Agnostics Cannot be Masons

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 41, 15 September 1885, Page 3

Agnostics Cannot be Masons

Several months ago a charge was preferred in the King Solomon Lodge of Masons of Toronto against a member named Morrison, to the effect that he was an Agnostic, and, therefore, not entitled to admittance into the lodgeroom. The charge was investigated, and satisfactory proof of Morrison's Agnostic views having been obtained, he was expelled from the lodge. As this was the first ease of the kind that ever occurred in America— and it probably has no precedent in the history of Masonry — it excited much speculation as to the justice of King Solomon Lodge taking the action it did, and the decision of the Grand Master of Canada, given at the Grand Lodge meeting in Hamilton, was looked for with interest by Masons all over the world. Morrison, it was alleged, was an Agnostic, and not an Atheist, the distinction oeing that the latter deny the existence of a God, while the former ■imply say. " There may be a God. I do net deny it ; but Ido not know that there is." The decision of the Grand Muter •£ Canada was as follows : — "No person can be initiated who does not believe in the true God, the Great Architect of Universe." The Grand Master added that the attention of M***ns all over the world had been directed to this subject by the address of the Grand Master of the State ef New York, which he quoted approvingly. " Masonry," he continued " wisely requires no more than a belief in God, who had revealed His will te man, and would punish vice and reward virtue. It _ required that, and nothing less would be ~ accepted. The man who had denied the existence of a God was alreadj excluded. Practical Atheism would also be excluded in the persons of those who only admit that there mtty possibly be a God." The Grand Master also decided that a Quaker, who does not take an oath or administer ene, cannot be made a Mason ; also that an Indian not enfranchised cannot 1c a Mason. The decision hai Riven much satisfaction among Masons in Canada, Morrison is a manufacturer of churoh-windews, and he says bis expulsien will do harm to his business. He threatens to take action against the King Soiomtn Lodge for damages.