delivered to the Brethren of the African Lodge on the 25th of June, 1792

An Oration By MWB Prince Hall

Dearly and well beloved Brethren of the African Lodge, as through the goodness and mercy of God, we are once more met together, in order to celebrate the Festival of St. John the Baptist; it is requisite that we should on these public days, and when we appear in form, give some reason as a foundation for our so doing, but as this has been already done, in a discourse delivered in substance by our late Reverend Brother John Marrant, and now in print,

I shall at this time endeavour to raise part of the superstructure, for howsoever good the foundation may be, yet without this it will only prove a Babel. I shall therefore endeavour to shew the duty of a Mason; and the first thing is, that he believes in one Supreme Being, that he is the great Architect of this visible world, and that he governs all things here below by his almighty power, and his watchful eye is over all our works. Again we must be good subjects to the laws of the land in which we dwell, giving honour to our lawful Governors and Magistrates, giving honour to whom honour is due; and that we have no hand in any plots or conspiracies or rebellion, or side or assist in them: for when we consider the blood shed, the devastation of towns and cities that hath been done by them, what heart can be so hard as not to pity those our distrest brethren, and keep at the greatest distance from them. However just it may be on the side of the opprest, yet it doth not in the least, or rather ought not, abate that love and fellow-feeling which we ought to have for our brother fellow men.

The next thing is love and benevolence to all the whole family of mankind, as God's make and creation, therefore we ought to love them all, for love or hatred is of the whole kind, for if I love a man for the sake of the image of God which is on him, I must love all, for he made all, and upholds all, and we are dependant upon him for all we do enjoy and expect to enjoy in this world and that which is to come.—Therefore he will help and assist all his fellow-men in distress, let them be of what colour or nation they may, yea even our very enemies, much more a brother Mason. I shall therefore give you a few instances of this from Holy Writ, and first, how did Abraham prevent the storm, or rebellion that was rising between Lot's servants and his? Saith Abraham to Lot, let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee, for the land is before us, if you will go to the left, then I will go to the right, and if you will go to the right, then I will go to the left. They divided and peace was restored. I will mention the compassion of a blackman to a Prophet of the Lord, Ebedmelech, when he heard that Jeremiah was cast into the dungeon, he made intercession for him to the King, and got liberty to take him out from the jaws of death. See Jer. xxxviii, 7-13…..

The Grand Lodge of England & Colonial America: America’s Grand Masters

by Bro. Dr. Ric Berman

The book examines for the first time the men appointed by the Grand Lodge of England to act as Provincial Grand Masters in Britain's American colonies. The author uses primary source material to draw pen portraits of the men involved and the society in which they lived.

John J. Wemple, Grand Master
June 23, 1884 – June 21, 1885
Reported at the 26th Annual Communication

Worshipful Brother Albert Pike of Arkansas attended this Annual Communication. Pike was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction. He addressed the group of 500 Nebraska Masons for three hours and discussed Freemasonry, its secrets and symbolism.

The Grand Master expressed concern that with 129 lodges, and 18 under dispensation and so many charters granted the previous year, the fraternity in Nebraska was growing too fast.

When asked if a “half-breed Indian” could be made a Mason, the Grand Master answered, “I know of no law prohibiting the same, but question the propriety.” Later, a vote of the delegates struck the words “but question the propriety.”

Calling participation in such events as parades for Decoration Day as “promiscuous processions,” the Grand Master ruled they were not in agreement with the principles of Masonry.

The Grand Master recommended that “our law read that the habitual frequenting of saloons or drinking resorts be sufficient grounds for discipline, and that all we need be obliged to prove, is that one does habitually frequent such resorts.”

A resolution was passed that it was a Masonic offense for a Mason to sell intoxicating liquors as a beverage.

The Grand Master suggested that action be taken regarding the Monitor to be used in Nebraska. He said he found many different Monitors in use and Nebraska needed a standard Monitor to achieve uniformity of work.

The Grand Master recommended holding Annual Communication the Wednesday after the 14th of June. He said it would enable the Grand Custodian to hold a three-day lodge of instruction, one day for each degree, and the standing committees would have time to perform their duties, thus reducing the labor and saving the time of the Grand Lodge. “This saving of time and labor becomes necessary from the fact that our Grand Lodge is increasing in membership so rapidly as to make it impracticable to hold long sessions, and renders it necessary to do much of the work in committee.” He added that this schedule would allow revival of the Festival of St. John the Baptist and he recommended lodges be required to hold installation of officers on that day.

