Grand Lodge of Florida
Masonic Education
General Publications
Every candidate is a stranger to Freemasonry, and Freemasonry is a stranger to him. It is not merely a Lodge that he joins, but a great Fraternity - with over 45,900 members and more than 291 Lodges in his own state; 1.3 million members and more than 11,000 Lodges in this country; other thousands of Lodges and tens of thousands of members throughout the world. Countless methods have been devised for the education of newly-made Brethren and under favorable conditions they often proved successful; but in the majority of cases they have been marked by two internal, serious weaknesses: First, they have been sporadic, uncertain, and have left it to the candidate to seek their aid of their own free will, thereby bringing it about that those who most need instruction have not received it; Second, they have been conducted by volunteers or by some organization set up independently of the Lodge, and thereby lacked its stability and official sanction.
The System here recommended is strongest at just these two points where others are weakest; for it, first, takes in every candidate, automatically and without exception; and second, it is an enterprise of the Lodge itself, officially under the direct control of the Master, a regular, recognized, and continuing part of the Lodge’s own proper work.