‘The author of our charges and prayers’

    

Born on this date in 1768:

Bro. Thaddeus Mason Harris!

Who?

Magpie file photo

Portrait of RW Thaddeus Mason Harris exhibited in the Boston Masonic Building.

The clergyman, Harvard librarian, and first Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts (nice resume) is the author of inspiring pieces of Craft lodge ritual familiar to—I think—most of the brethren in the United States, to wit: “You are now about to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue…”

This has been embraced by grand lodges beyond the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and its phrasing varies a little from place to place. Here in New York we call it the Harris Charge, and it is a favorite among ritualists and all who value the meaning of Masonry. But that’s not all!

First, some biography.

Thaddeus Mason Harris was born July 7, 1768 in Charlestown, Massachusetts to William and Rebekah (Mason) Harris. He would be the eldest of seven children in a family that was uprooted by the Revolutionary War, literally having to abandon their home and possessions to walk to Choxet in 1775. His family in destitution and with his father dying in the winter of ’78, he had several homes during childhood.

In his preteen years, Harris lived with different families. At ten, he resided in Templeton with the minister of that town, and it was there where he became affected with a love of books. At eleven, he relocated to Shrewsbury and lived with a minister who provided a fatherly influence. At fourteen, he left for Cambridge with the goal of enrolling in the recently organized Harvard University. It wasn’t to be, yet, due to finance, so he returned to his remarried mother, now in Malden.

Unsuccessful in finding employment, his grandfather, Register of Deeds at Cambridge, made Thaddeus one of his secretaries. There, he befriended a minster who encouraged him to enter college, and, in 1783, Harris enrolled in Harvard. Truly a kind of existence that would be popularized a century later in the stories of Horatio Alger.

Harris was eulogized by his successor as pastor of The First Church of Dorchester, Rev. Nathaniel Hall, who related this story:

...he set off to meet his mother, as by previous arrangement, in Boston; having nothing, in possession or prospect, but a few coppers which he had transferred from his trunk to his pocket as he left his room; and these—so strong were his benevolent sympathies—he gave to a poor crippled soldier that he met on his way, and who, faint and famishing, solicited his aid. As he went on, deeply depressed at his destitute condition and in despair at his seeming fate, he perceived something adhering to the end of his rude staff he had cut on the way; and found it to be a gold ring, into which his staff had struck itself as he walked, and having engraved upon it the words “God speed thee, friend,” its pecuniary worth proving sufficient for his present exigency; and its moral value, incalculable; helping to clothe him in what he felt he needed a cheerful faith and confidence in God. The whole incident, acting upon his sensitive nature, and predisposed as he was to see in everything which befell him a peculiar and sacred significance, subdued and overwhelmed him; and appears to have given to his character a stronger religious determination. “That motto,” in his own words, “has ever been the support of my faith when it was feeble, and the strength of my heart when it was faint.”

He graduated Harvard in 1787 (in the same class as John Quincy Adams, who would become an avid anti-Mason forty years later). After Harvard, Harris spent a year working at a school in Worcester, but returned to the university to pursue theological studies. Harvard appointed him its Librarian in 1791, and he served for two years before being ordained as Unitarian minister of the First Parish Church in Dorchester, from which he retired in 1836. He earned a Doctorate of Theological Studies from Harvard in 1813. He died April 3, 1842 at Dorchester, and is buried in the Old North Burying Place in Uphams Corner, Dorchester.

RW Benjamin Huntoon

Harris’ Masonic eulogy was delivered by Bro. Benjamin Huntoon, himself a notable in his Grand Lodge, having served several stints of Grand Chaplain before becoming Junior Grand Warden in 1853. Excerpted:

Of the many incidents in his early life; the precocious developement of talents, which gave promise of intellectual eminence the ardent thirst for knowledge, and the almost instinctive acquisition of learning, which attracted the admiration, and secured the patronage of strangers as well as friends—and those signal instances of the remarkable, if not miraculous smiles of a gracious Providence upon his orphanage—and the encouraging tokens of Divine aid in his despondency, which always kept alive a fervent glow of pious gratitude in his heart, and spread the brilliancy of hope upon every gathering cloud of after discouragement, like the bow of promise, that brightens athwart the lowering tempest, and bid “God speed” to his every literary effort and holy enterprise, of these, and the numberless vernal blossoms of that delicate constitution of mind, which ripened into so mellow a harvest of unassuming goodness of that tender sensibility, which seemed like a lid, “which God had placed over the eye of his soul to guard its holy crystal from impurity”—time will permit me to say nothing. These are details, which belong to the biographer, rather than the eulogist….

The writings of Dr. Harris in the departments of Literature and Natural History, Theology, Biography, and Antiquity will form a solid and durable monument of his claims to public esteem and gratitude. They deservedly hold a conspicuous rank and occupy a large space in our National literature. His Natural History of the Bible, a work of great learning, diligent and extensive reading, has met with an honorable reception, and passed through several editions in England.... As a Scholar, a Naturalist, Antiquarian, and a Divine, the memory of Dr. Harris will go down to posterity with enduring esteem and lasting reputation. As a man, in the social relations of obliging neighbor, entertaining associate, and facetious companion for he had a vein of good humored wit and innocent pleasantry—Dr. Harris has left a pattern of amiable excellence, of which it is difficult to speak too favorably, and which will not soon be forgotten, by a large circle of acquaintances, extending from Maine to Georgia.

