Section 27

»Lee, "Orbis Miraculum," ch. ix. p. 192. London, 1G59.

Symbolism of Labor 277

the moral meaning altogether, and to affirm that the
building which was erected without 'the noise of a
hammer or axe, or any tool of iron,' was altogether a
moral building — a building of God, not made with
hands: in short, many see in the story of Solomon's
temple a symbolical representation of Man as the
temple of God, with its holy of holies deep-seated in
the centre of the human heart. "^

The French Freemasons have not been inattentive
to this symbolism. Their already quoted expression
that the ''Freemasons build temples for virtue and
dungeons for vice,'* has very clearly a reference to it, and
their most distinguished writers never lose sight of it.

Thus Ragon, one of the most learned of the French
historians of Freemasonry, in his lecture to the Appren-
tice, says that the founders of our Order "called them-
selves Freemasons, and proclaimed that they were
building a temple to truth and virtue."^ And subse-
quently he addresses the candidate who has received
the Master's degree in the following language:

"Profit by all that has been revealed to you. Im-
prove your heart and your mind. Direct your passions
to the general good; combat your prejudices; watch
over your thoughts and your actions; love, enlighten,
and assist your brethren; and you will have perfected
that temple of which you are at once the architectj the
material f and the ivorkman.''^

^Hitchcock, "Swedenborg a Hermetic Philosopher," etc., p. 210.
The object of the author is to show that the Swedish sage was an
adept, and that his writings may be interpreted from the point of
view of Hermetic philosophy.

2 "Cours Philosophique et Interpretatif des Initiations Anciennes
et Modernes," p. 99.

3 See the above, p. 176.

278 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Rebold, another French historian of great erudition,
says, *'If Freemasonry has ceased to erect temples, and
by the aid of its architectural designs to elevate all
hearts to the Deity, and all eyes and hopes to heaven,
it has not therefore desisted from its work of moral and
intellectual building;" and he thinks that the success
of the institution has justified this change of purpose
and the disruption of the speculative from the operative
character of the Order. ^

Eliphas Levi, who has written abstrusely and mys-
tically on Freemasonry and its collateral sciences, sees
very clearly an allegorical and a real design in the in-
stitution, the former being the rebuilding of the temple
of Solomon, and the latter the improvement of the
human race by a reconstruction of its social and relig-
ious elements. 2

The Freemasons of Germany have elaborated this
idea with all the exhaustiveness that is peculiar to the
German mind. The Masonic literature of that coun-
try abounds in essays, lectures, and treatises, in
which the prominent topic is this building of the
Solomonic temple as referring to the construction of a
moral temple.

Thus writes Bro. Rhode, of Berlin: "So soon as any
one has received the consecration of our Order, we say
to him that we are building a mystical temple;" and
he adds that ''this temple which we Freemasons are
building is nothing else than that which will conduce
to the greatest possible happiness of mankind."^

1 "Histoire G^nerale de la Franc-magonnerie," p. 52.

2"Histoire de la Magie," liv. v. ch. vii. p. 100.

3 Vorlesung iiber das Symbol des Tempels, in the "Jarbiichern
der Grosse, Loge Royal York zur Freundschaft," cited by Leiming,
in the "Encyclopadie," see article "Tempel." ff

Symbolism of Labor 279

Another German brother, Von Wedekind, asserts that
''we only labor in our temple when we make man our
predominating object, when we unite goodness of heart
with polished manners, truth with beauty, virtue with
grace. "^

Again, we have Reinhold telling us, in true Teutonic
expansiveness of expression, that ''by the mystical Solo-
monic temple we are to understand the high ideal or
archetype of humanity in the best possible condition
of social improvement, wherein every evil inclination is
overcome, every passion is resolved into the spirit of
love, and wherein each for all, and all for each, kindly
strive to work."^

Thus the German Freemasons call this striving for
an almost millennial result labor in the temple.

The English Freemasons, although they have not
treated the symbolism of the Order with the same ab-
struse investigation that has distinguished those of Ger-
many and France, still have not been insensible to this
idea that the building of the Solomonic temple is in-
tended to indicate a cultivation of the human character.
Thus Hutchinson, one of the earliest of the symbolic
writers of England, shows a very competent conception
— for the age in which he lived — of the mystical mean-
ing of the temple ; and later writers have improved upon
his crude views.

It must, however, be acknowledged that neither
Hutchinson nor Oliver, nor any other of the distin-
guished Masonic writers of England, has dwelt on this
peculiar symbolism of a moral temple with that earnest

^ In an Essay on the Masonic Idea of Man's Destination, cited
by Lenning, in the "Encyclopadie," from the Altenburg Zeitschift
der Freimaurerei.

2 Cited by Lenning in the "Encyclopadie."

280 Symbolism of Freemasonry

appreciation of the idea that is to be found in the works
of the French and German Freemasons. But although
the allusions are rather casual and incidental, yet the
symbolic theory is evidently recognized.

