These differences shall hereafter be considered.
The warrant having been granted, there still remain certain forms and ceremonies to be observed, before the lodge can take its place among the legal and registered lodges of the jurisdiction in which it is situated.
These are its consecration, its dedication, its constitution, and the installation of its officers.

We shall not fully enter into a description of these various ceremonies, because they are laid down at length in all the Monitors, and are readily accessible to our readers.

It will be sufficient if we barely allude to their character.
The ceremony of constitution is so called, because by it the lodge becomes constituted or established.

Orthoepists define the verb to constitute, as signifying "to give a formal existence to anything." Hence, to constitute a lodge is to give it existence, character, and standing as such; and the instrument that warrants the person so constituting or establishing it, in this act, is very properly called the "warrant of constitution." The consecration, dedication, and constitution of a lodge must be performed by the Grand Master in person; or, if he cannot conveniently attend, by some Past Master appointed by him as his special proxy or representative for that purpose.

On the appointed evening, the Grand Master, accompanied by his Grand Officers, repairs to the place where the new lodge is to hold its meetings, the lodge[29] having been placed in the centre of the room and decently covered with a piece of white linen or satin.