As the kind Pastor, the religious counsellor, the sympathizing friend, in all the varying “lights and shadows” of ministerial trial and duty, he exhibited a heart full and overflowing, with the milk of human kindness and fellow-feeling. Most truly did he “rejoice with those that rejoiced, and wept with those that wept.” In his every look and deportment there was manifested a singleness of intention, a simplicity of purpose, a gentleness of spirit, a patience of love, and a meekness of charity, of rare attainment on earth. In his manners, there was an affability, frankness and child-like sincerity which won the affection and confidence of all who approached him. His very countenance seemed radiant with the pure benedictions of a generous, disinterested soul, communicating instinctively its gladness or its gloom to every beholder the faithful mirror of all the workings and emotions the cloud and sunshine of the inner man.

In his study, there was an arrangement, a classification, an order, in every department of intellectual pursuit, of learning, and of business, which enabled him to avail himself of all his stores of knowledge, and of interest, with the greatest facility and the most indubitable exactness. “He had literally a place for every thing, and every thing in its place.” This, with his constant and most assiduous employment of time, enabled him to perform an amount of literary labor, and practical good works, truly astonishing, considering his many interruptions from sickness and constitutional debility….

This exclusive and appropriate service cannot be deemed obtrusive or uncalled for by any who “would live respected, or die regretted” by their fellow travelers to that country “from whose bourne no traveler returns.”

The elevated rank, the conspicuous station, which Dr. Harris held in the various departments and distinguished offices of the Masonic household; the many important services which he rendered by his talents and his virtues, by his active labors, and personal sacrifices, entitle him to the full meed of Masonic gratitude and love. He was an ardent, consistent, steadfast Mason. He brought the energy of his gifted mind—the patronage of his immaculate reputation and the weight of his personal character—as a willing offering to the altar of Freemasonry—for which generous oblation, he has received, and will ever receive, the respect and veneration of the Fraternity through all coming time. His first great Masonic work was the editing of a collation, revision and publication of the Constitutions of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, a quarto volume, printed at Worcester, Mass., 1792. A work which he accomplished with the accustomed diligence, and “known fidelity” with which he performed every enterprise confided to his care. His various, occasional addresses, while Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge—his Masonic defenses—anonymous tracts and his volume of Masonic Discourses, published in 1801, constitute a large part, and valuable portion of the Masonic classic literature of America. They contain a faithful and dispassionate exhibition of our principles, in that chaste and captivating style, that graceful and easy diction, that forcible and earnest language which characterize all the productions, which he has given to the public. They are a rich legacy to our Fraternity from an accomplished mind, a ripe scholar, and an intelligent Mason, and they will connect his name and his memory with whatever is dear and hallowed in our recollections of his amiable virtues and personal endowments….

 

Front cover of RW Huntoon’s eulogy.

In the Masonic heart he will be held in undying remembrance—with the immortality of the affections. In that simple memorial, of the justly appreciated services, which he had rendered to the cause of Freemasonry, in the capacities of Grand Chaplain, and Corresponding Grand Secretary, given by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, A. L. 5816, this sentiment is forcibly expressed in the touching inscription: Memoria tenemus, quæ non remunerare possumus. (Memory shall retain a sense of obligation which we can never remunerate.)

In the fiery ordeal, that inquisition of prejudice, that hurricane of malignity, through which our Institution has been forced to pass, Dr. Harris was firm and unshaken. From his age, his character, his profession, and high standing in Society, he was selected as a prominent mark for the shafts of anti-masonic proscription and vituperation. His extreme susceptibility to the veriest breath of censure, his shrinking delicacy of feeling at every rough accent of reproach, made this attack the more unmanly, not to say cowardly. He was frequently insulted by printed papers sent to him, containing the most scurrilous abuse of his character, as a Christian and a minister of the gospel, because he would not, with the vaunting, self-styled champions of religion, piety, and patriotism, renounce our time-hallowed Institution—whose principles he had early espoused, whose patrons he deeply revered, whose members he sincerely loved, whose generous philanthropy, and expansive charity accorded with the native feelings and instinctive promptings of his large, noble, and humane heart, his Brotherly Love, and universal good will to man. His whole character was the complete impersonation of Masonic benevolence. His only prayer, for his most abusive traducers, was “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Title page of 1819 edition printed in Philadelphia.

To really get to know Harris, I recommend to all thinking Freemasons his book Discourses, Delivered on Public Occasions, Illustrating the Principles, Displaying the Tendency, and Vindicating the Design, of Free Masonry, first printed in 1801. There’s a lot he shares in its more than 350 pages. Chapter 1, for instance, recalls the Charges of a Freemason in Anderson’s Constitutions, but benefits from generations of hindsight and from Harris’ wise counsel. He’s simply more instructive and specific.

This book includes several items you may have memorized during your tenure as a Freemason, such as:

The Ancient Prayer,

at making or Opening.

Most holy and glorious Lord God, the great Architect of the Universe; the giver of all good gifts and graces: Thou hast promised, that where two or three are gathered together in thy name, thou wilt be in the midst of them. In thy name we assemble, most humbly beseeching thee to bless us in all our undertakings, that we may know and serve thee aright, and that all our actions may tend to thy glory, and to our advancement in knowledge and virtue.

*And we beseech thee, O Lord God, to bless this our present assembling; and grant that this our new Brother may prove true and faithful. Endue him with a competency of thy divine wisdom, that he may, with the secrets of Free Masonry, be able to unfold the mysteries of godliness. And may he and we walk in the light of thy countenance; and when the trials of our probationary state are over, be admitted into the Temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ! — Amen.

