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Article THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW. ← Page 3 of 8 →
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The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
which Masonic charity had previously flown . What sort of benevolent addition is that which is to be subtracted out of the means of charitable appliance elsewhere ? If this were ever intended , those who brought forward and patronized the scheme , should have honestly declared how much per
month the Board of Benevolence would have to be mulcted , But nothing of the sort was ever dreamed of ; or , if it were , the silly brain that conceived it was yet wise enough to retain it untold . We have ever held it to be a libel on Freemasonry to
suppose that any amount required by the unprotected , the distressed , and above all the aged and infirm , among Freemasons , could not , under proper management and stimulus , be provided by the more fortunate in the Craft . Our position in this respect is as firm as ever—our reliance upon the resources of the Fraternity as unlimited . Nay , we are
satisfied that we have rather under-rated than over-estimated the ability and the disposition of the Craft in the exercise of charity . " Two Charities are as much as the Craft can maintain , " was the dictum only a few years since . Lo , a third was established—and now a fourth is in the field !
And that , too , under the auspices of him who said , and of those who re-echoed , the unfulfilled prophesy that the Craft could not support three Charities ! How little could such doubters know of the real feelings of the Brotherhood ! How ignorant or unobservant of the fact , that , whilst in England
the number of Freemasons has gradually increased , as it were in defiance of misrule , the standard of respectability has improved in a still greater ratio . Naturally , then , must it follow , that except in periods of general distress , to which no rule can be strictly applied , the demands upon our funds will decrease , whilst the ability to meet them will be materially enlarged and strengthened .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Quarterly Review.
which Masonic charity had previously flown . What sort of benevolent addition is that which is to be subtracted out of the means of charitable appliance elsewhere ? If this were ever intended , those who brought forward and patronized the scheme , should have honestly declared how much per
month the Board of Benevolence would have to be mulcted , But nothing of the sort was ever dreamed of ; or , if it were , the silly brain that conceived it was yet wise enough to retain it untold . We have ever held it to be a libel on Freemasonry to
suppose that any amount required by the unprotected , the distressed , and above all the aged and infirm , among Freemasons , could not , under proper management and stimulus , be provided by the more fortunate in the Craft . Our position in this respect is as firm as ever—our reliance upon the resources of the Fraternity as unlimited . Nay , we are
satisfied that we have rather under-rated than over-estimated the ability and the disposition of the Craft in the exercise of charity . " Two Charities are as much as the Craft can maintain , " was the dictum only a few years since . Lo , a third was established—and now a fourth is in the field !
And that , too , under the auspices of him who said , and of those who re-echoed , the unfulfilled prophesy that the Craft could not support three Charities ! How little could such doubters know of the real feelings of the Brotherhood ! How ignorant or unobservant of the fact , that , whilst in England
the number of Freemasons has gradually increased , as it were in defiance of misrule , the standard of respectability has improved in a still greater ratio . Naturally , then , must it follow , that except in periods of general distress , to which no rule can be strictly applied , the demands upon our funds will decrease , whilst the ability to meet them will be materially enlarged and strengthened .