Charge after Initiation-Irish Ritual

[ The Charge after Initiation rendered in the Lodges under the Irish Grand Lodge
is only slightly different from that in Emulation Ritual and the same is posted
herein to enable the brethren to make a comparative study. Please read on…]

Charge After Initiation

W.M:- Brother, as you have gone through the ceremony of your Initiation, allow
me to congratulate you on being admitted by the unanimous consent of the Lodge,
a member of our Ancient and Honourable Society. Ancient, as embodying
principles, that have existed from time immemorial and Honourable, as tending to
make all those honourable, who are strictly obedient to its precepts. No institution
can boast of a more solid foundation than on which Freemasonry rests “ the
practice of every moral and social virtue”.And to so high an eminence has its
credit been advanced, that even Monarchs have become the promoters of the
Craft, have not thought it beneath them to exchange the Sceptre for the Trowel,
have become Members of our Society and taken part in our assemblies.

As a Freemason, I would first recommend to your most serious contemplation the

Volume of Sacred Law; charging you to consider it as the unerring standard of
truth and morals and to regulate your actions by the Divine precepts it contains.
Thereby, you will learn how to discharge your duties to your God, by never
mentioning His name save with that awe and reverence, that are due from the
creature to the Creator, by imploring His aid in all your lawful undertakings and
by looking up to Him in every emergency for comfort and support. To your
neighbour, by acting towards him uprightly, by rendering him every kind office
that justice or mercy may require, by sympathizing in his distresses, by soothing
his afflictions and by always “doing to him as you would wish he should do unto
you. To yourself, by such a prudent and well regulated course of discipline as may
tend to preserve your faculties in their fullest energy and may enable you to exert
most usefully the talents, with which God has blest you, as well to His glory as to
the welfare of your fellow creatures.

As a citizen I enjoin you to be exemplary in the discharge of your civil duties, by

never proposing or countenancing anything that may disturb the peace and good
order of society, by paying due obedience to the laws of the State in which you
reside and by which you are protected and by never losing sight of the allegiance
you owe to the Sovereign of your native land.
As an individual, I would enjoin upon you the practice of every domestic as well
as public virtue. Let Prudence direct you, Temperance chasten you, Fortitude
support you and Justice be the guide of all your actions.
Bear constantly in mind the indispensable duties of Candour, Discretion and
Fidelity.
And be especially careful to maintain in their fullest vigour those truly Masonic
characteristics, Benevolence and Brotherly Love.