*This paragraph is to be omitted, except when a candidate is about to be initiated.

A prayer used at opening a Lodge.

May the favor of Heaven be upon this meeting; and as it is happily begun, may it be conducted with order, and closed with harmony. Amen.

A Prayer used at closing the Lodge.

May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us, and all regular masons! May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue cement us! — Amen.

And, of course, our Harris Charge (a longer form than what you might know):

Charge at the Closing of a Lodge

You are now to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue, to mix again with the world. Amidst its concerns and employments, forget not the duties you have heard so frequently inculcated, and forcibly recommended in this Lodge. Be, therefore, diligent, prudent, temperate, discreet. Remember also, that around this altar you have solemnly and repeatedly promised to befriend and relieve, with unhesitating cordiality, so far as shall be in your power, every brother who shall need your assistance: That you have promised to remind him, in the most tender manner, of his failings, and aid his reformation. Vindicate his character when wrongfully traduced. Suggest in his behalf the most candid, favourable, and paliating circumstances, when his conduct is justly reprehended. That the world may observe how Masons love one another.

These generous principles are to extend farther. Every human being has a claim upon your kind offices. So that we enjoin it upon you “to do good unto all,” while we recommend it more “especially to the household of the faithful.”

By diligence in the duties of your respective callings, by liberal benevolence, and diffusive charity, by constancy and fidelity in your friendships, by uniformly just, amiable, and virtuous deportment, discover the beneficial and happy effects of this ancient and honorable institution. Let it not be supposed that you have here labored in vain, and spent your strength for nought; for your work is with the Lord, and your recompense with your God.

Finally, brethren, farewell. Be ye all of one mind. Live in peace. And may the God of love and peace delight to dwell with and to bless you!

I’ll close this long edition of The Magpie Mason with what I consider an oddity:

A Prayer, said at the opening

of a Lodge,

or making a new brother used

by Jewish Free Masons.

O Lord, excellent art thou in thy truth, there is nothing great in comparison to thee; for thine is the praise, from all the works of thy hands, for evermore. Enlighten us, we beseech thee, in the true knowledge of Masonry: by the sorrows of Adam, thy first made man; by the blood of Abel, thy holy one; by the righteousness of Seth, in whom thou art well pleased; and by thy covenant with Noah, in whose architecture thou wast pleased to save the seed of thy beloved; number us not among those that know not thy statutes, nor the divine mysteries of the secret Cabbala. But grant, we beseech thee, that the ruler of this Lodge may be endued with knowledge and wisdom, to instruct us, and explain his secret mysteries, as our holy brother Moses did (in his Lodge) to Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar (the sons of Aaron) and the seventy elders of Israel. And grant that we may understand, learn, and keep all the statutes and commandments of the Lord, and this holy mystery, pure and undented unto our lives end. Amen, Lord.

     

‘A look inside Strict Observance Lodge’

      

GCR

Did you know the Grand College of Rites has aprons? They are available, at $70, by mailing your check(!), payable to the Grand College of Rites, to PO Box 550, Black Mountain, NC 28711-0550. We certainly may wear these at the Annual Convocation in Virginia during Masonic Week each February, says Grand Registrar Rick, and also where your grand lodge permits diversity in clothing when, for example, we present educational talks based on Collectanea, and about the GCR, etc.

The new Collectanea, the annual transactions of the Grand College of Rites, has been reaching mailboxes lately. Volume 26, Part 3, titled History and Ritual of the Strict Observance Lodge St. Andrew of the Three Sea-Leaves (1767-90), contains the history and ritual of the Strict Observance Lodge &c., &c. And there are “bye-laws” too. This is a hefty volume of more than 200 pages, as opposed to the skinny editions of recent years. It is very interesting though, even to me, and I’m not drawn to Templar and Templar-derivative stuff, like Strict Observance. (Here in New York City, we used to have Lodge of Strict Observance 94, but I don’t know its origins or fate.)

A few items that stand out:

• In the Ritual of the First Degree, the Rite of Destitution is described by the lodge Master: “You were then stripped bare and deprived of all metal. Money, honor, treasures are external things which are subject to corruption and changes of fortune. Anything that is subject to external accident and change cannot possibly constitute our true happiness. We therefore undressed you in order to lead you back to yourself alone, so that you might seek your only happiness in yourself, in the true greatness of your soul.”

The correct book cover, albeit with a typo.

An alternative version in the footnotes reads: “By your discarding and leaving behind all metals, we sought to remind you of the state of innocence, when you did not need them; at the same time, we wanted to give you the warning not to build your happiness on a perishable and destructible treasure.”

• In the Apprentice Degree, the initiate receives the name Tubal Cain.

• The “symbol of the Apprentices” is “A column shattered at the top, but standing firm on its base, with the inscription: adhuc stat.” [“It still stands.”]

• Emperor Joseph II’s historic decree on Freemasonry, called Freimaurerpatent, is quoted. Regulation 2 is interesting:

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Masonic gatherings shall not be permitted in any county town where there is no regional government office, still less in the countryside or, in the case of a private individual, at his country-seat, and in respect of the holding of such gatherings the same bounty shall be set for their detection and punishment as exists by charter for games of chance, because every assembly of different classes of people cannot be left to itself, but must be under the known direction and supervision of tried and tested men, and those who act contrary to this should also be personally punished for disobedience.