Thus Dr. Oliver, while treating of the relation of the
temple to the Lodge, thus briefly alludes to this impor-
tant symbol: *'As our ancient brethren erected a ma-
terial temple, without the use of axe, hammer, or metal
tool, so is our moral temple constructed."^

Our own country has produced many students of
Masonic symbolism, who have thoroughly grasped this
noble thought, and treated it with eloquence and
erudition.

Many years ago Salem Towne wrote thus: *' Specu-
lative Freemasonry, according to present acceptation,
has an ultimate reference to that spiritual building
erected by virtue in the heart, and summarily implies
the arrangement and perfection of those holy and sub-
lime principles by which the soul is fitted for a meet
temple of God in a world of immortality. "^

Charles Scott has devoted one of the lectures in his
Analogy of Ancient Craft Masonry to Natural and Re-
vealed Religion to a thorough consideration of this sub-
ject. The language is too long for quotation, but the
symbol has been well interpreted by him.^

Bro. John A. Lodor has also treated the topic in an
essay, which we regret has not had a larger circulation.
A single and brief passage may show the spirit of the
production, and how completely it sustains the idea of
this symbolism.

1 Oliver, "Historical Landmarks," lect. xxxi.

2 "System of Speculative Masonry," ch. vi. p. 63.

3 "On the Speculative Temple" — an essay read in 1861 before
the Grand Lodge of Alabama.

Symbolism of Labor 281

"We may disguise it as we will/^ says Bro. Lodor, "we
may evade a scrutiny of it ; but our character, as it is, with
its faults and blemishes, its weaknesses and infirmities,
its vices and its stains, together with its redeeming
traits, its better parts, is our speculative temple.'^

He goes on to extend the symbolic idea: "Like the
exemplar temple on Mount Moriah, it should be pre-
served as a hallowed shrine, and guarded with the same
vigilant care. It should be our pearl of price set round
with walls and enclosures, even as was the Jewish temple,
and the impure, the vicious, the guilty, and the pro-
fane be banished from even its outer courts. A faithful
sentinel should be placed at every gate, a watchman on
every wall, and the first approach of a cowan and eaves-
dropper be promptly met and resisted.''

Teachings like this are now so common that every
American Freemason who has studied the symbolism
of his Order believes, with Carlyle, that "there is but
one temple in the world, and that is the body of man."

This inquiry into the meaning and object of labor, as
a Masonic symbol, brings us to these conclusions: — •

1. That our ancient brethren worked as long as
the operative art predominated in the institution at
material temples, the most prominent of these being
the temple of King Solomon.

2. That when the speculative science took the place
of the operative art, the modern Freemasons, working
no longer at material temples, but holding still to the
sacred thought, the reverential idea, of a holy temple,
a Lord's house to be built, began to labor at living
temples, and to make man, the true house of the Lord,
the tabernacle for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

3. To every Freemason who rightly comprehends his
art, this construction of a living temple is his labor.

282 Symbolism of Freemasonry

''Labor," says Gadicke, the German Masonic lexi-
cographer, "is an important word in Freemasonry; in-
deed, we might say the most important. For this, and
this alone, does a man become a Freemason. Every
other object is secondary or incidental. Labor is the
accustomed design of every Lodge meeting. But does
such meeting always furnish evidence of industry?

''The labor of an operative workman will be visible,
and he will receive his reward for it, even though the
building he has constructed may, in the next hour, be
overthrown by a tempest. He knows that he has done
his labor.

"So must the Freemason labor. His labor must be
visible to himself and to his brethren, or, at least, it
must conduce to his own internal satisfaction. As we
build neither a visible Solomonic temple nor an Egyp-
tian pyramid, our industry must become visible in works
that are imperishable, so that when we vanish from the
eyes of mortals it may be said of us that our labor
was well done."

Remembering what the apostle has said, that we are
the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in us, we know that our labor is so to build that temple
that it shall become worthy of its divine Dweller.

Thus, too, at last, we can understand the saying of
the old monks that "labor is worship;" and as Free-
masons we labor in our Lodge, labor to make ourselves
a perfect building, without blemish, working hopefully
for the consummation, when the house of our earthly
tabernacle shall be finished, when the lost word of
divine truth shall at last be discovered, and when we
shall be found by our own efforts at perfection to have
done God service. For so truly is the meaning of those
noble words — Labor is Worship.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Stone of Foundation

THE Stone of Foundation constitutes one of the
most important and abstruse of all the symbols
of Freemasonry. It is referred to in numerous
legends and traditions, not only of the Freemasons, but
also of the Jewish Rabbins, the Talmudic writers, and
even the Mussulman doctors.

Many of these, it must be confessed, are apparently
puerile and absurd; but some of them, and especially
the Masonic ones, are deeply interesting in their alle-
gorical signification.

The stone of foundation is, properly speaking, a sym-
bol of the higher degrees. It makes its first appearance
in the Royal Arch, and forms, indeed, the most impor-
tant symbol of that degree. But it is so intimately
connected, in its legendary history, with the construction
of the Solomonic temple, that it must be considered as a
part of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, although he who con-
fines the range of his investigations to the first three
degrees, will have no means, within that narrow limit,
of properly appreciating the symbolism of the stone of
foundation.

