Freemasons. Michigan. Grand Lodge. COMPILED LAW OF THE GRAND LODGE OF FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. REVISION OF A. L. 5873, A. D. 1873, WITH AMENDMENTS, TO AND INCLUDING kift" Miss Edna C. Spaulding 5-9-1933 PREFACE. R. W. Bro. Foster Pratt, in the preface to the original compilation, said: "The recent and thorough revision, by the M. W. Grand Lodge of Michigan, of the Constitutional and Statutory Law of its Masonic Jurisdiction, makes the following compilation a great convenience, if not a necessity, to all Lodges and Brethren that wish to study its provisions. "The first place in the volume-the place of honor-has been assigned to the 'Ancient Charges and Regulations,' not because they are, in form, binding on us, but because they are universally recognized as the beginning and basis of all the ' written law' of the Craft; and also because they embody many of those 'Ancient Landmarks' which give 'metes and bounds' to the Rules and Regulations of Symbolic Masonry. "The careful and thoughtful Masonic student, that delves in the 'rubbish' of this Ancient Law, will find the 'Landmark' embedded, not in the surface debris of its forms and details, but deep down in the sub-soil of its fundamental principles. For Masonry, like the man who cultivates it, has outgrown the swaddling clothes and the feebleness of infancy; but, like the man, too, it preserves every original and essential limb, and organ, and function; and, though greatly differing in development and power, the infant and the man are identical. It is also true, that the essential elements of Masonry, like those of a true Mason, are not to be found in drapery, manners and customs, the fashion of which may change, but in its physical, mental and moral attributes which, (except as increased by growth,) are unchangeable, and which, by its inherent vitality and generative power, are propagated from generation to generation. The unchangeable 'Landmarks' of Masonry, too, like the attributes of a true Mason, are external and internal-written and unwritten-of which the internal or unwritten are the more important, and are to be learned and observed only in secret; while the external or written, which relate wholly to its organic form and visible functions, are those by which the Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers of the Craft are bound to be governed and guided. These written 'Landmarks' are few in number, simple in form, broad in their scope, and relate wholly to the essential externals of Masonry; even the written Law of our Jurisdiction, with all its complexity of detail, is but the varied expression of one of these comprehensive principles, which, like a 'Corner Stone,' determines the bearings and form of the entire structure. This underlying principle of our Masonic law may be thus formulated: "It is the right of the Lodge to make and regulate Masons, subject only to the power of Grand Lodge, limited by Landmarks, to make and regulate Lodges. "Of the relative importance of the different departments of our Law, it may be well to say that, while the Constitution and By-Laws of Grand Lodge, which |