• And in that Code of Lodge Bye-Laws we find scores of detailed instructions on acceptable behavior. And there are detailed job descriptions for officers. Being in my final weeks as Tiler of The American Lodge of Research, I was attracted to:

Instructions for the Brother Tyler

or Decorator

1. The Brother Tyler or Decorator shall arrange the decoration and lighting of the Lodge.

2. If any decorative items are missing or damaged, he shall report it to the Brother Steward.

3. He is assigned to the Brother Steward, whose orders he must carry out.

4. He is subordinate to the Master of Ceremonies, whose orders he must carry out.

5. He shall instruct the Serving Brethren, indicate to them their proper places at Reception and Table Lodges, and hire them to serve at them, but he must also see to it that at Table Lodges they receive a little entertainment and are not forgotten.

6. When one Lodge has something to communicate to another, or a Visiting Brother of distinction has been invited, then it is his duty to deliver the tickets to the proper place.

Collectanea for 2025 is an engrossing read thanks to the intricate details that show us how a late eighteenth century lodge in Europe operated. The Templar aspect isn’t distracting at all. In fact, I doubt a modern commandery member would have any interest in reading this book. Even the seventy “bye-laws” of Lodge St. Andrew of the Three Sea-Leaves, which are said to originate “from the period of the Templar System,” read like Masonic regulations one would expect from that time and place.

If you are not a member (our members are styled Fellows) of the Grand College of Rites, but you are interested in quirky Masonic history and rituals, please consider joining. The GCR keeps things simple: one meeting per annum, $20 dues, one mission. Perfect. Click here.

     

‘The five senses at Nutley 25’

    

I’ll try to catch up recapping recent events. Maybe work my way backward, starting with a visit to Nutley Lodge 25 in New Jersey last Monday.

It was my first time back since 2016, so I wasn’t surprised to meet mostly new faces, but being with Bill, Joe, George, Ed, Rowland, et al. seemed like old times. I was invited over to present a talk from the lectern, so I delivered my explanation of how a Scottish philosopher’s eighteenth century findings on man’s five physical senses came to be included in our Middle Chamber Lecture.

In “It’s Just Common Sense: Thomas Reid and the Fellow Craft Degree,” I share what is known of the Second Degree before the influence of William Preston is felt; then we see Preston in his print shop, where he very well might have worked on Reid’s An Inquiry into the Human Mind; and then we hear Preston’s paragraphs on physical senses. The talk is almost half over by the time I get to Reid’s treatise, zeroing in on his second chapter, titled “Smelling.” (It would require too much time to sample Reid’s thoughts on all the senses.) In short, Dr. Reid, who founded The School of Common Sense, authored the words on the five senses in the 1760s that Preston <cough> borrowed for his book Illustrations of Masonry in the 1770s, which is the basis of so much of what we say in lodge to this day. When connecting those dots, I had to cite New York’s version of the Middle Chamber Lecture also because more of Reid’s words are evident there than in New Jersey’s, which only briefly has some of that source material. I hope it all left a palatable taste in the brethren’s mouths.

In fact, the Q&A mostly was about the differences in New York and New Jersey rituals. The audience was surprised to hear about the intricacies of our New York material. We have a bigger Middle Chamber production. Without even getting into our optional long form, New York lodges’ Second Degree lecture has organ music and singing—and I swear I once saw some soft shoe on the Winding Staircase! (Although that may have been a dream. Robert Morse was there.) Before wrapping up, we chatted about Garibaldi Lodge’s exotic EA°, which left an impression on those brothers who experienced it.

My thanks to Worshipful Master Nicholas Luciano for allowing me to do this. It’s always a great time at Nutley. I hope they bring me back one night. If you’ll be in the neighborhood, Monday the 18th will be the occasion of the Official Visit of the District Deputy Grand Master.

     

‘A Historic 1820s Table Lodge’

    

Ben Hoff has researched the period accuracy of the ritual to be employed in this table lodge, so expect something different from the usual.

Tonight’s convocation of Scott Chapter 4 in New Jersey was most enjoyable. I think I counted fifteen Royal Arch Masons in attendance for the occasion of the Official Visit of RE Michael Flaherty, District Deputy GHP.

We elected two Master Masons to membership by initiation, and two Royal Arch Masons to membership by affiliation. Companion Flaherty delivered an educational talk on the veils. Drawing from ritual, Scripture, and personal reflections, he explained meaningful symbolism of the banners to help us better understand what we Royal Arch Masons do in our chapters.

U.S. Mint

The Keystone State.

A good question was posed afterward: Why do chapters in New Jersey hang four banners, but chapters in Pennsylvania hang three? No one was certain of the exact answer. I kept my mouth shut—I’m learning!—because some people get cranky when I offer some information. Questions like this usually can be answered simply, as historical facts circumvent poetic interpretations. Long story short: Jeremy Ladd Cross wrote the four-banner arrangement into his book of 1819, therefore that is what the General Grand Chapter stipulates. New Jersey, being a member of the General Grand Chapter, consequently uses the four. Pennsylvania is not part of the GGC, and they use a ritual inherited from the Ancients of England. Just as Pennsylvania lodge ritual is distinct from everything else in America, their Royal Arch ritual too is different. It’s the Keystone State! Let ’em do what they want.

And, while I was there, I learned of this event coming next month.

Union Lodge 19 is our landlord—as it has been through most of our history since the 1850s—and its Master, W. Bro. Eric, is our Principal Sojourner in chapter. He told us about this table lodge.

I know the story of William Morgan is nothing to celebrate but, being how 2026 is the bicentenary of that disaster, which ignited the anti-Masonic panic of the 1820s and ’30s, we ought to teach each other about it. I’m always surprised when I encounter a Mason who knows nothing about the “Morgan Affair” and the resulting political turmoil in the Northeast, but not everyone knows.

