Book is required. We dare assert that neither the Con¬

stitution, Regulations, nor Ritual of any Grand Lodge in the world requires a belief in the teachings of the Bible unless it be the Masonry of Scandinavian Europe. When
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 47
we say that the Bible is “the rule and guide to our faith” we mean that what it typifies, Truth, should be the rule and guide to all our beliefs, thoughts, words and actions.
Some Masons and Grand Lodges (notably Tennessee) insist that one to be entitled to recognition as a Mason must specifically acknowledge God's “inspired word,” or, as one distinguished Mason expresses it, a Mason may “believe as he pleases so long as he believes in one true and living God and accepts the Holy Bible as His divine teachings and His revealed will/' These brethren thus broadly commit themselves to the Christian doctrine of inspiration of the Bible. Would they compel Jewish Ma¬ sons to believe this of the New Testament? Jews do not even believe that all of the Old Testament is inspired. But a further question is. What theory of inspiration would they compel belief in, (i) that of mechanical dic¬ tation or verbal inspiration, or (2) that of dynamic influ¬ ence or degrees of inspiration, or (3) that of essential inspiration, or (4) that of vital inspiration? For the¬ ologians have contended for each of these. Do these zealous brethren recognise Thomas Aquinas' distinction between direct and indirect inspiration ? Are the Hebrew Masons to be allowed to accept the “descending scale of inspiration” taught by the Jewish rabbis, namely, super¬ intendence, elevation, direction, suggestion? Any one who will make a little study of this doctrine of inspira¬ tion will soon realise on what treacherous sands of the¬ ological dogma Masonry will find itself should it ever attempt to enforce belief that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
There is but one escape from this jungle of dogmatism and that is frankly to acknowledge. the Bible to be a symbol only. Those Christian Masons who would enforce belief in the teachings of the Bible have simply mistaken the symbol for the thing itself. The Bible is Masonry's
48 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
adopted symbol of Divine Truth in every form, just as the Compasses are its adopted symbol of self-restraint; the Square, of morality; and the Scythe, of time. The Bible symbolises that divine truth or knowledge from whatever source derived, which should always be the rule and guide both to our faith and conduct. Thus viewed there is no reason why any man, whatever be his faith, should object to the Bible on the altar or to being obligated on the Bible. On the other hand, there is no reason why a candidate may not be obligated on that book which is to him the most sacred, the Bible being displayed the while precisely as are the Square and Compasses.
APRON
We are told that the lambskin or white leather apron, the badge of a Mason, is ‘^more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle, more honourable than the Star and Garter.” This sounds a little bombastic, we must admit, yet it is literally true. The Order of the Golden Fleece, which is here referred to, had its origin in A.D. 1429; the Roman Eagle, which was Rome's ensign of imperial power, became distinctively such, according to Pliny, no earlier than the second consulship of Gaius Marius or about 105 years B.C. On the other hand, it is certain that the apron was worn as a badge of honour or sanctity more than a thousand years before Christ. The Garter is confessedly the most illustrious order of knighthood in England, and is historically identified with the chivalry of the Middle Ages. But for this very reason, it, like all the other orders of chivalric knighthood, was, as has been said by high authority, George Gordon Coul- ton,^^ “hampered by the limitations of mediaeval society.” Edward A. Freeman, the great English historian, who
14 Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XV, p. 858.
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 4>9
has perhaps most nearly defined the spirit and influence of knighthood, says :
“The chivalrous spirit is above all things a class spirit. The good knight is bound to endless fantastic courtesies towards men and still more towards women of a certain rank; he may treat all below that rank with any degree of scorn and cruelty. The spirit of chivalry implies the arbitrary choice of one or two virtues to be practised in such an exaggerated degree as to become vices, while the ordinary laws of right and wrong are forgotten. The false code of honour supplants the laws of the commonwealth, the law of God and the eternal principles. Chivalry again in its military aspect not only encourages the love of war for its own sake without regard to the cause for which war is waged, it encourages also an ex¬ travagant regard for a fantistic show of personal daring which can not in any way advance the siege or campaign which is going on. Chivalry in short is in morals very much what feudalism is in law. Each substitutes purely personal obligations devised in the interest of an exclusive class, for the more homely duties of an honest man and a good citizen.”
