WORKING TOOLS
The Working Tools of an Entered Apprentice Mason
The Twenty-Four Inch Gauge is an instrument made use of by operative Masons
to measure and lay out their work. but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are
taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of dividing our
time. it being divided into twenty-four equal parts, is emblematical of the
twenty-four hours of the day; which we are taught to divide into three parts,
whereby we find a portion for the service of God and a distressed worthy
Brother; a portion for our usual vocations, and a portion for refreshment and
sleep.
The Common Gavel is an instrument made use of by operative Masons to break
off the rough and superfluous parts of stones, the better to fit them for the
builder's use; but we, as Free and Accepted masons, are taught to make use of it
for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our minds and consciences
of all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby fitting ourselves as living
stones, for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens.
The Working Tools of a Fellowcraft Mason
The Plumb is an instrument made use of by operative masons to raise
perpendiculars, the Square to square their work, and the Level to lay
horizontals; but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of them
for more noble and glorious purposes; the Plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly
in our several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by the Square
of Virtue, and remembering that we are traveling upon the Level of Time, to
"that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveler returns."
The Working Tools of a Master Mason
The Trowel is an instrument made use of by operative Masons to spread the
cement which unites a building in one common mass; but we, as Free and Accepted
Masons, are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of
spreading the cement of brotherly love and affection; that cement which unites
us into one sacred band, or society of friends and brothers, among whom no
contention should ever exist, but that noble contention, or rather emulation, of
who can best work and best agree.
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