revious occasion.

If the information is derived from another Brother, who states that he has
examined the party, then all that has already been said of the competency
of the one giving the information is equally applicable. The Brother,
giving the original information, must be competent to make a rigid
examination. Again, the person giving the information, the one receiving
it, and the one of whom it is given, should be all present at the time;
for otherwise there would be no certainty of identity. Information,
therefore, given by letter or through a third party, is highly irregular.
The information must also be positive, not founded on belief or opinion,
but derived from a legitimate source. And, lastly, it must not have been
received casually, but for the very purpose of being used for masonic
purposes. For one to say to another in the course of a desultory
conversation: "A.B. is a Mason," is not sufficient. He may not be
speaking with due caution, under the expectation that his words will be
considered of weight. He must say something to this effect: "I know this
man to be a Master Mason," for such or such reasons, and you may safely
recognize him as such. This alone will insure the necessary care and
proper observance of prudence.

If the information given is on the ground that the person, vouched has
been seen sitting in a lodge by the voucher, care must be taken to inquire
if it was a "Lodge of Master Masons." A person may forget, from the lapse
of time, and vouch for a stranger as a Master Mason, when the lodge in
which he saw him was only opened in the first or second degree.

Section V.

_Of the Right of Claiming Relief._

One of the great objects of our institution is, to afford relief to a
worthy, distressed Brother. In his want and destitution, the claim of a
Mason upon his Brethren is much greater than that of a profane. This is a
Christian as well as a masonic doctrine. "As we have therefore
opportunity," says St. Paul, "let us do good unto all men, especially
unto them who are of the household of faith."

This claim for relief he may present either to a lodge or to a Brother
Mason. The rule, as well as the principles by which it is to be regulated,
is laid down in that fundamental law of Masonry, the Old Charges, in the
following explicit words, under the head of "Behavior towards a strange
Brother:"

"You are cautiously to examine him, in such a method as prudence shall
direct you, that yo