This view presents knighthood as the very antithesis of Freemasonry.
F. W. Cornish presents a somewhat brighter picture of knighthood but says, “Against these (virtues) may be set the vices of pride, ostentation, love of bloodshed, contempt of inferiors ; and loose manners.”
But whether we take the one or the other view, Free- man^s or Cornishes, chivalry will not bear comparison with Freemasonry in the nobility of its principles. Let us set against the pictures of Freeman and Cornish the
Norman Conquest, Vol V, p. 482.
16 Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XV, p. 859.
50 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
things which Freemasonry stands for. It is in theory at least a vast school urging the study of the liberal arts and sciences which tend to broaden, strengthen and en¬ lighten the mind. But it is much more than this; it is a great society of friends and brothers teaching by precept, and let us hope by example, all those mental and moral virtues which make and adorn character and prepare us to enjoy the blessings not only of this life but of that which is to come. Let us enumerate some of the things that are taught and, by ceremonies peculiar to Freema¬ sonry, are impressed upon the minds and hearts of its initiates. A belief in Deity; the service of God; gratitude for His blessings; reverence and adoration for His holy name ; veneration for His word ; the duty and efficacy of prayer; the invocation of His aid in every laudable under¬ taking; faith in Him, hope in immortality; charity to all mankind; the relief of the distressed, particularly the brethren and their families; the cultivation of brotherly love and the protection of the good name of a brother and that of his family and the sanctity of his female relatives ; the adornment of the mind and heart; purity of life and rectitude of conduct ; the curbing of our desires and pas¬ sions; living in conformity to the “Great Books’’ of Na¬ ture and Revelation ; the practice of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice ; the cultivation of habits of patience and perseverance; the eschewing of profanity; love for and loyalty to country ; love of truth ; devotion and fidelity to trust; the beauty of holiness; the maintenance of secrecy; the observance of caution; the recognition of real merit; the contemplation of wisdom; admiration for strength of body and character; the love of the beautiful in nature and art ; the observance of the Sabbath ; the pro¬ motion of the peace and unity of the brethren; the pres¬ ervation of liberty of thought, conscience, speech and action ; equality before God and the law ; the cultivation of
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 51
habits of industry; the certainty of retributive justice; the brevity and uncertainty of this life; the contemplation of death; and the life everlasting after death to those who love God and His creatures and observe His laws. All of these and others we are not privileged to mention here are taught every candidate and are impressed upon his mind by peculiar ceremonies which constitute a part of the arcana of the lodge.
Do you say that all these things may be learned else¬ where with equal thoroughness and equal ease, and that Masonry is therefore a useless institution ?
We maintain not. The fact that the institution has lived and flourished for so long a period and that it is to-day more powerful in its influence and more general in its dissemination than ever before proves not. It ap¬ proaches the mind and heart from a direction that enables it to reach and grapple many men whom no other influ¬ ence can reach, while at the same time it doubles and multiplies many times the power for good of those whom other influences do reach.
Is it, therefore, any exaggeration to say that Free¬ masonry is more ancient than the Golden Fleece and more honourable than the Star and Garter, or any other order that can be conferred upon its initiate by king, prince, or potentate?
The lamb, as stated in our Monitors, has in all ages been deemed an emblem of innocence. This symbolism is probably traceable not only to the whiteness of its wool but also to its meek and innocent appearance. The Bible, as well as other ancient literature, is full of this sym¬ bolism. It was required that the sacrificial lamb should be without spot or blemish, that is, pure white. It is a familiar saying and has been for ages that the lambs shall be separated from the goats. The evil symbolism of the goat is as old as the benignant symbolism of the lamb.
