by the all-devouring scythe of time, and be gathered into the land where our fathers have gone before us. THE THREE STEPS, Usually delineated upon the master's carpet, are emblematical of the three principal stages of human life, viz: youth, manhood and age. In youth, as entered apprentices, we ought industriously to occupy our minds in the attainment of useful knowledge: in manhood, as fellow crafts, we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbours, and ourselves; that so in age, as Master Masons, we may enjoy the happy reflection consequent on a well spent life, and die in the hope of a blessed immortality. AT RAISING TO THE SUBLIME DEGREE OF MASTER MASON. BROTHER: Your zeal for the institution of Masonry; the progress you have made in the mystery; and your conformity to our regulations, have pointed you out as a proper object of our favour and esteem. You are now bound by duty, honour and gratitude, to be faithful to your trust; to support the dignity of your character on every occasion; and to enforce by precept and example, obedience to the tenets of the order. In the character of a Master Mason, you are authorized to correct the errors and irregularities of your uninformed brethren, and to guard them against a breach of fidelity. To preserve the reputation of the fraternity unsullied, must be your constant care; and for this purpose, it is your pro vince to recommend to your inferiors, obedience and submission; to your equals, courtesy, and affability; to your superiors, kindness and condescension. Universal benevolence you are always to inculcate; and, by the regularity of your own behaviour, afford the best example for the conduct of others less informed. The ancient land-marks of the order entrusted to your care, you are carefully to preserve; and never suffer them to be infringed, or countenance a deviation from the established usages and customs of the fraternity. Your virtue, honour and reputation, are concerned in supporting with dignity the character you now bear. Let no motive, therefore, make you swerve from your duty, violate your vows, or betray your trust; but be true and faithful, and imitate the example of that celebrated artist, whom you this evening represent. Thus you will render yourself deserving of the honour which we have conferred, and merit the confidence that we have reposed. MARK MASTER. By the influence of this degree, each operative mason, at the erection of King Solomon's temple, was known and distinguished, by the Senior Grand Warden. If defects were found, the overseers were enabled, without difficulty, to ascertain who was the faulty workman; so that deficiencies might be remedied, without injuring the credit or diminishing the reward of the industrious and faithful of the craft. Hutchinson, treating of the building of the Temple, at Jerusalem, says: The first worshippers of the God of nature, in the nations of the east, represented the Deity by the figures of the Sun and Moon, from the influence of those heavenly bodies on the earth; professing that the universe was the temple in which the Divinity was at all times, and in all places, present. They adopted these, with other symbols, as a cautious. mode of preserving or explaining divine knowledge: but we perceive the danger arising from thence to religion; for the eye of the ignorant, the bigot, and enthusiast, cast up towards these objects, without the light of understanding, introduced the worship of images, and at length the idols of Osiris and Isis became the Gods of the Egyptians, without conveying to their devotees the least idea of their great archetype. Other nations (who had expressed the attributes of the Deity by outward objects, or who had introduced pictures into the sacred places, as ornaments, or rather to assist the memory, claim devout attention, an warm the affections) ran into the same error, and idols multiplied upon the face of the earth. Amongst the ancients, the worshippers of idols, throughout the world, had at last entirely lost the remembrance of the original, of whose attributes their images were at first merely symbols; and the second darkness in religion was more tremendous than the first, as it was strengthened by prepossession, custom, bigotry, and superstition. Moses had acquired the knowledge of the Egyptians, and derived the doctrines of truth from the righteous ones of the nations of the east; he being also touched by divine influence, and thence truly comprehending the light from out the darkness, taught the people of Israel the worship of the true God, without the enigmas and pollutions of the idolatrous nations which surrounded them. This was the second æra of the worship of the God of nature and at this period the second stage of Masonry arises. The ruler of the Jews, perceiving how prone the minds of ignorant men were to be led aside by show and ceremony; and that the eye being caught by pomp and solemn rites, perverted the opinion and led the heart astray; and being convinced that the magnificent festivals, processions, sacrifices and ceremonials of the idolatrous nations, impressed the minds of mankind with a wild degree of reverence and enthusiastic devotion, thought it expedient for the service of the God of Israel, to institute holy offices, though in a humbler and less ostentatious mode; well judging that the service and adoration of the Deity, which was only clothed in simplicity of manners, and humble prayer, must be established in the judgment and conviction of the heart of man; with which ignorance was ever waging war. In succeeding ages, Solomon built a Temple for the service of God, and ordained its rites and ceremonies to be performed with a splendour equal to the most extravagant pomp of the idolaters. |