THE BUILDER OCTOBER 1917

FREEMASONRY IN THE FAR EAST

BY BRO. MELVIN M. JOHNSON, MASSACHUSETTS

Excerpt from Address of Grand Master Johnson of Massachusetts at
the 1915 Communication of its Grand Lodge.

In July last I received a petition from thirteen Master Masons,
including three Chinese Brethren who were raised in Washington,
D.C., for the establishment of a Lodge under our Constitution at
Peking, China, to be known as International Lodge, accompanied by
the approval of R. W. Stacy A. Ransom, District Grand Master, and
also of Ancient Landmark, Shanghai, and Sinim Lodges of Shanghai,
China. The petition did not come as a surprise, as I had previously
discussed the matter at some length with R. W. Brother Ransom while
he was on a visit to Boston.

This petition presented five principal subjects for serious
consideration. First, the Personnel of the Applicants; Second, the
Field of Usefulness; Third, the Relations of the Lodge to Civil
Government; Fourth, Eligibility of Candidates who Subscribe to
Prevailing Oriental Religions; Fifth, Adaptability of our Rites to
the Working of such Material.

None of these subjects present considerations which are esoteric in
principle. They may and should be freely discussed. Minor matters
of form and language only need be reserved for secret conclave.

First: the Personnel of the Applicants. The petitioners are
Brethren of the highest standing in the community. Two of the
petitioners, R. W. Brothers Derby and Hykes, are Past District
Grand Masters for the China District. The former is also Secretary
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Bodies, and the latter is
the agent for China of the American Bible Society. The Brother
recommended for Master is an American practising dentistry, and is
a Past Senior Warden of Sinim Lodge. The proposed Senior Warden is
the Peking Manager of one of the largest enterprises in China in
which Chinese and foreign capital is jointly invested and is a
member of Coronation Lodge, No. 2931, under the English
Constitution. The proposed Junior Warden, a Chinaman, is a member
of Washington Lodge, No. 21, of New York City, a graduate of
Columbia College and at present English Secretary to the Department
of Commerce and Agriculture in Peking. Of the other two Chinese
Brethren who have signed the petition, one is the present Minister
of Commerce and Agriculture of the Republic of China and a member
of Federal Lodge No. 1, Washington, D. C.; the other is a member of
the same Lodge and a graduate of Rensselaer, was lately Consul
General at Manila and Batavia, and is now in Peking expecting
transfer. Among the other signers are Past Masters of Lodges under
the English Constitution, one of them having been a Grand Officer
of the District Grand Lodge for Northern China. Hon. Charles S.
Lobingier, United States Judge for China, and Deputy for China of
the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for
the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, whose see includes
China, writes a strong endorsement, in the course of which he
comments upon the intent expressed by the petitioners to admit the
Educated English-speaking Chinese, in part as follows:

"I am especially interested in any effort to diffuse the principles
of Masonry among the educated Chinese. If there is one need greater
than another in China's present formative and transitional state it
is the need of learning to work together, and the Masonic Lodge
will help to instill that lesson. The presence of worthy foreigners
in such a Lodge should afford an example and stimulus to the
Chinese members, and the mingling of the two in the same
organization should serve both to test and to illustrate the
reality of Masonic brotherhood, which, we are often told, knows
neither nationality nor creed. I am informed that several of the
Chinese Masons who sign the petition are members of American lodges
and this alone should afford a sufficient guaranty that the
chartering of the Lodge petitioned for would constitute no
departure.

"As to the religious feature it is well known that British Lodges
in India and elsewhere in the East freely admit Parsee, Hindu,
Sikh, and Mohammedan members. (See Kipling's poem, 'My Mother
Lodge.') Masonry is not a sect and its only dogmatic requirements
of the initiate are belief in Deity and immortality, which are
shared by most faiths.

"I know that the Grand Commander of our jurisdiction heartily
approves the idea of enlisting the best of the Chinese in Masonry
and I have no hesitation in saying that, in my judgment, the
denial, or even delay, of the petition for authority to establish
International Lodge at Peking would be a calamity to Freemasonry in
the Far East."