The cornerstone for the Nebraska State Capitol was laid July 15, 1884.

Yeah, but this one is OURS

Here it is: the transition of all transitions when it comes to weather, the time of year, etc. Fall. This transitory time of year usually reminded many of us of the good ole days of Husker Football. E.g. winning seasons, blowouts (by us, that is), Runza sandwiches for touchdowns or whatever and the leaves showing their pride for Nebraska by turning red.

You know, we don’t need to be experts in science to know that when the leaves start changing colors, the transition to death occurs. Sure, that sounds morbid, but it’s the truth. The beauty of the transition from one season (Summer) to another (Winter) comes as its own season (Fall). And while I, too, am annoyed to the point of numbness with the current Husker Football situation, I’m not here to talk about that...but, I am here to make a point about the past and about the future.

Fall also marks, in Masonry, our own beginning of transition: Lodge Elections. In October, many lodges will have brethren stand up and announce that they wish to be considered for one of the elected offices (some do it a bit late...like ON election day). Then in November, the voting happens and the start of a new Masonic year begins. This voting tends to change the leadership positions of the lodge, but some lodges, no, that may not change too terribly much.

However, we need to look at this change that generally occurs every single year and how we handle it; not to mention approach it. We generally see a new Worshipful Master, Senior Warden and Junior Warden every year. Each WM then wants to implement a plan they have that might be similar to the year or years before or completely different. This process happens every single year. Okay, fine. We all know that. I’m not saying anything new. But have we considered our relationship to this process? Have we considered how we treat the new guy, the new process, the new change or vision?

Almost all Masons find themselves in some sort of historian position. Masonry has an incredibly rich, fascinating, boring and also exciting history. Becoming a Mason almost instills in you a care for history. Yet, sometimes, that care gets a little exaggerated and becomes the thing itself. We have all heard it and probably said it:

“That’s how we’ve always done it!”
“We used to do it this way!”
“We used to have 20,000 members when we did things x, y, z-way.”
“That’s not going to work because we already tried it x-years ago.”

Etc. Etc. Ad finitum. It isn’t that those statements and sentiments are wrong, per se, but rather are missing the whole point of what’s being attempted: change and progress. Notice that all of those statements (and others) tend to always be in every tense except the present.

Look, sometimes change and progress fail, but doing the same thing over and over again also fails. It does, because times change, people change and Masonry changes. Everything can fail, and everything can succeed. But we have to try. Even if it’s just improving one Mason’s life or experience in Masonry in an entire year, we have to try.

Why?

Because this is OUR time to try.

It is OUR time to help foster transitions and improve the craft.

Because it is OUR RELATIONSHIP with Masonry RIGHT NOW that is happening.

One of my favorite philosophers famously said: “There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.” This is what I’m talking about. As leaders and as Masons, we have a choice in what we do with what’s in front of us, what’s behind us and what’s before us. That choice, that relationship to time and transition, is what helps us move forward, care for one another, and ensure the growth and improvement of the Craft.

Was it better when we had 20,000 Masons or is it good right now, because we are here? Maybe it was better when we had tens of thousands of Masons, but right now, we have 8,000-ish and right now, we are here. We have the chance, the opportunity and the ability to do what we need to do right now. It’s our time! It’s no one else’s time, but ours.

As a new Worshipful Master or repeat Worshipful Master or just a Brother, you have a choice in how you approach change; how you approach transition. You also have a choice in how you guide and inspire the men around you. Look forward for greater light, but understand that in order to look forward, you must look within. And within is RIGHT NOW.

If we do the right thing, now, we don’t need to worry about doing the right thing in the future. Each step, each present-tense step made for the betterment of the Craft right now, automatically helps our future. If we try to improve the future with only the future in mind, we’ll fail to improve and maintain our present. And if we fail to see and work on the present, we won’t have a future.

I’m not saying let’s just change everything. That would be missing the point here. What I’m saying is that maybe, just maybe, we can subdue our passions for reciting how things used to be or how they ought to be and instead embrace how they are, right now, and make it ours so that when Brethren in 20, 30, 40, 100 years look back they’ll see that we were HERE which brought them there.