So, the particulars are shown in the flier above. All I can add is Eric says the table lodge ritual is authentic to the period, as researched by Ben Hoff, New Jersey’s “go to guy” for the history of Masonic ritual. If Ben says this is the way they did it 200 years ago, you can toast with confidence. He is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, where he writes prodigiously about how Masonic rituals evolved over the centuries.

Keynote speaker Craig Applebaum is our immediate Past Master at the research lodge. While I haven’t heard this specific talk from him, I don’t doubt it will be informative and engaging.

Sorry to say I probably won’t be able to attend. My speaking engagement in Oklahoma will be St. John’s Day, and the cable tow stretches only so far. But you should go!

If this subject interests you, please add the research lodge’s meeting of Saturday, September 12 (9:30 a.m.) to your calendar. That’s when I will discuss the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey. I’ll talk about the Morgan Affair as a necessary introduction to the topic of the political movement in the Garden State that almost killed off the Masonic fraternity there. By the time the hysteria abated, there were only a couple of lodges and a few dozen Masons still standing. (And you thought there were problems now!) The lodge also meets at Union 19 in North Brunswick.

     

‘An “unhappy Man” vs. the “pursuit of Happiness”’

    

The Sunday Times

Mr. Cole Tomas Allen of California, an unhappy man, is in custody after a failed attempt on President Donald Trump’s life hours ago at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner in Washington, DC.

A good (and familiar) question was posed the other day on Faceypage and, since the semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is near, I thought I’d expand my limited answer to that query for this edition of The Magpie Mason.

Bro. Thomas of Thornton Lodge 486 in Texas asks:

“Can someone please explain whether or not the 3rd paragraph of the EA Charge is actually a charge or a suggestion?”

Knowing nothing about any ritual(s) promulgated by the Grand Lodge of Texas, I didn’t know what might be communicated in the third paragraph of his lodge’s Entered Apprentice Charge, but the abundant replies to his question clarified that for me. In New York, we actually have two charges from which to choose to instruct the youngest Entered Apprentice. The first charge includes the following (although it’s the fourth graf):

In the State you are to be a quiet and peaceable citizen, true to your government and just to your country. You are not to countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but are patiently to submit to legal authority, and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the country in which you live.

As an aside, I’ll point out how this echoes in our Installation of Officers. In seating the new Worshipful Master, he must agree to fifteen commands, including:

II. You agree to be a peaceful citizen, and cheerfully conform to the laws of the country in which you reside.

III. You promise not to be concerned in plots or conspiracies against the government, but patiently submit to the law and the constituted authorities.

IV. You agree to pay a proper respect to the civil magistrates, to work diligently, live creditably, and act honorably by all men.

None of the above are Masonic secrets. The EA Charge is not protected by oath; the Ancient Charges and Regulations for the lodge’s new Master can be heard by all who witness the ceremony, which often is attended by our families and friends. What wisely was kept confidential were Thomas’ reasons for asking, as he did not reveal personal political opinions or why he might take being a peaceable citizen as merely a suggestion for Masons.

Anyway, here is my long form Magpie answer:

I wouldn’t think any part of a charge would be discretionary, but that [third paragraph] part most definitely is a command that reverberates through history.

The idea enters Masonic ritual via The Rev. James Anderson’s book The Constitutions of the Free-Masons from 1723, the jurisprudence (although it contains other content) of the premier Grand Lodge of England.

The best known, most frequently cited portion of that book is “The Charges of a Free-Mason.” Not only is this section kept current by the United Grand Lodge of England, but also we find this section reproduced in the pages of grand lodges’ law books all over the world. We New Yorkers can read it on page 57 of Masonic Law of New York. Freemasons who don’t know Anderson’s Constitutions should read it because it informs much of what we think, say, and do in our lodges. (This will be covered in what I’ll present to the Observant lodges of Oklahoma when I step to the lectern on St. John’s Day.)

Charge I, “Concerning God and Religion,” is credited by some historians for partly inspiring the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but Charge II is our topic today, to wit (spelling modernized):

II. Of the Civil Magistrate supreme and subordinate.

 

A Mason is a peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concerned in Plots and Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation, nor to behave himself undutifully to inferior Magistrates; for as Masonry has been always injured by War, Bloodshed, and Confusion, so ancient Kings and Princes have been much disposed to encourage the Craftsmen, because of their Peaceableness and Loyalty, whereby they practically answered the Cavils of their Adversaries, and promoted the Honor of the Fraternity, whoever flourished in Times of Peace. So that if a Brother should be a Rebel against the State, he is not to be countenanced in his Rebellion, however he may be pitied as an unhappy Man; and, if convicted of no other Crime, though the loyal Brotherhood must and ought to disown his Rebellion, and give no Umbrage or Ground of political Jealousy to the Government for the time being; they cannot expel him from the Lodge, and his Relation to it remains indefeasible.

Click to enlarge.

You see the similarities to the charges shown above. This is whence they came.