52 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
In ancient symbolism, the accursed goat of Mendes typified all that was evil. Among the old Greeks and Romans, the god* Pan was depicted as half goat, signifying that nature was half evil. Among the early Christians the goat became the prototype of the devil or Satan. It is not surprising, therefore, in a system like ours, employ¬ ing the lamb as a symbol, that we should also find a de¬ based trace of the goat symbolism, and that we do in the vulgar saying that ‘‘riding the goat’' accompanies our ceremonies. Of course, this is no longer believed by any one but is probably a transference to Masonry by its enemies of the old belief that the witches employed the goat in their ceremonies.
WHITE
The colours which figure in the symbolism of the first three degrees are white, black and blue. The symbolism of white is obvious, purity or innocence, and it bears this signification in all the degrees and has borne it at all times and among all peoples of which we have any knowledge. To the Jew, the Egyptian, the Greek and the Roman, to the savage, the barbarian and the civilised man it has borne this same meaning. All literature, ancient, mediaeval and modern, is rich with this symbolism. The Bible is full of it. As emblems of this purity and inno¬ cence we employ white gloves, white sashes, white rods and white aprons.
BLACK
with us, is a symbol of death and an emblem of mourning. Its symbolism is as obvious and as universal as is that of white. At the funeral of a brother the Deacons carry black rods; and the white rods of the Stewards, all the
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 5S
furniture carried in the procession, the musical instru¬ ments and the Bible are all draped with black. In token of our sorrow we wear a small black ribbon on the coat lapel and drape the lodge in black.
BLUE
symbolises universal friendship and benevolence, but its symbolism is not as obvious and uniform as is that of black and white. To different peoples and at different times and in the different degrees of Masonry it has dif¬ ferent meanings. It is, however, distinctly the colour of the first three degrees and they are in consequence known as Blue Masonry. Its symbolism of universal friendship and benevolence it is supposed to derive from the all- embracing nature of the blue vault of heaven which seems to comprehend within its sweep all the visible universe. Blue has a warmth about it which makes it a peculiarly appropriate emblem of that warmth of feeling that goes with friendship and benevolence.
GLOVES
The apprentices to operative Masons have always worn gloves to protect their hands in the handling of the un¬ dressed stone. Two hundred years ago, and possibly even later, it was the custom of the Freemasons in Eng¬ land to present the Entered Apprentice candidate with white gloves in much the same manner and with like symbolism as they then and as we now present him with a white apron. This ceremony is still preserved on the continent of Europe and, though the ceremony is aban¬ doned in both England and America, it is still common in England for Masons in all degrees to wear white gloves. They symbolise the same purity of life and recti-
54 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
tude of conduct as does the Apron. Yet on the mistaken assumption that Entered Apprentices and Fellow Crafts did not wear gloves in the time of King Solomon, the Grand Lodge of Alabama recently made an important change in the Master’s Degree. Let us hope that this mistake will be speedily corrected.
DEFINITION OF A LODGE
We are told that a lodge is a certain number of Masons duly assembled with the Holy Bible, Square and Com¬ passes. These three properties should indeed always be present, but to the existence of a lodge in its highest sense it is more necessary that there should be present what they symbolise, namely: Truth, Virtue and Self- restraint. Without these there may be the semblance of but no real lodge. Bible, Square and Compasses should be displayed in every opened lodge, not chiefly for their own sake but for what they represent.
