MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY - Masonic High Council the Mother ...

MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY 13
W.M. I congratulate you on the honourable sentiments by
which you are actuated, and likewise on the inability which in
the present instance precludes you from gratifying them. Believe
me, this trial was not made with a view of sporting with
your feelings : far from us be any such intention ; but it was
done for three especial reasons ; first, as I have already promised,
to put your principles to the test ; second to evince to
the brethren, that you had neither money nor other metallic
substance about you ; for, if you had, the ceremony of your
initiation thus far must have been repeated, which would have
brought a blush on the face of your guide for having so improperly
omitted that part of his duty : and thirdly, as a warning
to your own heart, that should you, at any future period,
meet a brother in distressed circumstances, who solicits your
assistance, you may recollect the peculiar moment in which
you were received into Masonry, poor and penniless, and you
will then cheerfully embrace the opportunity of practising that
virtue which you have professed to admire.
You may now retire, for the purpose of being restored to
your necessary comforts, then return into the lodge and return
thanks, after which I shall give you further instructions, and
deliver a charge upon the excellency of our order and the
qualifications of its members.
Brother N—— then retires to restore his dress, and, on his
return, is placed in the west, or opposite to the Master, where.
after making the penal sign of an entered apprentice, he returns
thanks in the following words :
Worshipful Master, Senior and Junior Wardens, Senior and
Junior Deacons, and Brethren of this Lodge, I return you my
most hearty and sincere thanks for the honour you have done
me, by making me a Mason, and by admitting me a member of
this ancient and honourable Society.
W. M. Brother N——, as, in the course of the evening you
will be called upon for certain fees for your initiation, it is
but proper that you should know by what authority we act.
These, therefore, are our warrant from the Grand Lodge of
England, the book of constitutions and the bye-laws of the
Lodge ; both of which I recommend to your most serious contemplation,
as by one you will be instructed in the duties you
owe to the craft in general, and by the other in those you owe
to this lodge in particular.