Anderson’s book also contains a legendary history of Freemasonry, some of which is factual, some fanciful. Among the reliably accurate notes is mention of English laws dating to the Middle Ages. In England, the various Statutes of Laborers regulated stone masons’ qualifications, remuneration, ability to meet, and other details, but the statute of 1405 specifically compelled such workers to take an annual oath to comply with the law. Anderson writes (spelling modernized):

Now though in the third Year of the said King Henry VI, while an Infant of about four Years old, the Parliament made an Act, that affected only the WORKING Masons, who had, contrary to the Statutes for Laborers, confederated not to work but at their own Price and Wages; and because such Agreements were supposed to be made at the General Lodges, called in the Act: Chapters and Congregations of Masons, it was then thought expedient to level the said Act against the said Congregations: Yet when the said King Henry VI arrived to Man’s Estate, the Masons laid before him and his Lords the above-mentioned Records and Charges, who, tis plain, reviewed them, and solemnly approved of them as good and reasonable to be holden: Nay, the said King and his Lords must have been incorporated with the Free-Masons, before they could make such Review of the Records; and in this Reign, before King Henry’s Troubles, Masons were much encouraged. Nor is there any Instance of executing that Act: in that, or in any other Reign since, and the Masons never neglected their Lodges for it, nor ever thought it worthwhile to employ their NOBLE and EMINENT BRETHREN to have it repealed; because the working Masons, that are free of the Lodge, scorn to be guilty of such Combinations; and the other free Masons have no Concern in Trespasses against the Statutes for Laborers.

Stone masons’ literature of the 1400s, namely the Regius Poem, communicates the same thinking. The marvelous website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon still shows the poem and the modern translation, from 1923 by Bro. Roderick Baxter of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076, including:

In 1799, with the bloodbath of the French Revolution in mind, the British government devised the Unlawful Societies Act. The law, which remained enforceable until 1967, banned groups, that met in secret and that required oaths, out of fear of organized political subversion. Freemasonry, being loyal and peaceful in its activities, was exempted from the law. (If you’ll be in London on May 14, get to QC 2076 at Freemasons’ Hall to hear Bro. Paul Calderwood present his paper on this law.)

New book available from Lewis Masonic.

In more recent years, Masons’ practice of being peaceable citizens has proven valuable in inoculating the Craft from suspicion. For example, when the Irish Republican Army seized the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Ireland in Dublin exactly 104 years ago, they relinquished control of the property (after six weeks) because Michael Collins and Arthur Griffiths were satisfied that Irish Freemasonry was apolitical and nonsectarian, despite its fraternal connection to England. More information on that here.

National Archives

What about the Declaration of Independence? The American Revolution placed Freemasons here in rebellion and war against their king. That’s not very peaceful! How did our Masonic ancestors, the famous and the obscure alike, square their commitment to the Craft with their revolution? Benjamin Franklin knew about Anderson. The first Masonic book printed in the New World was Franklin’s reprint of Anderson’s Constitutions in 1734.

Perhaps Anderson’s Charge II sometimes must be a romantic ideal, something aspirational, that has to be suspended when considering “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” for yourself and your posterity. Then again, on the practical side, America’s Founders, whether Masons or not, did not see the distant British king as their civil authority. After all, the colonists had no representation in Parliament. There were sympathizers (Bro. Edmund Burke and others), but that’s not the same as electing your own MPs. Meanwhile, the colonists here did elect local representatives and were used to having their say in government. Therefore, a rebellion against the government across the ocean could be outside the boundaries of Anderson’s charge.

In addition, we would be wise to consider that Anderson wrote for his time. (He’d be stunned to hear us talking about him 300 years later.) 1723 was early in the Hanoverian era, the dawn of which finally concluded decades of political violence in England. Think about what happened there between 1640 and 1721. Some of the major points:

➢ The Long Parliament

➢  Civil War

➢  Regicide of Charles I

➢  Cromwell

➢  The Restoration

➢  Glorious Revolution

➢  Bill of Rights

➢  The Act of Union

➢  The Hanoverian Succession

➢  Bro. Walpole as Prime Minister

There’s stability by 1723. The Grand Lodge, desiring royal patronage, wants to be known as being supportive of the constitutional monarchy, and so codifies its peaceful intentions, noting their historical basis.

Other replies to Bro. Thomas’ question on Thursday placed the Declaration of Independence at odds with the EA Charge, and even hinted it may be time to knock off this peaceful citizen business. (It appears those remarks have vanished.) But that is a valid question Thomas poses. How should we today reconcile Anderson’s “unhappy Man” and Jefferson’s “pursuit of Happiness?” 

     

‘The Low Vale Degree’

    

Click to enlarge.

I have too many Masonic Saturdays next month, so I’m on the fence—a stretch of Virginia Worm, if you will—about attending this outdoor degree, but it sounds like a terrific night.

Good Samaritan 336 is the lodge right on Lincoln Square in Gettysburg I keep telling you about. In addition to regular doings, the brethren host dinners with period menus, attire, and re-enactors to celebrate their famous town’s heritage. I don’t believe their Low Vale Degree is an annual event, but they have hosted these previously.

Historic Daniel Lady Farm is a local attraction, having served as the headquarters of Confederate Major General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson, who commanded a division that failed to take Culp’s Hill from the U.S. Army. (Read his report here.) Inevitably, it became a hospital for the rebels. They say blood stains are still visible.

Historic Daniel Lady Farm

This weekend, Lady Farm is hosting its Civil War Scout Immersion, two days of workshops on military drill, battle formations, and tactics, culminating in a battle re-enactment.

And the Fellow Craft Degree? If you are not aware, the rituals of Pennsylvania Freemasonry are different from whatever yours may be. They’re not bizarre; you will have no difficulty understanding what unfolds because the ritual elements are consistent, but that Grand Lodge’s work is unique in the country. My research over the years caused me to read that Pennsylvania ritual is akin to one found in northern England, but I have no firsthand experience out there to corroborate. Yet.