HIGH HILLS AND LOW VALES
We are told that our ancient brethren usually held their lodges on high hills or in low vales. This allusion to this custom of antiquity is another hoary lock upon the brow of our symbolism. The explanation given is a very simple and practical one, namely: because they better lent themselves to purposes of secrecy. But there is another and deeper reason. Whatever may be the ex¬ planation, it is clear that from the remotest times hills and valleys have been peculiarly venerated by mankind. On the “High Places” the Jews and their neighbours wor¬ shipped God; the glens and dales our imagination has populated with the charming “Little People,” the sprites, the nymphs, and the fairies of mythology and our nursery
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 55
tales. The beauty spots of earth are where mountains and valleys succeed each other in greatest profusion. These are they that in all ages have testified to the majesty and glory of God and have stirred our imaginations and in¬ spired our poets.^^
THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT
figured prominently in the early Masonic rituals but in the recent ones it has almost wholly disappeared. Still, among a few old Masons, the expression lingers. In the old rituals, it was mentioned, in conjunction with '‘high hill” and “low vales,” as a place where Masons held their lodges.^®
The only mention of this valley in the Bible is in the prophet Joel, (iii, 2, 12,) and is commonly supposed to refer to the deep valley lying between the city of Jeru¬ salem and the Mount of Olives, through which flows the brook Kidron. Joel records Jehovah as declaring, “I will also gather all nations and will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage of Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land,” and “Let the heathen be awakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat : for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.” The meaning of Jehosha¬ phat in the Hebrew is “valley of the judgment of God” or, as expressed by Joel (iii, 14), “the valley of de¬ cision.” The foregoing passages gave rise to the belief among both Jews and Mohammedans that the valley of Jehoshaphat would be the seat of the last judgment. Peculiar sanctity was, therefore, held to attach to it and
Q, C., Vol. Ill, p. 21; Speth, Orientation of Temples, p. 6; U. M. L., Vol. VI, Part II, p. 66.
A. Q. C., Vol. Ill, p. 21 ; The Masonic Manual, Jonathan Ashe, Argument X; (U. M. L., Vol. VI, Part II, p. 66).
56 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
to say that a lodge was held in the valley of Jehoshaphat was to say that it was held on holy ground.
To speak of a lodge “in the valley of Jehoshaphat’^ had much the same import as when we speak of “a lodge of the Holy Saints John at Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is a holy city and hence to hold a lodge there is to hold it on holy ground.
UNTEMPERED MORTAR
We are taught never to daub with untempered mortar, a thing indeed which the operative mason should never do, but this saying is meaningless to us unless we under¬ stand its symbolical signification. For the operative mason to use untempered mortar is for him to begin his work without proper preparation. The admonition, there¬ fore, never to daub with untempered mortar is to teach us that we should never undertake any task without due preparation whether that task be mechanical or mental. More poor jobs and more failures in life result from insufficient preparation than from any other one cause, if not from all other causes combined.
Time spent in preparation for a given task or for one’s life work in general is not lost; it could not be more profitably employed ; it will in the years to come be found to be “bread cast upon the waters.”
WISDOM, STRENGTH AND BEAUTY
We are told in our Monitors that our institution is supported by three great pillars. Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, because there should be wisdom to contrive, strength to support, and beauty to adorn all great and important undertakings. The lodge whose members are characterised by wisdom to plan with judgment, strength to resist evil tendencies and influences, and by the beauty
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 57
of brotherly love and charity is sure to prosper. Nothing more is needed to give it success. Truly may it be said that these three attributes support our institution and with equal truth may it be said that they support all other institutions and creations.
Infinite wisdom planned and formed this universe, omnipotent strength hurls the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, through space at speeds we cannot conceive, and yet holds each in its accustomed orbit with such inerrancy that astronomers can now calculate the position of each thousand of years hence, while a beauty which poets have for ages in vain attempted to express completes the work. In short, wisdom, strength and beauty sum up the uni¬ verse in three words.
Wisdom, strength and beauty make a perfect building. There must be wisdom to plan and execute ; this gives to the structure convenience and utility. There must be strength to support; this gives to the building firmness and durability. There must be beauty to adorn; this gives that which pleases and appeals to man's moral and esthetic taste. There may be wisdom and strength but without beauty the result is, as has been truly observed, mere construction or at most a piece of engineering. It may be admirable, even wonderful, but without beauty it is not architecture. There may be beauty, but if there is not wisdom of plan and execution or if there be not strength to resist the processes of decay the result is a disappointment. Who, that visited the Chicago Exposi¬ tion in 1893 and viewed that dream of beauty, was not saddened by the thought that there was no strength there? These three essentials of architecture, Vitruvius, the noted architect who flourished shortly before Christ, enumerates as Firmitas, Utilitas, Venus fas, which is to say stability, utility and beauty.^®
'^^Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. II, p. 370.
