R.W. Charles I. Litchfield, Chairman of the Committee on Records, reported that the records to and including the Quarterly Communication of March 10, 1915, were complete, and that the records of the subsequent meetings were in the hands of the printer. He recommended that the reading of the record be waived. The recommendation was adopted. PROXIES RECOGNIZED. Proxies from the following named Lodges were presented and being found in form the Brethren therein designated were duly recognized. The Grand Master addressed the Grand Lodge as follows: BRETHREN OF THE GRAND LODGE: DISQUALIFICATION OF A MASTER. Several instances of the mental or physical incapacity or absence of Masters of Lodges having been presented, it seems wise to have a clear understanding of the rules governing such cases. The Master of a particular Lodge cannot resign his office. If the Master dies or demits, or is suspended, deposed, disabled, or absent, the Senior Warden forthwith fills the Master's Chair.1 No dispensation will issue to fill the vacancy. A new election of Master must await the next annual meeting of the Lodge. The Senior Warden does not become Master. He is "Senior Warden, Acting Master." He appoints Wardens and other officers, if necessary, to fill the vacancies created by his occupancy of the Oriental Chair and by the appointments so made. Such appointments are not made, however, for the balance of the year, but merely from meeting to meeting, and should be recorded each meeting by the Secretary. If the Senior Warden also be disqualified, the Junior Warden becomes acting Master with like powers. In the event of a Lodge being without any one of these three officers the facts should forthwith be made known to the District Deputy Grand Master for the District, who will fill the chair himself or, if that be impossible, the Grand Master will preside or commission a special deputy for the purpose. Remote as such a possibility seems it has actually occurred this year. 1 Old Constitutions (Ed. of 1723) Regulation II. Constitutions of Grand Lodge of Mass., Rule IV as to By-Laws. Mackey's Ency, of Freemasonry, Vol. II, "Resignation of Office." PHYSICAL QUALIFICATIONS OF CANDIDATES. Numerous requests for rulings concerning the physical qualifications of particular candidates are made of the Grand Master. Following precedent he has consistently declined officially to pass upon particular cases. He should state only the Masonic Law upon the subject, and that general statement of law the Master and his Lodge must apply upon their own responsibility to the case in hand. Part IV, Article III, Section 8, of the Grand Constitution reads as follows: "If the physical deformity of any applicant for the degrees does not amount to an inability to meet the requirements of the Ritual, and honestly to acquire the means of subsistence, it shall constitute no hindrance to his initiation." The Grand Constitutions as enacted October 11, 1843, and amended June 11, 1856, gave the reason for this provision and stated the rule as follows: "By the ancient regulations, the physical deformity of an individual operates as a bar to his admission into the Fraternity; but in view of the fact that this regulation was adopted for the government of the Craft at a period when they united the character of operative with that of speculative Masons, this Grand Lodge, in common, it is . believed, with most of her sister Grand Lodges in this country and in Europe, has authorized such a construction of the regulations as that where the deformity does not amount to an inability to meet the requirements of the Ritual and honestly to acquire the means of subsistence, it constitutes no hindrance to initiation." On June 1, 1871, M.W. William Sewall Gardner stated his construction of this provision in a letter to the M.W. Grand Master of Masons in South Carolina, as follows: "I have had several cases of maimed candidates brought to my attention during my administration. In each case I have referred the brethren to the provision in our Constitutions, and stated to them that I could not officially pass upon the question whether the deformity amounted to an 'inability to meet the requirements of the Ritual and honestly to acquire the means of subsistence'; that the W. Master and his Lodge must determine this question. But I have invariably instructed them that the Constitution should be construed in the most liberal and broadest manner; that the phrase, 'does not amount to an inability,' was not answered by anything short of an absolute inability, and that it did not comprehend a compliance with the Ritual in an awkward and difficult manner; that, in cases where the deformity was overcome by artificial means, so that by such artificial means the deformity does not amount to an inability, then it constitutes no hindrance to initiation. Our Constitution has relaxed the ancient regulation to such an extent that I have felt it to be my duty to construe it in the manner indicated in order to carry out its true meaning and intent.'' This opinion of its Grand Master was communicated to our Grand Lodge, June 14, 1871, and a committee was appointed to consider the same which reported September 13, 1871. The committee said, in part, "This regulation is to be interpreted, not according to the Levitical law, with which Masonry never had anything to do, either as a symbol or a fact, but by its own terms and the logical consistency and propriety of its application. So interpreted, its significance manifestly is, that the physical defect of the candidate, whatever it may be, shall not be such as to render him incapable of receiving and imparting instruction, nor of performing any duties that may be required of him in his capacity or vocation as a Mason. No such maim or defect of the body as the loss of an eye, an ear, a finger, or other member not essential in the discharge of his Masonic duties, or to his personal maintenance, does any violence to the spirit and original intent of this regulation, and, in the opinion of your committee, no other construction can be put upon it consistently with the higher demands of humanity, justice and equality. Not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' Your committee take leave of this branch of their report here, in the belief that the regulation of our own Grand Lodge on the subject may be safely left as it stands, and the interpretation and practical application of it, to the intelligence of the Lodges. With the cases before them as they arise, they can with more safety and greater propriety determine the proper disposition of them." This committee's report was accepted and adopted and is an authoritative statement of the position of the Grand Lodge on the question. (See Printed Proceedings for 1871, pages 56, 57, 137 and 138.) WHERE SHOULD THE HOLY BIBLE BE OPENED? Masonic commentators have given various suggestions upon this subject and there is no rule or uniform practice. I recommend that when the Lodge is opened upon the First Degree the Holy Bible should be displayed at Psalm 133, or as an alternative at Ruth 4:7. When opened upon the Second Degree, at Judges 12:6, or as alternatives 1 Kings 6:8 or 2 Chronicles 3:17. When opened upon the Third Degree at Ecclesiastes 12:1-7, or as an alternative 1 Kings 7:13 and 14. GRAVE OF JEREMY GRIDLEY. Jeremy Gridley served as Provincial Grand Master of North America from 1755 until his death in 1767. He was our fourth Provincial Grand Master, a noted lawyer of his day, and at the time of his death Attorney General. His body lies buried in Tomb No. 9 of the Granary Burying Ground in the City of Boston, yet singularly enough no monument or tablet of any kind marks his resting-place. In 1888 this Grand Lodge erected and Grand Master Endi |