the newly raised master mason
by R. W. Bro. A. Robertson Eddie
Published in MASONIC BULLETIN, BCR;
February 1975
True Antient Freemasonry consists of three degrees, and three degrees only.
As all three degrees have been conferred upon you, thus making you a Master
Mason, you are now entitled to an explanation concerning the peculiar nature of
these ceremonies. Reference to the Ritual of the three degrees, plus the
accumulation of educational material provided by Grand Lodge and your own Lodge
will enable you to appreciate the connection of our whole system, and the
interdependence of its several parts. But it must be remembered that the
information which has been, and is now being given to you of necessity barely
scratches the surface, and cannot constitute any more than a single stone in the
foundation of your future Masonic knowledge.
In retrospect, you were admitted to Freemasonry in the Entered Apprentice Degree
in a state of helpless indigence, to inculcate a useful lesson of natural
equality and mutual dependence; then in the Fellowcraft Degree, you were urged
to cultivate "with the most diligent care and attention" those wondrous
faculties with which God has endowed the being created after His own image;
finally, in this Degree, you symbolically passed through the valley of the
shadow of death to a purified resurrection. Thus each degree, while
supplementing and complementing the others, had its own general theme. These may
be stated here respectively as Moral, Intellectual, and Spiritual.
From the beginning to the final act, the Temple of Solomon loomed large in the
drama as you were conducted successively from your first entrance between the
Two Great Pillars at the Porch or Entrance up the winding stairs to the Middle
Chamber, and finally even into the Sanctum Sactorum itself, in a state of
darkness which served only to express that gloom which the eye of human reason
cannot penetrate unless assisted by the Light which is from above. While in that
cloud of darkness you were made to represent the central figure in a tragedy
wherein certain mysterious secrets were said to be lost, and a noble individual
died in order that Virtue might live.
That magnanimous being was Hiram Abiff, "a widow's son of the tribe of
Naphtali". That tribe's territory bordered that of Tyre, and his father had been
a man of that country. In the Second Book of Chronicles, Chapter 2, he is
described thus " . . . skillful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in
iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen and in
crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out any device which
is put to him . . . " In other words, a Prince of Builders, able to design and
to draft, make or create, anything and everything which goes into or onto even
the noblest of structures, whether for practical or ornamental purposes. By his
description as recorded above he is eminently fitted to be the Operative ideal
of all Speculative Master Masons.
Of course, the Hiramic Legend as used by us is purely allegorical; we are not
necessarily dealing either with a tangible building or with literal history. The
Temple of Solomon symbolically represents your own character; the Three Great
Pillars: Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, embody your personal ideal for a
philosophy of life; Hiram Abiff is not dead, but lives on as your immortal soul.
The "genuine secrets" were lost to us through the inability of fallible human
beings to resist temptation, as related in the Volume of the Sacred Law in the
account of the Garden of Eden. For us, their substitutes are the Grand
Principles upon which Freemasonry is founded, namely Brotherly Love, Relief and
Truth, principles which you are charged to inculcate, that they may be always
maintained and ever renewed, to the glory of the Most High and the benefit of
mankind.
To sum up, Freemasonry is a way of life, and to inculcate this has been the main
purpose of your progress through the three degrees. If you and I are the better
for our association with the Craft, then the ceremonies through which we have
passed will not have been conducted in vain. If, through these tiruals, we have
been inspired to renew our dedication to the lofty ideals represented by the
Order, and to practice both in private and in public life the duties we have
been taught in Freemasonry, then the high purpose of the Institution will have
been fulfilled, and as a result the World will to that extent have become a
better habitation for mankind. To achieve these things is the fundamental aim of
Freemasonry.
It is hoped tht your recent experiences will have helped to kindle within you a
curiosity concerning the Craft, together with the determination to discover even
more about it, its' history, its' meaning and its' purpose, so that eventually
you may become known and accepted, not only as a Master Mason, but as a Master
among Masons.
The Worshipful Master, Officers and Members of your Lodge bid you welcome to
full status in the Fraternity. May you find in Freemasonry that which you came
to seek, and may the genuine tenets of the Craft ever prove to be a source of
refreshment and inspiration to you.
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