58 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
So of man. Wisdom, Strength and Beauty make a perfect man. How often have we said with a sigh ‘'that is a beautiful woman,” or “that man is a beautiful char¬ acter, but there is neither wisdom nor strength.” This beauty may be so great as to be lovely or be even ad¬ mirable but there is no perfection.
On the other hand, how sad, how inexpressibly sad, when we behold a man with a great mind and a great body and yet no beauty of character; a soul in which there is selfishness instead of sympathy, cruelty instead of kindness, hate and bitterness instead of love and char¬ ity! When to beauty of heart and person and character you add wisdom to plan and strength to execute, weigh¬ ing down all evil opposition, we have what may truly be called “the noblest work of God.” Nothing can be added to wisdom, strength and beauty in either a building or in a man, unless it be more wisdom, more strength and greater beauty.
Wisdom and Beauty early became subjects of philo¬ sophical study and disquisition. Among the Greeks “Wisdom” was regarded as the knowledge of the cause and origin of things; among the Jews, it was regarded as knowing how to live in order to get the greatest pos¬ sible good out of this life. Neither Greek nor Hebrew philosophy seems to have concerned itself greatly about a future life. This subject was productive among the Jews of the Book of Wisdom, which has been pronounced by Dr. Crawford H. Toy, as “the most brilliant produc¬ tion of pre-Christian Hebrew philosophical thought.” The Greeks boasted a vast body of “Wisdom literature,” as it is called. So, Beauty gave rise to a body of philo¬ sophical thought called Esthetics. The earliest writers on this subject, as on so many others, were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates thought it resolvable into the useful and as not existing independently of a percipient
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 59
mind. Plato took the contrary view on each point. Aris¬ totle made great advance on both and defined certain essen¬ tial elements of beauty which have since been generally accepted. All agree that the purest of our pleasures arise from the contemplation of the beautiful and that the effect is chastening and elevating. Freemasonry combines this philosophy with both the Greek and the Hebrew ideas of Wisdom, as a topic worthy of philosophical study. With us, as we shall see in the Third Degree, the concep¬ tion of Wisdom is extended beyond what either the Greek or Hebrews understood by it and embraces the search for knowledge of the future.
Strength was greatly prized by the Jews, as well as the Greeks and Romans, and among them was regarded as one of the attributes of Deity. Both Samuel and Joel acclaim Jehovah as the Strength of Israel. Job (xii, 13) declares “With him is wisdom and strength”; while David (Psalms cvi, 6) sings, “Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” But the Preacher (Ecclesiastes ix, 16) with a truer appreciation declares that “wisdom is better than strength.” Examples could be multiplied in¬ definitely from the old Bible of the high esteem in which the Jews held these three Masonic qualities.
THE COVERING OF THE LODGE
The covering of the lodge is said to be a clouded canopy or starry decked heaven. The appropriateness of this symbol is striking when we regard the lodge as emblematic of the world, for such is literally at all times the cover¬ ing of the earth. Equally true, in the literal sense, was this description when lodges were held in the open air, as we are assured and as seems probable they were. In the earliest temples erected by man for the worship of God there was no roof, the only covering being the sky. To
60 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
them also this description holds good. This fact may give additional point and meaning to the statement that our lodges extend from earth to heaven. Later, when temples were covered and our lodges began to be held in closed rooms, it was customary to decorate the ceiling with a blue canopy spangled with stars. This starry decked heaven, when now exhibited in our lodge rooms, either on the ceiling or on our charts, or master’s carpets, is obviously reminiscent of the real canopy of heaven with which anciently our lodges were in fact covered, and is symbolical of that abode of the blessed which is uni¬ versally regarded as located in the sky.^®
THE ORNAMENTS OF THE LODGE
The ornaments of the lodge are the Mosaic Pavement, the Indented Tessel and the Blazing Star; that is to say its floor, the margin thereof, and the stars with which its ceiling are or should be decorated. Does this sym¬ bolism hold good when applied to the earth? It does most perfectly. To the beholder the visible part of the earth appears as surface, horizon and sky. The surface of the earth, if viewed from above checkered with fields and forests, mountains and plains, hills and valleys, land and waters, would be found to look very much like a pavement of Mosaic work. A few miles up it would seem almost as delicate. The horizon, that mysterious region that separates land and sky, earth and heaven, where the heavenly bodies appear and disappear, with its inexpressible charms and numberless beauties, has in all ages been a source of mystery and inspiration to the poets. It is fitly typified by the splendid borders which surround
20 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 235 ; Mackey, Symbolism of Free- masonry, p. 117; Hamlfn, History of Architecture, p. 26; Stein- brermer, History of Masonry, p. 150.
