FUTURE OF FREEMASONRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2277, 17 May 1921, Page 4

FUTURE OF FREEMASONRY.

HUMAN! TAR lAN TEA CHIN G 8

Concluding a review of the antiquity of Freemasonry, at his installation at Auckland, last Thursday evening, the grand master, Mr T. Ross, observed that wherever civilisation extended the great brotherhood was found, using its influence and ijs authority in breaking down the barriers of national arrogance and of social rank and class that kept men apart, fostering all that was best and noble and elevating in humanity. Masonic bodies everywhere were preaching and practisj ing toleration, helping to bear the j burdens of the unfortunate, cheer- ! ing the despondent, alleviating the ! distress of the sick, the aged, the ! widow and the orphan, and setting | before every member his duty to his j God, his country, and his fellow- | men. When many people openly j professed their contempt for God, country, and for all that made society pure and moral, and government secure and stable, miglit there not 1 be a great future for Freemasonry, ' with its toleration, reaching out and taking in all religions, be they Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, or Brahmin. ' Might not this j great universal religion of the craft —for it was a 'religion, with the

Fatherhood of the Great Architect as its fundamental —be the means of uniting every nation, and creed, and class, and colour? Then, and then only, would the time come that was' predicted by the great Scottish Masonic genius, “When man to man, the world around, shall brothers be, an’ a’ that.”