Obviously, Apprentices would not be admitted to this Second Degree of Freemasonry.

Historic Daniel Lady Farm

The lodge will be opened and closed with cannon fire. I mean artillery, not Vivat! drinking. The meal will be catered by Blue and Gray Bar & Grill, which is another reason to attend. If you choose not to join the group for dinner, the ticket price will be $30.

This May 30 event does not land on Memorial Day Weekend, if that conflict might deter you. The holiday weekend will be the previous week.

     

‘Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside’

    

Monitor of the Work, Lectures and Ceremonies of Ancient Craft Masonry in the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York is available from Lodge Services or your lodge secretary. (Okay, maybe a graphic designer might have helped a little with the cover but, hey, it’s done.)

Many years in the making, Grand Lodge’s Monitor is published and is available from Lodge Services. Its proper title, Monitor of the Work, Lectures and Ceremonies of Ancient Craft Masonry in the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, the book is copyrighted 2025, but I learned of its existence—again, after anticipation of years—just a week ago through a comment on Faceypage. Got my copy yesterday.

Immediately, I searched for content unknown to me, and no sooner than on Page 7 are Opening Charges.

Opening Charges?

Opening Charges!

You probably know a Closing Charge, delivered at, yes, the close of the lodge communication. I doubt it is ubiquitous throughout the country, but it is found near and far. In New York, we call it the Harris Charge (“…you are now about to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue…”). It is an optional coda to the meeting, although I don’t know why a Master would opt out of it. When it was my privilege to serve in the East twenty-one years ago in New Jersey, that was possibly my favorite piece of Work. It differs slightly from New York’s version.

Who’s Harris?

Bro. Thaddeus Harris

The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, D.D. (1768-1842) was a Massachusetts Freemason. More than that, he was that Grand Lodge’s first Grand Chaplain. (Synchronously enough, he laid down his working tools on this very date, April 3.) He also served as Corresponding Grand Secretary and, in 1812, was appointed Deputy Grand Master! A remarkable seminal figure in Massachusetts Freemasonry, but he is a topic for another edition of The Magpie Mason. (This portrait of Harris hangs, if I remember right, on the ground floor of the Boston Masonic Building, home of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts.)

Where was I going with this? Yes! These Opening Charges.

They are not new to Freemasonry, but they’re news to me and they are terrific brief orations you’ll be proud to hear at the start of your lodge meetings. There are two, prefaced with this:

Performance of an Opening Charge is optional. One charge or the other, without alteration or combination, may be given in full immediately following the prayer in the Ritual of Opening, or at the commencement of any untiled Masonic event. Only The Monitor or The Chaplain’s Book are to be used if the charge is read in a tiled lodge.

The first Charge:

The ways of science are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells with contemplation. There are we to seek her. Though the passage be difficult, the farther we proceed, the easier it will become. If we are united, our society must flourish. Let all things give place to peace and good fellowship. Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy in ourselves, and endeavor to contribute to the happiness of others. Let us promote the useful arts; and by them mark our superiority and distinction. Let us cultivate the moral virtues; and improve in all that is good and amiable. Let the genius of Masonry preside over our conduct; and under its sovereign sway let us act with becoming dignity. Let our recreations be innocent, and pursued with moderation. Never let us expose our character to derision. Thus shall we act in conformity to our precepts, and support the name we have always borne, of being a respectable, a regular, and a uniform society.

The second Charge:

The ways of Virtue are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells in contemplation: there we must seek her. Let us then, Brethren, apply ourselves with becoming zeal to the practice of the excellent principles inculcated by our Order. Let us ever remember that the great objects of our association are the restraint of improper desires and passions, the cultivation of an active benevolence, and the promotion of a correct knowledge of the duties we owe to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves. Let us be united and practice with assiduity the sacred tenets of our order. Let all private animosities, of any unhappily exist, give place to affection and brotherly love. It is useless parade to talk of the subjection of irregular passions within the walls of the Lodge, if we permit them to triumph in our daily intercourse with each other. Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy ourselves, and endeavor to promote the happiness of others. Let us cultivate the great moral virtues which are laid down on our Masonic Trestleboard, and improve in everything that is good, amiable and useful. Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside over our councils, and under her sway let us act with a dignity becoming the high moral character of our venerable institution.

So, if these stirring words did not flow from RW Harris’ heart and mind, whence came they? I thought some of the phrases sounded familiar, but wasn’t sure if my memory was tricking me, so I asked Sam.

RW Samuel Kinsey, of Mariners 67, is Chairman of the Custodians of the Work, the team that preserves Grand Lodge’s Standard Work and Lectures and that publishes these books we need to learn our rituals and orations. He provided me a snippet of the Custodians’ report to Grand Lodge, which will meet next month:

The antecedents of the Opening Charges may be found in A Vindication of Masonry and its Excellency demonstrated in a Discourse at the Consecration of the Lodge of Vernon Kilwinning, on May 15, 1741 by Charles Leslie. This lengthy discourse was later incorporated into the first edition of William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry, with increasingly revised and reorganized forms of the Vindication continuing to feature in all subsequent editions. In the early decades of the nineteenth century Thaddeus Mason Harris adapted one of Preston’s later versions into the first Opening Charge given above (the shorter of the two). The second Opening Charge originates in Charles Whitlock Moore’s The Masonic Trestle-board, which purported to contain the working from the Baltimore Convention of 1843. This is the Opening Charge that can be found in Monitors with relevancy to our jurisdiction throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Although the two Opening Charges reference the same source material and evoke a similar sentiment, your committee believes both are beautiful expressions that deserve to be authorized for use.

