The Mysteries of Free Masonry: Containing All the Degrees of the Order Conferred in a Master's LodgeMorgan, William
Religion
The Mysteries of Free Masonry: Containing All the Degrees of the Order Conferred in a Master's Lodge
Morgan, William
Freemasonry -- United States -- Rituals
Q. Who paid the craftsmen? A. The Senior Grand Warden.
Q. Was not the Senior Grand Warden liable to be imposed upon by
impostors in paying off such a vast number of workmen? A. He was not.
Q. How was this imposition prevented? A. By the wisdom of King
Solomon, who also ordered that every craftsman applying to receive
wages, should present his right hand through a lattice window of the
door of the Junior Grand Warden's apartment, with a copy of his mark
in the palm thereof, at the same time giving a token.
Q. What was that token? (This was before explained.)
Q. What did it allude to? A. To the manner of receiving wages; it was
also to distinguish a true craftsman from an impostor.
Q. What is the penalty of an impostor? A. To have his right hand
chopped off.
* * * * *
SECOND SECTION.
Question--Where was you prepared to be made a Mark Master Mason? A. In
the room adjoining the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge
of such, duly assembled in a room or place, representing a workshop
that was erected near the ruins of King Solomon's Temple.
Q. How was you prepared? A. By being divested of all my outward
apparel and all money; my breast bare, with a cable-tow four times
about my body, in which situation I was conducted to the door of a
Lodge, where I gave four distinct knocks.
Q. What do these four distinct knocks allude to? A. To the fourth
degree of Masonry; it being that on which I was about to enter.
Q. What was said to you from within? A. Who comes there?
Q. Your answer? A. A worthy brother, who has been regularly initiated
as an Entered Apprentice, served a proper time as such; passed to the
Fellow Craft; raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason; and now
wishes further light in Masonry, by being advanced to the more
honorable degree of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. What further was said to you from within? A. I was asked if it was
of my own free will and accord I made this request; if I was duly and
truly prepared; worthy and well qualified; had wrought in the
quarries, and exhibited specimens of my skill and proficiency in the
preceding degrees; all of which being answered in the affirmative, I
was asked by what further right or benefit I expected to gain this
favor.
Q. Your answer? A. By the benefit of a pass-word.
Q. What was that pass-word? A. JOPPA.
Q. What did it allude to? A. The city of Joppa, the place where the
materials were landed for building king Solomon's Temple, after being
prepared in the forest of Lebanon, and carried there on floats (by
sea). [Masonic tradition informs us that the banks of this place are
so perpendicular that it was impossible to ascend them without
assistance from above, which was effected by brethren stationed there,
with this strong grip; this has been explained; which, together with
the word JOPPA, has since been adopted as a proper pass to be given
before entering any well-regulated Lodge of Mark Master Masons.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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