The Mysteries of Free Masonry eBook

William Morgan
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 425 pages of information about The Mysteries of Free Masonry.

The Mysteries of Free Masonry eBook

William Morgan
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 425 pages of information about The Mysteries of Free Masonry.

Q. Has your Lodge any jewels?  A. It has; six; three movable and three immovable.

Q. What are the three movable jewels?  A. The Square, Level, and Plumb.

Q. What do they teach?  A. The Square, morality; the Level, equality; and the Plumb, rectitude of life and conduct.

Q. What are the three immovable jewels?  A. The rough Ashlar, the perfect Ashlar, and the Tressel-Board.

Q. What are they?  A. The rough Ashlar is a stone in its rough and natural state; the perfect Ashlar is also a stone, made ready by the working tools of the Fellow Craft to be adjusted in the building; and the Tressle-Board is for the master workman to draw his plans and designs upon.

Q. What do they represent?  A. The rough Ashlar represents man in his rude and imperfect state by nature; the perfect Ashlar also represents man in that state of perfection to which we all hope to arrive, by means of a virtuous life and education, our own endeavors, and the blessing of God.  In erecting our temporal building, we pursue the plans and designs laid down by the master workman on his Tressle-Board:  but in erecting our spiritual building, we pursue the plans and designs laid down by the Supreme Geometrician of the Universe, in the Book of Life, which we, Masonically, term our spiritual Tressle-Board.

Q. Who did you serve?  A. My Master.

Q. How long?  A. Six days.

Q. What did you serve him with?  A. Freedom, Fervency, and Zeal.

Q. What do they represent?  A. Chalk, Charcoal, and Earth.

Q. Why so?  A. There is nothing freer than chalk, the slightest touch of which leaves a trace behind; nothing more fervent than heated charcoal; it will melt the most obdurate metals; nothing more zealous than the earth to bring forth.

Q. How is your Lodge situated?  A. Due East and West.

Q. Why so?  A. Because the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

Q. A second reason?  A. The gospel was first preached in the East and is spreading to the West.

Q. A third reason?  A. The liberal arts and sciences began in the East and are extending to the West.

Q. A fourth reason?  A. Because all the churches and chapels are, or ought to be, so situated.

Q. Why are all churches and chapels so situated?  A. Because King Solomon’s Temple was so situated.

Q. Why was King Solomon’s Temple so situated?  A. Because Moses, after conducting the children of Israel through the Red Sea, by divine command, erected a tabernacle to God, and placed it due East and West, which was to commemorate, to the latest posterity, that miraculous East wind that wrought their mighty deliverance; and this was an exact model of Solomon’s Temple; since which time, every well regulated and governed Lodge is, or ought to be, so situated.

Q. To whom did our ancient brethren dedicate their Lodges?  A. To King Solomon.

Q. Why so?  A. Because King Solomon was our most ancient Grand Master.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Mysteries of Free Masonry from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.