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Article THE VISIBLE SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY , ← Page 3 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Visible Symbolism Of Freemasonry ,
divisions , to the Apprentices , Fellow-Crafts , and Master Masons of our own day ; at all events , the three divisions made by Eang Solomon , in the workmen at Jerusalem , have been adopted as the types of the three degrees now practised in Speculative Masonry ; and as such we are , therefore , to consider them . The mode in which these three divisions laboured in
constructing the Temple has been beautifully symbolized in Speculative Masonry . . ~ thus we learn from our own experience among modern workmen , who still pursue the same method , as well as from the traditions of the Order , that the implements used in the quarries were few and simple , consisting , indeed , necessarily but of two working tools , namely , the twentyfour-ineh gauge and the common gavel , or
stonecutter ' s hammer . With the former implement the Operative Mason took the necessary dimensions of the stone he was about to prepare ; and with the latter , by repeated Mows ^ skilfully applied , he broke off every unnecessary protuberance , and rendered it smooth and square , and fit to take its place in the building . And thus , in the first degree of Speculative Masonry , the E . A . P . receives these simple implements with their appropriate symbolical instruction . To the
OperativeMason , their mechanical and practical use alone is signified , and nothing more ; to the Speculative Mason , the sight of them is suggestive of far nobler and sublimer thoughts . They teach him not to measure stones , but time ; not to smoothe and polish the marble for one builder ' s use , but to purify and cleanse his heart
from every vice and imperfection that would render it unfit for a place in the spiritual temple of his body . In the alphabet of Freemasonry , therefore , the twentyfour-inch gauge is a symbol of time well employed ; the common gavel , of the purification of the heart .
Here we may pause for a moment to refer to one of those curious coincidences between the system of Masonry and those mysteries which formed so important a part of the ancient religion , and which coincidences—many more of which I shall have to present—have led the writers on this subject to the formation of a well-supported theory , that there was a common connection between them . In all these mysteries , the incipient ceremony of initiation was a lustration ,
or purification . The aspirant was not permitted to enter the sacred vestibule until , by water or by fire , lie was emblematically purified from the corruptions of the world which he was about to leave behind . I need not ., after this , do more than suggest the similarity of this formula , in principle , to Masonry , where the first symbols presented and explained to the candidate are those which inculcate
a purification of the heart , of which the purification of the body , of the mysteries , was symbolic . "We no longer use the bath or the fountain , because , in a philosophical point of view , our system is more abstract ; but we present the aspirant with the gauge and gavel as symbols of a spiritual purification . The design is the same 3 the mode only in which it 10 executed differs *
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Visible Symbolism Of Freemasonry ,
divisions , to the Apprentices , Fellow-Crafts , and Master Masons of our own day ; at all events , the three divisions made by Eang Solomon , in the workmen at Jerusalem , have been adopted as the types of the three degrees now practised in Speculative Masonry ; and as such we are , therefore , to consider them . The mode in which these three divisions laboured in
constructing the Temple has been beautifully symbolized in Speculative Masonry . . ~ thus we learn from our own experience among modern workmen , who still pursue the same method , as well as from the traditions of the Order , that the implements used in the quarries were few and simple , consisting , indeed , necessarily but of two working tools , namely , the twentyfour-ineh gauge and the common gavel , or
stonecutter ' s hammer . With the former implement the Operative Mason took the necessary dimensions of the stone he was about to prepare ; and with the latter , by repeated Mows ^ skilfully applied , he broke off every unnecessary protuberance , and rendered it smooth and square , and fit to take its place in the building . And thus , in the first degree of Speculative Masonry , the E . A . P . receives these simple implements with their appropriate symbolical instruction . To the
OperativeMason , their mechanical and practical use alone is signified , and nothing more ; to the Speculative Mason , the sight of them is suggestive of far nobler and sublimer thoughts . They teach him not to measure stones , but time ; not to smoothe and polish the marble for one builder ' s use , but to purify and cleanse his heart
from every vice and imperfection that would render it unfit for a place in the spiritual temple of his body . In the alphabet of Freemasonry , therefore , the twentyfour-inch gauge is a symbol of time well employed ; the common gavel , of the purification of the heart .
Here we may pause for a moment to refer to one of those curious coincidences between the system of Masonry and those mysteries which formed so important a part of the ancient religion , and which coincidences—many more of which I shall have to present—have led the writers on this subject to the formation of a well-supported theory , that there was a common connection between them . In all these mysteries , the incipient ceremony of initiation was a lustration ,
or purification . The aspirant was not permitted to enter the sacred vestibule until , by water or by fire , lie was emblematically purified from the corruptions of the world which he was about to leave behind . I need not ., after this , do more than suggest the similarity of this formula , in principle , to Masonry , where the first symbols presented and explained to the candidate are those which inculcate
a purification of the heart , of which the purification of the body , of the mysteries , was symbolic . "We no longer use the bath or the fountain , because , in a philosophical point of view , our system is more abstract ; but we present the aspirant with the gauge and gavel as symbols of a spiritual purification . The design is the same 3 the mode only in which it 10 executed differs *