Section 9

But the Operative Craft was, in the inception of our
history, and is, in some measure, even now, the skeleton
upon which was strung the living muscles, and tendons,
and nerves of the speculative system. It was the block
of marble — rude and unpolished it may have been —
from which was sculptured the life-breathing statue.

"Thus did our wise Grand Master contrive a plan,
by mechanical and practical allusions to instruct the
craftsmen in principles of the most sublime speculative
philosophy, tending to the glory of God, and to secure
to them temporal blessings here and eternal life here-
after, as well as to unite the speculative and operative
Freemasons, thereby forming a twofold advantage,
from the principles of geometry and architecture on the
one part, and the precepts of wisdom and ethics on the
other."i

The Speculative Craft (which is but another name for
Freemasonry in its modern acceptation) may be briefly

^Calcott, "Candid Disquisition," p. 31, edition of 1769.

Speculative Science and Operative Art 85

defined as the scientific application and the reHgious
consecration of the rules and principles, the language,
the implements and materials of Operative Freema-
sonry to the veneration of God, the purification of
the heart, and the teaching of the dogmas of a religious
philosophy.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Symbolism of Solomon^s Temple

E have said that the operative art is sym-
boHzed — that is to say, used as a symbol — in
the speculative science. Let us now inquire,
as the subject of the present essay, how this is done in
reference to a system of symbolism dependent for its
construction on types and figures derived from the
temple of Solomon, and which we therefore call the
''Temple Symbolism of Freemasonry."
I Bearing in mind that Speculative Freemasonry dates
its origin from the building of King Solomon's temple
by Jewish and Tyrian artisans,^ the first important fact
that attracts the attention is, that the Operative Free-
masons at Jerusalem were engaged in the construction
of an earthly and material temple, to be dedicated to
the service and worship of God — a house in which
Jehovah was to dwell visibly by His Shekinah, and

t whence He was, by the Urim and Thummim, to send
forth His oracles for the government and direction of
His chosen people.
^ Now, the operative art having, jor us, ceased, we, as
Speculative Freemasons, symbolize the labors of our

* This proposition we ask to be conceded; the evidences of its
truth are, however, abundant, were it necessary to produce them.
The Craft, generally, will, we presume, assent to it.

86

Symbolism of Solomon's Temple 87

predecessors by engaging in the construction of a spirit-
ual temple in our hearts, pure and spotless, fit for the
dwelling-place of Him who is the Author of purity — a
place where God is to be worshipped in spirit and in
truth, and whence every evil thought and unruly pas-
sion is to be banished, as the sinner and the Gentile
were excluded from the sanctuary of the Jewish temple.

This spiritualizing of the temple of Solomon is the
j&rst, the most prominent and most pervading of all
the symbolic instructions of Freemasonry. It is the
link that binds the operative and speculative divisions
of the Order. This it is which gives it religious character.
Take from Freemasonry its dependence on the temple,
leave out of its ritual all reference to that sacred edifice
and to the legends connected with it, and the system
itself must at once decay and die, or at best remain
only as some fossilized bone, imperfectly to show the
nature of the living body to which it once belonged.

Temple worship is in itself an ancient type of the
religious sentiment in its progress towards spiritual ele-
vation. As soon as a nation emerged, in the world's
progress, out of fetichism, or the worship of visible
objects — the most degraded form of idolatry — its people
began to establish a priesthood and to erect temples.

The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned

To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,

And spread the roof above them — ere he framed

The lofty vault, to gather and roll back

The sound of anthems — in the darkling wood,

Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down,

And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks

And supplication. — Bryant.

The Scandinavians, the Celts, the Egyptians, and the
Greeks, however much they may have differed in the

88 Symbolism of Freemasonry

ritual and the objects of their polytheistic worship, all
were possessed of priests and temples.

The Jews first constructed their tabernacle, or port-
able temple. Then, when time and opportunity per-
mitted, they transferred their monotheistic worship to
that more permanent edifice which is now the subject
of our contemplation. The mosque of the Moham-
medan and the church or the chapel of the Christian
are but embodiments of the same idea of temple worship
in a simpler form.

The adaptation, therefore, of the material temple to
a science of symbolism would be an easy, and by no
means a novel task, to both the Jewish and the Tyrian
minds. Doubtless at its original conception the idea
was rude and unembellished, to be perfected and
polished only by future aggregations of succeeding in-
tellects. Yet no Biblical scholar will venture to deny
that there was in the mode of building, and in all the
circumstances connected with the construction of King
Solomon's temple, an apparent design to establish a
foundation for symbolism.

Theologians have always given a spiritual application
to the temple of Solomon, referring it to the mysteries
of the Christian dispensation. For this, consult all the
Biblical commentators. But we may particularly men-
tion, on this subject, Bunysm's Solomon^ s Temple Spirit-
ualized, and a rare work in folio, by Samuel Lee, Fellow
of Wadham College, Oxford, published at London in
1659, and entitled Orbis Miraculum, or the Temple of
Solomon portrayed by Scripture Light. This scarce work
treats very learnedly of ''the spiritual mysteries of the
gospel veiled under the temple."

