Q. How do you know yourself to be a Mason? A. By the regularity of my initiation, repeated trials and approbations, and a readiness at all times to undergo an examination when properly called on. Q. How shall I know you to be a Mason? A. By signs, tokens and perfect points of my entrance. Q. What are signs? A. All squares, levels and perpendiculars, and those when duly given a Mason will hail and obey. Q. To what do they serve? A. To distinguish a Mason by day. Q. What are tokens? A. Certain peculiar and friendly grips, which when reciprocally given, will distinguish a Mason by night as well as by day. Q. What are the perfect points of entrance? A Points which I am bound most carefully to conceal. A. Three are known to me. Q. I also acknowledge three, will you name them? Q. Begin then? A. Of. Q. At? A. On. Q. Explain them? A. Of, with respect to apparel. At, the door of the lodge. On, my left knee bare and bended. Q. Why are they called perfect points of entrance? A. Because they include the whole ceremony of initiation. Q. How so? A. Of, includes the whole ceremony of preparation: At, that of due admission: and On, that of a solemn obligation. SECOND CLAUSE. Q. Where were you made a Mason? A. In a lodge just, perfect and regular." Q. What do you mean by a Lodge? A. An assembly of Masons met to to expatiate on the myste ries of Freemasonry. Q. What makes it just? A. The volume of the sacred law unfolded *. Q. What makes it perfect? A. The number seven. Q. Of whom is the number composed? A. Three Masters, two Fellow-Crafts and two Entered Ap prentices. Q. Why so? Query-How can the Bible make it just ? R. C. A. That every order of Masonry may be virtually present by their representatives, to ratify and confirm the proceedings of the whole. Q. What makes it regular? A. The warrant of constitution. Q. What is the warrant of constitution? A. The sanction of the Grand Master presiding over Masons for the country in which the Lodge is held. Q. When were you made a Mason? A. When the sun was at its meridian. Q. In this country, Masons' Lodges are usually held in the evening how do you account for this which at first appears a paradox? A. The sun being a fixed body, the earth constantly revolving round it on its own axis, it necessarily follows, that the sun is always at its meridian, and Free-masonry being universally spread over its surface, it follows, as a second consequence, that the sun is always at its meridian with respect to Freemasonry*. Q. By whom were you made a Mason? the A. By the Worshipful Master, assisted by the Wardens, and in presence of the brethren assembled. Q. Where was the Master placed? A. In the East. Q. Why so? A. As the sun rises in the east, to open and enliven the day, so is the Worshipful Master placed in the east to open the Lodge and employ and instruct the brethren in Masonry. Q. Where was the junior Warden placed? A. In the south. Q. Why so? A. To mark the sun at its meridian, to call the brethren from labour to refreshment and from refreshment to labour, that profit and pleasure may be the result. Q. Where was the Senior Warden placed? A. In the West. Q. Why so? A. To mark the setting sun, to close the Lodge by the command of the Worshipful Master, after seeing that every one has his just due. Q. What do they conjointly represent? * Very true. But where your ups and downs? Wherere your heaven and hell? Where dwell your God or Gods and Devil or Devils? The above answer states a fact which pronounces religion to be founded, on error and here Masonry, on its religious pretences, contradicts itself. R. C. + We have been just told that sun is a fixed body, how then can it rise R. C. and stet? A. The sun in the three stages of its diurnal progress A. As the sun rises in the east to open the day, and dispenses light, life and nourishment to the whole creation †, it is well represented by the Worshipful Master, who is placed in the East to open the lodge, and who imparts light, knowledge and instruction to all under his direction. When it arrives at its greatest altitude in the south, where its beams are most piercing and the cool shade most refreshing, it is then also well represented by the Junior Warden, who is placed in the south to observe its approach to meridian and at the hour of noon to call the brethren from labour to refreshment. Still pursuing its course to the west, the sun at length closes the day and lulls all nature to repose; it is then fitly represented by the Senior Warden, who is placed in the west to close the Lodge by command of the Worshipful Master, after having rendered to every one the just reward of his labour, and after enabling them to enjoy that repose which is the genuine fruit of honest industry. THIRD CLAUSE. Q. Why were you made a Mason? A. For the sake of obtaining the knowledge and secrets preserved among Freemasons. Q. Where are those secrets kept? A. In their hearts. (no longer. R. C.) Q. To whom are they revealed? (to all who will read. R. C) A. To Masons and Masons alone. Q. How are