Duncan's Ritual of Freemasonry.pdf - FatimaMovement

Is an emblem of time, which cuts the brittle
thread of life, and launches us into eternity.
Behold! what havoc
the scythe of time
makes among the
human race: if by
chance we should
escape the numerous
evils incident to
childhood and youth,
and with health and
vigor arrive at the
years of manhood, yet
withal we must soon
be cut down by the
all-devouring scythe of time, and be gathered into
the land where our fathers have gone before us.
Brother Gabe, permit me to call your attention to
the last emblem on the carpet--the spade, settingmaul,
coffin, grave, and sprig of acacia.
The spade, which dug the grave of our Grand
Master, may soon dig ours; the setting-maul,
which terminated his earthly existence, may be
among the casualties which will, sooner or later,
terminate ours; the coffin, which received his
remains, may soon receive ours; the grave, that
abode for the dead, may soon be our grave; the
acacia (that evergreen which once marked the
temporary resting-place of the illustrious dead),
that bloomed and flourished at the head of our
Grand Master's grave, and was the cause of its
timely discovery, is an emblem of our faith in the
immortality of the soul, which never! never--no,
never dies.
p. 131