We propose now to illustrate, by a few examples,
the method in which the Speculative Freemasons have

Symbolism of Solomon's Temple 89

appropriated this design of King Solomon to their
own use.

To construct his earthly temple, the operative work-
man followed the architectural designs laid down on
the trestle-board, or tracing-board, or book of plans of the
architect. By these he hewed and squared his ma-
terials; by these he raised his walls; by these he con-
structed his arches; and by these strength and dura-
bility, combined with grace and beauty, were bestowed
upon the edifice which he was erecting.

The trestle-board becomes, therefore, one of our ele-
mentary symbols. For in the Masonic ritual the Spec-
ulative Freemason is reminded that, as the operative
artist erects his temporal building, in accordance with
the rules and designs laid down on the trestle-board of
the master workman, so should he erect that spiritual
building, of which the material is a type, in obedience
to the rules and designs, the precepts and commands,
laid down by the Grand Architect of the Universe in
those great books of nature and revelation which con-
stitute the spiritual trestle-board of every Freemason.

The trestle-board is, then, the symbol of the natural
and moral law. Like every other symbol of the Order,
it is universal and tolerant in its application. While,
as Christian Freemasons, we cling with unfaltering in-
tegrity to that explanation which makes the Scriptures
of both dispensations our trestle-board, we permit our
Jewish and Mohammedan brethren to content them-
selves with the books of the Old Testament, or the
Koran.

Freemasonry does not interfere with the peculiar form
or development of any one's religious faith. All that
it asks is that the interpretation of the symbol shall be
according to what each one supposes to be the revealed

90 Symbolism of Freemasonry

will of his Creator. But so rigidly exacting is it that
the symbol shall be preserved, and, in some rational
way, interpreted, that it peremptorily excludes the
atheist from its communion, because, believing in no
Supreme Being, no divine Architect, he must neces-
sarily be without a spiritual trestle-board on which the
designs of that Being may be inscribed for his direction.

But the operative workman required materials where-
with to construct his temple. There was, for instance,
the rough ashlar — the stone in its rude and natural
state — unformed and unpolished, as it had been lying
in the quarries of Tyre from the foundation of the earth.
This stone was to be hewed and squared, to be fitted
and adjusted, by simple, but appropriate implements,
until it became a perfect ashlar, or well-finished stone,
ready to take its destined place in the building.

Here, again, in these materials do we find other ele-
mentary symbols. The rough and unpoHshed stone is
a symbol of man's natural state — ignorant, unculti-
vated, and, as the Roman historian expresses it, "grovel-
ling to the earth, like the beasts of the field, and obe-
dient to every sordid appetite."^ But when education
has exerted its salutary influences in expanding the
intellect of man, in restraining his hitherto unruly
passions, and purifying his life, he is then represented
by the perfect ashlar, or finished stone, which, under the
skillful hands of the workman, has been smoothed,
squared, and fitted for its appropriate place in the
building.

Here an interesting circumstance in the history of the
preparation of these materials has been seized and
beautifully appropriated by our symbolic science. We

* Veluti pecora, quae natura finxit prona et obedientia ventri. —
Sallust, "Bell. Catil." i.

Symbolism of Solomon's Temple 91

learn from the account of the temple, contained in the
First Book of Kings, that *The house, when it was in
building, was built of stone, made ready before it was
brought thither, so that there was neither hammer nor
axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it
was in building/'^

Now, this mode of construction, undoubtedly adopted
to avoid confusion and discord among so many thou-
sand workmen,^ has been selected as an elementary
symbol of concord and harmony — virtues which are
not more essential to the preservation and perpetuity
of our own society than they are to that of every human
association.

The perfect ashlar, therefore, — the stone thus fitted
for its appropriate position in the temple, — becomes not
only a symbol of human perfection (in itself, of course,
only a comparative term), but also, when we refer to
the mode in which it was prepared, of that species of
perfection which results from the concord and union
of men in society. It is, in fact, a symbol of the social
character of the institution.

There are other elementary symbols, to which we
may hereafter have occasion to revert; the three, how-
ever, already described — the rough ashlar, the perfect
ashlar, and the trestle-board — and which, from their
importance, have received the name of '^jewels," will
be sufficient to give some idea of the nature of what
may be called the "symbolic alphabet^' of Freemasonry.

* 1 Kings, vi. 7.

' In further illustration of the wisdom of these temple con-
trivances, it may be mentioned that, by marks placed upon the
materials which had been thus prepared at a distance, the individ-
ual production of every Craftsman was easily ascertained, and the
means were provided of rewarding merit and punishing indolence.