As preliminary to the inquiry which is about to be
instituted, it is necessary to distinguish the stone of
foundation, both in its symbolism and in its legendary

283

284 Symbolism of Freemasonry

history, from other stones which play an important part
in the Masonic ritual, but which are entirely distinct
from it.

Such are the corner-stone, which was always placed in
the north-east corner of the building about to be erected,
and to which such a beautiful reference is made in the
ceremonies of the first degree; or the keystone, which
constitutes an interesting part of the Mark Master's
degree; or, lastly, the cap-stone, or cope-stone, upon
which all the ritual of the Most Excellent Master's de-
gree is founded.

These are all, in their proper places, highly interest-
ing and instructive symbols, but have no connection
whatever with the stone of foundation or its symbolism.
Nor, although the stone of foundation is said, for pe-
culiar reasons, to have been of a cubical form, must it
be confounded with that stone called by the continen-
tal Freemasons the cubical stone — the pierre cuhique of
the French, and the cuhik stein of the German Free-
masons, but which in the English system is known as
the perfect ashlar.

The stone of foundation has a legendary history and
a symbolic signification which are peculiar to itself, and
which differ from the history and meaning which be-
long to these other stones.

Let us first define this Masonic Stone of Foundation,
then collate the legends which refer to it, and after-
wards investigate its significance as a symbol. To
the Freemason who takes a pleasure in the study of
the mysteries of his institution, the investigation can-
not fail to be interesting, if it is conducted with any
ability.

But in the very beginning, as a necessary preliminary
to any investigation of this kind, it must be distinctly

Stone of Foundation 285

understood that all that is said of this stone of founda-
tion in Freemasonry is to be strictly taken in a mythi-
cal or allegorical sense.

Dr. Oliver, one of the most learned of our Masonic
writers, while undoubtedly himself knowing that it was
simply a symbol, has written loosely of it, as though
it were a substantial reality. Hence, if the passages
in his Historical Landmarksy and in his other works
which refer to this celebrated stone are accepted by his
readers in a literal sense, they will present absurdities
and puerilities which would not occur if the stone of
foundation was received, as it really is, as a philosoph-
ical myth, conveying a most profound and beautiful
symbolism.

Read in this spirit, as all the legends of Masonry
should be read, the mythical story of the Stone of Foun-
dation becomes one of the most important and inter-
esting of all the Masonic symbols.

The stone of foundation is supposed, by the theory
which establishes it, to have been a stone placed at one
time within the foundations of the temple of Solomon,
and afterwards, during the building of the second tem-
ple, transported to the holy of holies. It was in form
a perfect cube, and had inscribed upon its upper face,
within a delta or triangle, the sacred tetragrammaton,
or ineffable name of God.

Oliver, speaking with the solemnity of a historian,
says that Solomon thought that he had rendered the
house of God worthy, so far as human adornment could
effect, for the dwelling of God, ''when he had placed
the celebrated Stone of Foundation, on which the sacred
name was mystically engraven, with solemn ceremonies,
in that sacred depository on Mount Moriah, along with
the foundations of Dan and Asher, the centre of the Most

286 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Holy Place, where the ark was overshadowed by the
shekinah of God."*

The Hebrew Talmudists, who thought as much of
this stone, and had as many legends concerning it as
the Masonic Talmudists, called it eben shatijah,^ or
''Stone of Foundation," because, as they said, it had
been laid by Jehovah as the foundation of the world;
and hence the apocryphal book of Enoch speaks of the
''stone which supports the corners of the earth."

This idea of a foundation stone of the world was most
probably derived from that magnificent passage of the
Book of Job, in which the Almighty demands of the
afflicted patriarch,

Where wast thou, when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Declare, since thou hast such knowledge!

Who fixed its dimensions, since thou knowest?

Or who stretched out the line upon it?

Upon what were its foundations fixed?

And who laid its corner-stone,

When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy? ^

Noyes, whose beautiful translation we have adopted
as not materially differing from the common version,
but which is far more poetical and more in the strain of
the original, thus explains the allusions to the founda-
tion stone: *'It was the custom to celebrate the laying
of the corner-stone of an important building with music,
songs, shouting, etc. Hence the morning stars are rep-
resented as celebrating the laying of the corner-stone of
the earth."*

1 "Historical Landmarks," i. 459, note 52.

^n'l'^n'O "JIX. See the Gemara and Buxtorf "Lexicon Talmu-
dicum", p. 2541.

3 Job xxxviii. 4-7.

^ A new translation of the Book of Job, notes, p. 196.

Stone of Foundation 287

Upon this meagre statement have been accumulated
more traditions than appertain to any other Masonic
symbol. The Rabbins, as has already been intimated,
divide the glory of these apocryphal histories with the
Freemasons; indeed, there is good reason for a suspicion
that nearly all the Masonic legends owe their first
existence to the imaginative genius of the writers of the
Jewish Talmud.

But there is this difference between the Hebrew and
the Masonic traditions, that the Talmudic scholar re-
cited them as truthful histories, and swallowed, in
one gulp of faith, all their impossibilities and anachro-
nisms, while the Masonic student has received them as
allegories, whose value is not in the facts, but in the
sentiments which they convey.