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 61
the floors of some of our most magnificent buildings and which is fabled to have surrounded the floor of Solomon’s Temple, while the firmament above, studded with stars by night and the blazing sun by day, completes the orna¬ mental scheme of the earth. The surface, the horizon, the firmament embrace all of visible beauty of Nature there is, and they have never yet been exhausted by poet, painter or singer.
Opinions have differed much whether the Blazing Star, classed as one of the ornaments of the lodge, alludes to the sun, or some particular star, or to the heavenly bodies in general. It has an ancient and interesting symbolism with which the statement of our Monitors, that it hiero- glyphically represents Divine Providence, is in substantial accord.
THE THREE GREAT LIGHTS
If we read discerningly the explanation given of these in our lectures and ceremonies we must perceive that they symbolise, respectively: (i) The Bible symbolises the word of God, not merely that disclosed in His revealed word, but including also the knowledge which we acquire from the great book of Nature; (2) the Square typifies the rule of right conduct, and (3) the Compasses is an emblem of that self-restraint which enables us on all oc¬ casions to act according to this rule of right. Beyond a perfect knowledge of God’s word and therefore of the rule of right living nothing is needed to make the perfect man except a perfect self-restraint.
The value and importance of self-restraint is thus por¬ trayed by Brother Albert Pike :
‘The hermetic masters said, ‘Make gold potable and you will have the universal medicine.’ By this
62 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
they meant to say, ‘Appropriate Truth to your use, let it be the spring from which you shall drink all your days and you will have in yourself the immortality of the Sages/ Temperance, tranquillity of the soul, simplicity of the character, the calmness and reason of the will, make man not only happy bpt well and strong. It is by making himself rational and good that man makes himself immortal. We are authors of our own destinies, and God does not save us with¬ out our co-operation.^'
THE THREE LESSER LIGHTS
Equally appropriate is the symbolism of the Three Lesser Lights. It was literally true of our ancient opera¬ tive brethren that from the Sun and Moon they obtained all that natural light which rendered possible those great architectural creations, some of which still remain as per¬ petual sources of wonder and delight. But all this skill must have quickly perished from the earth had not the Master communicated to the Apprentice from genera¬ tion to generation the mental illumination which kept alive the knowledge of architecture. Thus literally were the Sun, Moon and Worshipful Master lights to our ancient operative brethren. But as a knowledge of ar¬ chitecture is less than knowledge of God; as the correct rule of building is less than the correct rule of living ; as the restraints imposed upon the structure is less impor¬ tant than the restraint imposed upon one's self, so are the Sun, Moon and Worshipful Master less important lights than are the Bible, Square and Compasses, when rightly understood.
To the untutored mind the sun was the most striking object in nature. His daily march across the heavens must to those, who did not know that his motion was only apparent, have been far more impressive than to us.
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 63
Add to these his enlightening and fructifying influences, which must have been apparent to man even in his rudest stages of development, and we are not surprised that the orb of day became in all countries an object of worship. The point of his daily appearance, the East; his station at the midday hour, the South; the quarter of his dis¬ appearance at night, the West, could not fail to become objects of special significances. He seemed to shun the North, whence it became in popular opinion a place of darkness. It is obvious that conceptions like these be¬ long to a past age and yet they contribute to the completion of that allegory of the world and human life which we know as Freemasonry.