Other recommendations were also received, among them being one from
a Brother who was formerly first Secretary to the American Legation
at Peking and for a time Acting Minister of the United States, who
had consented to take the Chair to organize the Lodge but was
transferred to the State Department in Washington before the
petition was put in final form.

Second: the Field of Usefulness. We have three Lodges in Shanghai,
but there is no Lodge in Peking holding under an American
constitution. Many Americans, however, are located in Peking. There
are many Chinamen who have been educated in America and have
returned to Peking to live. A large number of them occupy
responsible positions in the Government of China. It is believed
also that there are many Chinamen of high standing in the community
who would be glad to affiliate with our Fraternity if they felt
that they would be welcome. It is the purpose of the Lodge
cordially to accept such applications, applying to men of all
nationalities the same test, namely, belief in a Supreme Being,
ability to understand and speak the English language fluently, and
that the applicants be good men and true, worthy of receiving the
honors of Freemasonry because of their morality and integrity.

Third: the Relation of the Lodge to Civil Government. It is well
known that secret organizations in China have frequently
degenerated into purely political organizations, if indeed they
were not so conceived. We well know that the so-called Freemasonry
of many Latin countries partakes largely of a political nature.
This, however, is alien to the genius of Freemasonry as we
understand it. Under our Constitution, political discussions are
forbidden. We have never permitted and shall never permit our
Lodges to be turned into political clubs, or to be used as a mask
for political purposes. The personnel of the petitioners of itself
warrants the conviction that their purposes are Masonic and not
political and, moreover, that they will not permit the slightest
deviation from our usages in this regard. Moreover, the Lodge
undoubtedly will always he dominated by a numerical superiority of
Brethren of American blood, though it by no means follows that were
a majority of the members of the Lodge in the future to be of
Chinese blood we should expect any deviation from the principles
inculcated by the teachings of our Order. Moreover, there is always
the safeguard that the Charter of the Lodge may be suspended or
revoked at any time, and should there ever be the slightest effort
to prostitute the Charter of the Lodge, our District Grand Master
for China has ample authority to deal immediately with the
situation. For these reasons I have resolved this consideration in
favor of the petitioners.

Fourth: Eligibility of Candidates who Subscribe to Prevailing
Oriental Religions.

The Ancient Landmarks are certain fundamental principles which have
never yet been successfully and exclusively defined. They are
something like the Constitution of England, partly written and
partly unwritten. The principal sources thereof are:
(a) Ancient Masonic Manuscripts, sometimes known as the "Old
Constitutions";
(b) Ancient usages and customs;
(c) Esoteric rites handed down by tradition.

It is an unchangeable Ancient Landmark of the Fraternity that there
is but one Masonic dogma. We construct a universal religious
philosophy thereupon, as a part of which we teach belief in
immortality and endeavor to inculcate other tenets of our
profession, but our sole dogma is the Landmark of belief in a
Supreme Being, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, the creating
and superintending Power of all things. No man may be a Freemason
unless he is a believer in monotheism. No neophyte ever has been or
ever shall be permitted vision of our mysteries or reception of our
obligations until he has openly, unequivocally, and solemnly
asserted this belief. Beyond that we inquire and require nothing of
sectarianism or religious belief.

Masonry is cultivating and disseminating the union of mankind upon
this common bond to which all may agree, leaving the particular
opinions of individuals and their methods of sectarian worship to
themselves and to their own consciences, but to be proclaimed and
exercised outside of the Lodge-room. Proselyting has its place in
the world, but not in the halls of Masonry.

Sectarian missionary spirit and its exercise have been of
incalculable value to the human race. However much it may be our
duty to give it our encouragement and support as individuals or as
members of other organizations it is our duty within the Fraternity
to see to it that no man may truthfully accuse us of bigotry and in
our Lodge-room upon this single bond of belief in Deity to
conciliate true friendship among men of every country, sect, and
opinion.