There’s a lot more marrow in the bone of this edition of The Monitor, the first published since 1989. The Installation of Officers is revised, just in time for our Installation nights. Now I have to see what The Chaplain’s Book is. Never heard of it.

From the 1740s to the 1840s to the second quarter of the twenty-first century, what we, as Free and Accepted Masons, think, say, and do in lodge remains continuous and relevant, no doubt thanks to our own consistency when we “mix again with the world.”

If you are of these households of the faithful, I wish you a Happy Passover or Happy Easter.

     

‘It’s National Grammar Day’

    

Winding Stairway of the Marietta Masonic Building, Ohio. Those five balusters at center are in the forms of the Five Orders of Architecture. American Union Lodge 1 and Harmar 390 meet here. The temple was constructed by Harmar in 1907-08.

Grammar teaches us the proper arrangement of words according to the idiom or dialect of any particular kingdom or people; and that excellency of pronunciation, which enables us to speak or write a language with accuracy and justness, agreeable to reason, authority, and the strict rules of literature.

William Preston

Illustrations of Masonry

1775

Grammar. One of the seven liberal arts and sciences, which forms, with Logic and Rhetoric, a triad dedicated to the cultivation of language. “God,” says Sanctius, “created man the participant of reason; and as He willed him to be a social being, He bestowed upon him the gift of language, in the perfecting of which there are three aids. The first is Grammar, which rejects from language all solecisms and barbarous expressions; the second is Logic, which is occupied with the truthfulness of language; and the third is Rhetoric, which seeks only the adornment of language.”

Albert G. Mackey

Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences

1917

Arts and Sciences, Liberal. In the seventh century, and for many centuries afterwards, all learning was limited to and comprised in what were called the seven liberal arts and sciences, namely: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The epithet “liberal” is a fair translation of the Latin ingenuus, which means free-born; thus Cicero speaks of the artes ingenuae, or the arts befitting a free-born man; and Ovid says in the well-known lines: “To have studied carefully the liberal arts refines the manners, and prevents us from being brutish.”

And Phillips, in his New World of Words (1706), defines the liberal arts and sciences to be “such as are fit for gentlemen and scholars, as mechanic trades and handicrafts for meaner people.” As Freemasons are required by their landmarks to be free-born, we see the propriety of incorporating the arts of free-born men among their symbols. As the system of Masonry derived its present form and organization from the times when the study of these arts and sciences constituted the labors of the wisest men, they have very appropriately been adopted as the symbol of the completion of human learning.

Albert Mackey

The Symbolism of Freemasonry; Illustrating and Explaining its Science and Philosophy, its Legends, Myths, and Symbols

1867

Grammar is the key by which alone the door can be opened to the understanding of speech. It is Grammar which reveals the admirable art of language and unfolds its various constituent parts—its names, definitions and respective offices; it unravels, as it were, the thread of which the web of speech is composed. These reflections seldom occur to anyone before his acquaintance with the art; yet it is most certain that, without a knowledge of Grammar, it is very difficult to speak with propriety, precision, and purity.

The Standard Work and Lectures

of Ancient Craft Masonry

Grand Lodge of New York

2019

Grammar. Is the key by which alone the door can be opened to the understanding of speech. It is Grammar which reveals the admirable art of language, and unfolds its various constituent parts—its names, definitions, and respective offices; it unravels, as it were, the thread of which the web of speech is composed. These reflections seldom occur to any one before their acquaintance with the art; yet it is most certain that, without a knowledge of Grammar, it is very difficult to speak with propriety, precision, and purity.

The General Ahiman Rezon

and Freemason’s Guide

Daniel Sickels

1865

Today is March fourth, which is homophonous with “march forth,” which is a complete sentence, which is why today’s date was chosen to be National Grammar Day, so happy National Grammar Day! This occasion was devised by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, in 2008.

chicagocopshop.com

“So back to National Grammar Day, which is just one day,” says the University of Illinois. “You’ve heard of red-letter days. Well, National Grammar Day is a red-pen day, a day to correct other people’s grammar.”

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid that.

In his Prestonian Lecture for 1930, titled “The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences,” Henry Philip Cart de Lafontaine says:

According to the definition of the late Dr. Henry Sweet, a grammar gives the general facts of language, whilst a dictionary deals with the special facts of language. To the ordinary man, grammar means a set of more or less arbitrary rules, which he has to observe if he wants to speak or write correctly; this may be called prescriptive grammar. To a scientific man, the rules are not what he has to observe but what he observes when he examines the way in which speakers and writers belonging to a particular community or nation actually use their mother-tongue; this may be labelled descriptive grammar. The nineteenth century furnished us with another form of grammar, comparative historical grammar, and this should always be supplemented by separative grammar, which does full justice to what is peculiar to each language, and treats each on its own merits. Many things of grammatical importance, such as intonation, stress, etc., are not shown in our traditional spellings. Dialect grammars and grammars of the languages of uncivilized races deal of necessity only with spoken words. Grammar being the basis of all the liberal sciences, it particularly concerns us as Masons to know its rules, for without this knowledge we cannot be acquainted with the beauties of our own Craft lectures, nor can we speak with correctness or propriety. When I reflect on the present slip-shod manner of speech, on the ungrammatical nature of letter-writing, on the loose phraseology of the ordinary novel, and on the atrocious spelling exhibited in letter-writing, I am led to recommend wholeheartedly a return to the study of grammar.