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Article SYMBOLISM OP THE SHOCK. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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Symbolism Op The Shock.
The world is left behind ; the chaias of error and ignorance , which heretofore have restrained the candidate in moral captivity , are to be broken ; the portal of the temple has been widely opened , and Masonry stands before him in all the glory of its form and beauty .
Shall this momentous occasion be passed unnoticed ? Shall this great event— -the first in the Masonic life of the aspirant—have no visible or audible record ? Shall th-p entrance for the first time into the Lodge—the birth , as it has been well called , into Masonry—be symbolized by no outward sign ? Shall the symbolism of the science , ever ready at alt other times with its beautiful teachings , here only be dumb and senseless ? Or , rather , shall not all the Sons of Light
who witness the impressive scene feel like the children of Korah , who , when released from the captivity of Babylon and once more returning to the Temple , exclaimed , in the fulness of their grateful joy : " 0 clap your hands all ye people ; shout unto Crod with the voice of triumph " ( Psalm xlviii ) . The Shock of Entrance is , then , the symbol of the disruption of the candidate from the ties of the world , and his introduction into the life of Masonry . It is the symbol of the agonies of the first death , and of * the throes of the new birth .
2 . The Shock of Enlightenment . But there is another shock , which , from the time , and place , and circumstances connected , wdth it , may be designated as the Shock of Enlightenment . Its symbolism is somewhat different from that of the former ; rather , however , as to the matter symbolized , than as to the manner in which it is effected . The material light , brought forth at the feet of the Great Architect of the Universe , when darkness and chaos were dispersed ,
has ever been , in our Order , a favourite symbol of that intellectual illumination which it is the object of Freemasonry to create in the minds of its disciples—whence we have justly assumed the title of the " Sons of Light . " This mental illumination of Masonry— -this spiritual light , which , after his new birth , is the first demand of the candidate—is , we all know , but another name for divine truth—the
truth of Grod and the soul , the nature and essence of both which constitute the chief design of all Masonic teaching . And as the chaos and confusion in which , "in the beginning , " the earth , " without form and void , " was enwrapt , were dispersed as they sat
brooding over the abyss , and order and beauty were established by the Supreme command which created material light ; so at the proper declaration , and in the one and recognized form , tlie intellectual chaos and confusion in which the mind of the neophyte is involved are dispersed ; and the due knowledge of the science and philosophy ¦ —the faith and doctrine of Masonry—aro developed .
But what mind can conceive , or what pen portray that terrible convulsion of nature , that awful disentanglement of its elements , which must have accompanied the divine command and its immediate result , " Let there be light , and there was light" ? The attempt to describe it would be a futile task—it would be a pre-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Symbolism Op The Shock.
The world is left behind ; the chaias of error and ignorance , which heretofore have restrained the candidate in moral captivity , are to be broken ; the portal of the temple has been widely opened , and Masonry stands before him in all the glory of its form and beauty .
Shall this momentous occasion be passed unnoticed ? Shall this great event— -the first in the Masonic life of the aspirant—have no visible or audible record ? Shall th-p entrance for the first time into the Lodge—the birth , as it has been well called , into Masonry—be symbolized by no outward sign ? Shall the symbolism of the science , ever ready at alt other times with its beautiful teachings , here only be dumb and senseless ? Or , rather , shall not all the Sons of Light
who witness the impressive scene feel like the children of Korah , who , when released from the captivity of Babylon and once more returning to the Temple , exclaimed , in the fulness of their grateful joy : " 0 clap your hands all ye people ; shout unto Crod with the voice of triumph " ( Psalm xlviii ) . The Shock of Entrance is , then , the symbol of the disruption of the candidate from the ties of the world , and his introduction into the life of Masonry . It is the symbol of the agonies of the first death , and of * the throes of the new birth .
2 . The Shock of Enlightenment . But there is another shock , which , from the time , and place , and circumstances connected , wdth it , may be designated as the Shock of Enlightenment . Its symbolism is somewhat different from that of the former ; rather , however , as to the matter symbolized , than as to the manner in which it is effected . The material light , brought forth at the feet of the Great Architect of the Universe , when darkness and chaos were dispersed ,
has ever been , in our Order , a favourite symbol of that intellectual illumination which it is the object of Freemasonry to create in the minds of its disciples—whence we have justly assumed the title of the " Sons of Light . " This mental illumination of Masonry— -this spiritual light , which , after his new birth , is the first demand of the candidate—is , we all know , but another name for divine truth—the
truth of Grod and the soul , the nature and essence of both which constitute the chief design of all Masonic teaching . And as the chaos and confusion in which , "in the beginning , " the earth , " without form and void , " was enwrapt , were dispersed as they sat
brooding over the abyss , and order and beauty were established by the Supreme command which created material light ; so at the proper declaration , and in the one and recognized form , tlie intellectual chaos and confusion in which the mind of the neophyte is involved are dispersed ; and the due knowledge of the science and philosophy ¦ —the faith and doctrine of Masonry—aro developed .
But what mind can conceive , or what pen portray that terrible convulsion of nature , that awful disentanglement of its elements , which must have accompanied the divine command and its immediate result , " Let there be light , and there was light" ? The attempt to describe it would be a futile task—it would be a pre-