By reason of the nature of our population and membership in
Massachusetts we are accustomed to recognize the applicability of
this principle to Trinitarian and to Unitarian, to Christian and
Hebrew, but now that it is in a practical manner called to our
attention, we should not be startled when we recognize that it
applies alike to other Deists who gain their inspiration from other
books than that open before you upon the altar. We may find
Monotheism proclaimed not only in the New Testament of the
Christian, but also in the Koran of the Islamite, in the Avestas of
the Magians of Persia, in the Book of Kings of the Chinese, in the
Sutras of the Buddhist, yea, even in the Vedas of the Hindu.

"There is a principle implanted in the heart of man, which prompts
him to the belief and acknowledgment of a superior and
superintending power, under whatever name he may have been
personified; endowed with attributes of infinite knowledge and
infinite wisdom. Sophism cannot overwhelm it; philosophy cannot
succeed in erasing it from the heart; it is engraven there in
characters broad and deep, and spake the same language to the
ignorant savage amidst trackless woods and barren wastes, and to
the proud philosopher of antiquity, as it did to the learned Jew or
the enlightened Christian. It displays a God of nature who loves
virtue and abhors vice; and teaches man the doctrine of personal
responsibility."

The particular letters by which the name of the Grand Architect of
the Universe is spelled or the peculiar way in which His name may
be pronounced are as utterly immaterial as to prayers to "Our God"
in English, to "Unser Gott" in German, or to "Notre Dieu" in
French.

Our attitude is somewhat analogous to these words of the
Proclamation of Queen Victoria in Council to the Princes, Chiefs,
and People of India (published November 1, 1858):

"Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and
acknowledging with gratitude the solace of Religion, we disclaim
alike the Right and the Desire to impose our Convictions on any of
Our Subjects. We declare it to be Our Royal Will and Pleasure that
none be in any wise favoured, none molested or disquieted by reason
of their Religious Faith or Observances; but that all shall alike
enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the Law; and We do
strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under
Us, that they abstain from all interference with the Religious
Belief or Worship of any of Our Subjects, on pain of Our highest
Displeasure.

"And it is Our further Will that, so far as may be, Our Subjects,
of whatever Race or Creed, be freely and impartially admitted to
Offices in our Service, the Duties of which they may be qualified
by their education, ability, and integrity, duly to discharge."

To those of our friends in China who of their own free will and
accord may seek Masonic light, whatever their religious belief so
long as it includes our single dogma, if they be worthy and well
qualified, men freeborn, of good report, and properly vouched for,
Freemasonry extends her hand in greeting.

Fifth: Adaptability of our Rites to the Working of such Material.

Since, then, Freemasonry welcomes to her Fellowship Deists of
varying faiths, it is incredible that she should unyieldingly
present to such neophytes rites incompatible with their several
religious opinions. Necessarily our ceremonies must be sufficiently
flexible to yield to the unchangeable Landmark of universality.
Otherwise there is presented a problem analogous to the historical
inquiry in physics of what will happen when an irresistible force
meets an immovable body. When in a given case an Ancient Landmark
and a ceremony of the Order are found to be incompatible, something
must give way and that something must not be the Ancient Landmark.
The ceremony must bend, if necessary. In considering the
Dispensation in question and the opportunity offered and likely to
be availed of for the reception of candidates who, although Deists,
do not adhere to the Holy Bible as the Volume of the Sacred Law, we
must now determine whether an obligation may be administered upon
any other book and the language thereof adapted to the religion of
the candidate. Precedents, however, are at hand. Many of us are
aware of occasions within this very building when strictly Orthodox
Hebrews have been obligated upon what is known to them as the "Book
of the Law," that is to say upon the Pentateuch, and indeed it was
determined as early as the year 1806, under the Grandmastership of
Most Worshipful Timothy Bigelow, that Quakers could be permitted to
affirm.