Of scarcely less interest to man in all ages have been the Moon and the Stars ; little less striking and even more beautiful are they. The glorious orbs of day and night have not yet lost their power to stir thoughts of divinity in the human mind, as witness Joseph Addison’s beautiful words :
“The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky.
And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their Great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun from day to day. Does his Creator’s power display.
And publishes to every land.
The work of an almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail.
The moon takes up the wondrous tale. And nightly, to the listening earth. Repeats the story of her birth ;
While all the stars that round her burn. And all the planets in their turn.
64 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball ? What though no real voice nor sound Amid the radiant orbs be found ?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice ;
For ever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine.”
NATURE
Allusions to the sun, the moon, the stars, the firma¬ ment, the horizon, the earth, the seas, the rivers, the moun¬ tains, the valleys, so frequent in our Ritual, are designed to tempt us to a study of Nature. We hardly yet realise its possibilities as sources of elevating and useful knowl¬ edge. Only ignorance would decry a study of Nature as a bountiful manifestation of God’s revelation of him¬ self. The theologian who would deny his followers the right to draw from the great Book of Nature conclusions as to the attributes and characteristics of Deity, is narrow and ignorant in the extreme.
In one of the higher degrees of Masonry we are told : — •
‘^Nature is the primary, consistent, and certain revelation of God. It is His utterance, word and speech. Whether He speaks to us through a man, must depend even at first upon human testimony and afterward on hearsay and tradition. But in and by His work, we know the Deity. The visible is the manifestation of the invisible.
‘‘The man who denies God is as fanatical as he who defines Him with pretended infallibility. God is
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 65
ordinarily defined by expressing every thing that He is not.
“Man makes God by an analogy from the less to the greater; the result is that his conception of God is always that of an infinite man, who makes of man a finite God.
“The work of God is the Book of God and in what He writes we ought to see the expression of His thought, and consequently of His Being; since we conceive of Him as the Supreme Thought.’^
These quotations from the Scottish Rite Degrees are not taken because Scottish Rite Masonry teaches any¬ thing different from Blue Masonry, but only as powerful and beautiful delineations by that great Mason, Albert Pike, of what is taught in the three Symbolic Degrees. Masonry does not profess to be able to explain what Nature teaches. It recognises that Nature does not speak the same language to all men. It simply invites, urges, yea, challenges every intelligent human being to a study of Nature. It recognises that no rational, sincere man can make an earnest study of Nature in any of her varied aspects without having his own mind and soul elevated. From a contemplation of the immensities of the Universe as revealed by the telescope and mathematics, one man will imbibe a lesson of modesty and humility; another may be inspired with an ennobling sense of the limitless possibilities of the human mind that it should be able to project itself and solve the problems of billions of miles away.
Science estimates the extent of the known universe in quadrillions of miles, a space so vast the mind can form no conception of it whatever. A ray of light travelling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, starting hundreds of years before Christ lived at one side of the universe and travelling continuously until this moment would still
66 SYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
lack billions of miles of completing the journey from one extremity to the other. Throughout this vast immensity at inconceivable distances from each other are millions of heavenly bodies of all sizes from that of a grain of sand to a sphere so large that if its centre were placed at the centre of the earth its radius would extend far beyond the sun, all flying through space at enormous velocities and yet all held by invisible hands in fixed orbits. Can any Book of Revelation more unmistakably reveal God?
Truly did the Psalmist sing:
‘The heavens declare the glory of God :
And the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language;
Their voice is not heard.
[But] their line is gone out through all the earth
And their words to the end of the world.’^
Psalms xix, 1-4.
And again when he says :
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers.
The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man that thou visitest him?’*
Psalms viii : 3, 4.
Every student of astronomy, if he has not asked this question, has felt it.