92 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Let us now proceed to a brief consideration of the
method in which this alphabet of the science is appHed
to the more elevated and more abstruse portions of the
system, and which, as the temple constitutes its most
important type, we have chosen to call the ''Temple
Symbolism of Freemasonry."

Both Scripture and tradition inform us that, at the
building of King Solomon's temple, the workmen were
divided into various classes, each engaged in a separate
and distinct task. We learn, from the Second Book of
Chronicles, that these classes were the bearers of bur-
dens, the hewers of stones, and the overseers, called by
the old Masonic writers the Ish Sahaly the Ish Chotzeb^
and the Menatzchim. Now, without pretending to say
that the modern institution has preserved precisely the
same system of regulations as that which was observed
at the temple, we shall certainly find a similarity in
these divisions to the Apprentices, Fellow Crafts and
Master Masons of our own day.

At all events, the three divisions made by King
Solomon in the workmen at Jerusalem have been
adopted as the types of the three degrees now practised
in Speculative Freemasonry. As such we are therefore
to consider them. The mode in which these three
divisions of workmen labored in constructing the temple,
has been beautifully symbolized in Speculative Free-
masonry, and constitutes an important and interesting
part of temple symbolism.

Thus we know from our own experience among mod-
ern workmen who still pursue the same method, as
well as from the traditions of the Order, that the im-
plements used in the quarries were few and simple, the
work there requiring necessarily, indeed, but two tools,
namely, the twenty-four inch gauge, or two-foot rule,

Symbolism of Solomon's Temple 93

and the common gavel, or stone-cutter's hammer. With
the former implement, the operative workman took the
necessary dimensions of the stone he was about to
prepare, and with the latter, by repeated blows, skill-
fully applied, he broke off every unnecessary projec-
tion, and rendered it smooth and square, and fit to
take its place in the building.

Thus, in the first degree of Speculative Freemasonry,
the Entered Apprentice receives these simple imple-
ments, as the emblematic working tools of his profes-
sion, with their appropriate symbolical instruction. To
the operative workman their mechanical and practical
use alone is signified, and nothing more of value does
their presence convey to his mind. To the Speculative
Freemason the sight of them is suggestive of far nobler
and sublimer thoughts; they teach him to measure,
not stones, but time; not to smooth and polish the
marble for the 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 symbolic alphabet of Freemasonry, therefore,
the twenty-four 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
the coincidences between Freemasonry and those Mys-
teries* which formed so important a part of the ancient
religions, and which coincidences have led the writers

* "Each of the pagan gods had (besides the public and open cere-
monies) a secret worship paid unto him; to which none were admitted
but those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies, called
Initiation. This secret worship was termed the Mysteries." —
Warburton, "Divine Legation," I. i. p. 189.

94 Symbolism of Freemasonry

on this subject to the formation of a well-supported the-
ory that there was a common connection between them.

The coincidence to which we shall at present allude
is this: in all these Mysteries, the incipient ceremony
of initiation, the first step taken by the candidate was
a lustration or purification. The aspirant was not per-
mitted to enter the sacred vestibule, or take any part
in the secret formula of initiation, until by water or by
fire he was emblematically purified from the corruptions
of the world which he was about to leave behind. We
need not after this do more than suggest the similarity
of this formula in principle to a corresponding one in
Freemasonry, where the first symbols presented to the
Apprentice are those which inculcate a purification of
the heart, of which the purification of the body in the
ancient Mysteries was symbolic.

We no longer use the bath or the fountain, because in
our philosophical system the symbolization is more
abstract, if we may use the term; but we present the
aspirant with the lambskin apron, the gauge, and the
gavel, as symbols of a spiritual purification. The de-
sign is the same, but the mode in which it is accom-
pHshed is different.

Let us now resume our studies of the connected series
of temple symbolism.

At the building of the temple, the stones having been
thus prepared by the workmen of the lowest degree (the
Apprentices, as we now call them, the aspirants of the
ancient Mysteries), we are informed that they were
transported to the site of the edifice on Mount Moriah,
and there placed in the hands of another class of work-
men, who are now technically called the Fellow Crafts,
and who correspond to the Mystes, or those who had
received the second degree of the ancient Mysteries.

Symbolism of Solomon's Temple 95

At this stage of the operative work more extensive and
important labors were to be performed, and accordingly
a greater amount of skill and knowledge was required
of those to whom these labors were intrusted.

The stones, having been prepared by the Appren-
tices^ (for hereafter, in speaking of the workmen of the
temple, we shall use the equivalent appellations of the
more modern Masons) were now to be deposited in their
destined places, and the massive walls erected.

For these purposes implements of a higher and more
complicated character than the gauge and gavel were
necessary. The square was required to fit the joints
with sufficient accuracy, the level to run the courses in
a horizontal line, and the plumb to erect the whole
structure with due regard to perfect perpendicularity.
This portion of the labor finds its symbolism in the
second degree of the speculative science, and in applying
this symbolism we still continue to refer to the idea of
erecting a spiritual temple in the heart.