I know of no Landmark that the Holy Bible is one of the essential
furnishings of a Lodge. As I understand the Ancient Landmark in
this regard it is simply that the Volume of the Sacred Law is an
indispensable part of the furniture of each Lodge, as necessary to
the conduct of Masonic work or business by the Lodge as the Charter
itself, indeed more essential, if such could be the case, for the
Landmark requiring the presence of the Volume of the Sacred Law was
established years, if not centuries, before such a thing as a
Chartered Lodge was known to the Fraternity. I quote from Mackey's
Text-book of Masonic Jurisprudence, (Edition of 1859, page 33),
being a part of his chapter entitled "The Landmarks of the
Unwritten Law":


"It is a Landmark, that a 'Book of the Law' shall constitute an
indispensable part of the furniture of every Lodge. I say
advisedly, a Book of the Law, because it is not absolutely required
that everywhere the Old and New Testaments shall be used. The 'Book
of the Law' is that volume which by the religion of the country, is
believed to contain the revealed will of the Grand Architect of the
Universe. Hence, in all Lodges in Christian countries, the Book of
the Law is composed of the Old and New Testaments; in a country
where Judaism was the prevailing faith, the Old Testament alone
would be sufficient; and in Mohammedan Countries, and among
Mohammedan Masons, the Koran might be substituted. Masonry does not
attempt to interfere with the peculiar religious faith of its
disciples, except so far as relates to the belief in the existence
of God, and what necessarily results from that belief. The Book of
the Law is to the speculative Mason his spiritual TrestleBoard;
without this he cannot labor; whatever he believes to be the
revealed will of the Grand Architect constitutes for him this
spiritual Trestle-Board, and must ever be before him in his hours
of speculative labor, to be the rule and guide of his conduct. The
Landmark, therefore, requires that a Book of the Law, a religious
code of some kind, purporting to be an exemplar of the revealed
will of God, shall form an essential part of the furniture of every
Lodge."

I am thoroughly in accord with Mackey upon this question. I cannot
conceive how otherwise we may follow the words of the old charge:
"Though in ancient times Masons were charged in every country to be
of the religion of that country or nation whatever it was; yet it
is now thought expedient only to oblige them to that religion in
which all men agree leaving their particular opinions to
themselves."

To the Christian, the Volume of the Sacred Law is the Holy Bible,
and upon it he should be obligated. The Christian religion is the
prevailing religion of our Lodges and, therefore, the Holy Bible,
as the Volume of the Sacred Law, is and must always be part of the
furniture of each Lodge. Its sanctity, however, does not appeal to
the Islamite, and the ceremony of initiation would lose much to him
in binding effect if his obligation should be taken thereon. While
the Holy Bible should not be removed from the Lodge, the
conscientious Islamite who so desires may be permitted to take his
obligation upon the Koran; the Hindu, otherwise qualified and
accepted, may be permitted to have the Vedas spread open before
him; and the rite of initiation may be so far adapted to the
conscience and religious belief of a candidate as to permit his
taking the obligation in a manner and form regarded. by him as
sacred and binding, and upon that work which to him is the Volume
of the Sacred Law, providing always that such Volume of the Sacred
Law teach Monotheism.

Such are the views of your Grand Master upon this serious and
important matter. I regard it as such a momentous question,
however, that I prefer to take the judgment and advice of this
Grand Lodge thereon and, therefore, raise a special committee
consisting of Most Worshipful Edwin B. Holmes, Senior Past Grand
Master, Right Worshipful Roscoe Pound, LL. D., Deputy Grand Master
and Professor of Jurisprudence in the Harvard University Law
School, Right Worshipful Leon M. Abbott, Past Senior Grand Warden,
Right Worshipful and Rev. Frederick W. Hamilton, D. D., LL. D.,
Grand Secretary and Past Deputy Grand Master, and Worshipful and
Rev. R. Perry Bush, D. D., Grand Chaplain, to take under
consideration the fourth and fifth questions above presented, and
to report to Grand Lodge for such action thereon as may seem
advisable. Definite and final determination of these questions
should now be recorded and promulgated for future guidance.


No preacher is listened to but Time, which gives us the same train
and turn of thought that elder people have in vain tried to put
into our heads before.--Dean Swift.