Again, the Psalmist exclaims that Jehovah has “set his glory upon the heavens” (Psalms, viii, i), and the singer promises “I will show forth all thy marvellous works”
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 67
(Psalms ix, i), and declares that 'The earth is full of the loving-kindness of Jehovah.’' (Psalms xxxiii, 5.)
Let the Mason read Brother Sidney T. Klein’s ad¬ dress before Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London, en¬ titled "The Great Symbol,” and let him behold the aston¬ ishing revelations disclosed by the telescope and the science of astronomy.
If by the telescope he reads the wonders of the im¬ mense, let him turn to the microscope and study the in¬ finitely small. If the discoveries of the skies are astound¬ ing, those of the microscope are no less so and no less valuable.
Among the latest discoveries of science is that the atom, once so familiar to the school boy, is not the ultimate in littleness, as it was once supposed to be. The electrons which are now held to make up atoms have diameters estimated at the inconceivable minuteness of sixteen one- hundred trillionths of an inch. Varying numbers of these electrons, not touching another but relatively as far from one another as the heavenly bodies are from one another, form atoms. In other words, each atom is an infinitesimal universe in itself. The microscope also shows a drop of water, or a grain of earth, to be a living universe.
Then study the ant; the germs of disease; the varied manifestations of force; the phenomena of music, heat, light, electricity, and the perfect laws by which these are all governed.
Then behold man; the marvellous mechanism of his body; the senses of hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling and tasting; the perfect action through a long life of the hun¬ dreds of his bodily functions the stoppage of any one of which is certain death ; then consider his mind, his feel¬ ings, his affections, his passions, his appetites, his reason, 21^. Q. C., Vol. X, pp. 82, 203.
68 iSYMBOLISM OF THE THREE DEGREES
and finally his spiritual nature. Cease taking the things around you for granted as does the ox. Having eyes, see the beauties, the grandeurs, the wealth, of Nature.
Brother Albert Pike devotes more* than one-fourth of his great work. Morals and Dogma^ to this subject. But he does not undertake to tell us what Nature teaches, he does not even essay to tell us what he has learned from her. He only rehearses for us what men in all ages and all countries have thought that they learned from her. Modern science has rendered most of this learning obso¬ lete, but it affords a striking story of the efforts of the wisest and best of mankind to catch the message which Nature has to convey. If the earnest seeker catches it only imperfectly or even loses it altogether, the high re¬ solve, the noble purpose, is not lost. No one can com¬ mune with Nature without becoming a better man and it is absurd for a man to talk of knowing God who knows nothing of his work.
It is to a study of subjects like these that Masonry challenges us.
BROTHERLY LOVE
is symbolised among us by two right hands joined or by two human figures holding or supporting each other by the right hand. This is a very old symbol and repre¬ sented the goddess Fides who anciently was supposed to preside over the virtue of ''fidelity.’’ This virtue of keeping faith with or performing a duty towards even an enemy was greatly esteemed among the ancients, but a reading of their literature will prove that the idea of love for one’s fellowman in the abstract scarcely found a lodgment in their conceptions. It is obvious that the virtue of Brotherly Love is of a far higher type than that of fidelity. It constrains us to keep faith and perform a
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE DEGREE 69
duty just as strongly as does the latter but it furnishes a nobler motive and impels us to do more when occasion arises than to perform the mere requirements of good faith and duty. It well illustrates the development, under modern sociological and religious teachings, of the ele¬ ment of love or charity in all the relations of men. It can scarcely be denied that chief among these influences have been the lofty and unselfish teachings of Jesus of Naz¬ areth. Any one desiring confirmation of this need only read C. L. Brace’s Gesta Christi. “Love thy neighbour as thyself” was a strange doctrine to most of the people of His day, but now it is thoroughly familiar to us, how¬ ever imperfectly we practise it.
David (Psalm 133) sang the virtues of brethren dwell¬ ing together in unity and likened it to the precious oint¬ ment upon the head and beard of Aaron and to the dews which fell upon Mount Hermon. The beauties of these similes are so charmingly set forth in an address before the Grand Lodge of Alabama in 1843, Brother Eugene