Of the Officers of a Subordinate Lodge - Section IV Of Adjournments.

from the book "THE PRINCIPLES OF MASONIC LAW"
A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages And Landmarks of Freemasonry
by Dr.Albert Gallatin Mackey, 1856


Adjournment is a term not recognized in Masonry. There are but two ways in which the communication of a lodge can be terminated, and these are either by closing the lodge, or by calling from labor to refreshment. In the former case the business of the communication is finally disposed of until the next communication, in the latter the lodge is still supposed to be open and may resume its labors at any time indicated by the Master.

But both the time of closing the lodge and of calling it from labor to refreshment is to be determined by the absolute will and the free judgment of the Worshipful Master, to whom alone is intrusted the care of "setting the craft to work and giving them wholesome instruction for labor." He alone is responsible to the Grand Master and the Grand Lodge, that his lodge shall be opened, continued and closed in harmony, and as it is by his "will and pleasure" only that it is opened, so is it by his "will and pleasure" only that it can be closed. Any attempt, therefore, on the part of the lodge to entertain a motion for adjournment would be an infringement of this prerogative of the Master. Such a motion is, therefore, always out of order and cannot be, and cannot be acted on.

The rule that a lodge cannot adjourn, but remain in session until closed by the Master, derives an authoritative sanction also from the following clause in the fifth of the Old Charges, "All Masons employed shall meekly receive their wages without murmuring or mutiny and not desert the Master till the work is finished."