they revealed? A. By signs, tokens and particular words. Q. By what means is any farther conversation held? A. By means of a key equally singular in its construction and in its operation. Q. Where is this key found? A. Within an arch of bone. Q. Where does it lie? A. It does not lie, it is suspended. Q. Why so? A. That it might be always ready to perform its office and never betray its trust through negligence. Q. What is it suspended by? A. The thread of life. Q. Why so nearly connected with the heart? A, To lock its secrets from the unworthy and to open its treasures to the deserving. Q. Of what is this key composed? * How can a fixed body make a progress Mr. Senior Warden? R. C. R. C. Pray, Mr. Senior Warden, define what you mean by whole cre-S. W. (hesitating.)-I find that I cannot. ation? A. It is not composed of metal (paper money will do) nor formed by any mortal art. Q. Explain this mystery? A. It is the tongue of good report, ever ready to protect, never to betray. Q. What are its distinguishing characteristics? A. To defend the interests of a brother in his absence, to speak favourably of him, if truth will permit, and when that cannot be done with propriety, to adopt the Mason's peculiar virtue silence. MORAL. We have now Brethren closed the first section of our Lecture, which though, it professes to embrace little more than preliminaries, will serve to teach us that the zeal of masons in the acquisition of knowledge is bounded by no space, since they travel from East to West in its pursuit, and the principles which actuate the pursuit are highly conducive to morality-namely, the attempt to rule and subdue the passions, and lastly, where candour cannot commend, their silence will at least avoid reproach. Second Sectiong FIRST CLAUSE. Q What preparation is necessary to be made a Mason? A. In the heart. Q. That being internal, how is it to be exemplified? A. By the declaration I was called on to make with respect to the motives which induced me to seek the privileges of Freemasonry. Q. Of how many parts is that declaration composed. A. Three. (N. B. This declaration is given in full in the first letter, and for that reason, omitted here. R. C.) Q. What further testimony were you required to give as a proof of the sincerity of your intentions? A. I was required to sign my name to the substance of the foregoing declaration. Q. Where did the next or external preparation take place? Q. How were you prepared? A. I was deprived of all metal and hoodwinked, my right arm, left breast and left knee made bare,my right heel slip shod, and a cable-tow put round my neck. Q. Why deprived of metal? A. That I might bring nothing offensive or defensive into the lodge, as the principles of Masonry forbidding the one renders the other unnecessary. Q. The second reason? A. To prove to me, that wealth and distinction, however valued in the world, could have no influence in procuring my admission or advancement among masons. Q. The third reason? A. To imprint on my memory the peculiarity of a circumstance which occurred at the building of the Temple of Jerusalem, under the auspices of King Solomon, inasmuch as, during the whole time, there was not the sound of axe, hammer or any other tool of brass or iron heard within the precinct of Mount Sion, to disturb the peaceful sanctity of that holy place. Q. How was this structure completed without the aid of those implements? A. The stones were hewn in the quarry, there carved, marked and numbered. The timber was felled and prepared in the forest of Lebanon and conveyed by floats from Tyre to Joppa. The metals were fused and cast on the plains of Zeredathah. After which, the whole was conveyed to Jerusalem, and there set up by means of mauls and other implements prepared for that purpose. Q. Why were the materials prepared so far off? A. The better to distinguish the excellence of the Craft; for, although the materials were prepared at so great a distance, when they came to be set up at Jerusalem, the whole appeared more like the work of the Great Architect of the Universe, than of mortal hands. Q. Why were metallic tools prohibited? A. That the temple of God might not be polluted*. Q. What is the moral inference which we derive from their prohibition. A. That our ancient and venerable institution depends not for its support and permanency on any principle of a compulsive or coersive nature, but is best cemented by the perfect union and harmony of its constituent parts. SECOND CLAUSE. Q. Why were you hoodwinked? A. In case of refusal to undergo the accustomed ceremonies in making a Mason, I might be led out of the Lodge without discovering its form.. Q. The second reason? And pray Mr. Senior Warden, why does a metallic tool pollute? You cannot make good work without them. By and by, we shall find you all but deifying the chisel. Besides, your stones and timber must have had metallic tools upon them somewhere, and pray say whether metallic tools pollute less in one place than in another? Bah! it is trash. R. C. |