Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

GLORY
GLOVES 299
ently, and says, "Ho, land of the winged
globe . "
Dudley, in his Naology (p . 13), says that
the knowledge of the spherical figure of the
earth was familiar to the Egyptians in the
early ages, in which some of their temples
were constructed . Of the round figure
described above, he says that although it be
called a globe, an egg, the symbol of the world
was perhaps intended ; and he thinks that
if the globes of the Egyptian entablatures
were closely examined, they would perhaps
be found of an oval shape, figurative of the
creation, and not bearing any reference to
the form of the world .
The interpretation of the Masonic globes,
as a symbol of the universality of Masonry,
would very well agree with the idea of the
Egyptian symbol referring to the extent of
creation . That the globes on the pillars,
placed like the Egyptian symbol before
the temple, were a representation of the
celestial and terrestrial globes, is a very
modern idea . In the passage of the Book
of Kings, whence Masonry has derived its
ritualistic description, it is said (1 Kings
vii . 16), "And he made two chapiters of
molten brass, to set upon the tops of the
pillars ." In the Masonic ritual it is said
that "the pillars were surmounted by two
pomels or globes." Now pomel, J ,r ice, is
the very word employed by Rabbi Solomon
in his commentary on this passage, a word
which signifies a globe or spherical body .
The Masonic globes were really the chapiters
described in the Book of Kings . Again
it is said (1 Kings vii . 22), "U5pon the top
of the pillars was lily work . ' We now
know that the plant here called the lily was
really the lotus, or the Egyptian water-lily .
But among the Egyptians the lotus was a
symbol of the universe ; and hence, although
the Masons in their ritual have changed the
expanded flower of the lotus, which crowned
the chapiter and surmounted each pillar
of the porch, into a globe, they have retained
the interpretation of universality . The Egyptian
globe or egg and lotus or lily and the
Masonic globe are all symbols of something
universal, and the Masonic idea has only
restricted by a natural impulse the idea to
the universality of the Order and its benign
influences . But it is a pity that Masonic
ritualists did not preserve the Egyptian and
Scriptural symbol of the lotus surrounding
a ball or sphere, and omit the more modern
figures of globes celestial and terrestrial .
Glory, Symbol of . The Blazing Star
in the old lectures was called "the glory
in the center," because it was placed in the
center of the floor-cloth, and represented
the glorious name of Deity . Hence, Dr .
Oliver gives to one of his most interesting
works, which treats of the symbolism of the
Blazing Star, the title of The Symbol of Glory .
Gloves. In the continental Rites of
Masonry, as practised in France, in Germany,
and in other countries of Europe, it
is an invariable custom to present the new-
ly initiated candidate not only, as we do,
with a white leather apron, but also with
two pair of white kid gloves-one a man's
pair for himself, and the other a woman'sto
be presented by him in turn to his wife
or his betrothed, according to the custom
of the German Masons, or, according to the
French, to the female whom he most esteems,
which, indeed, amounts, or should amount,
to the same thing .
There is in this, of course, as there is
in everything else which pertains to Freemasonry,
a symbolism . The gloves given
to the candidate for himself are intended
to teach him that the acts of a Mason should
be as pure and spotless as the gloves now
given to him . In the German Lodges, the
word used for acts is, of course, handlung,
or handlings, "the works of his hands," which
makes the symbolic idea more impressive .
Dr . Robert Plot-no friend of Masonry,
but still a historian of much researchsays,
in his Natural History of Staffordshire,
that the Society of Freemasons in his time
(and be wrote in 1686) presented their candidates
with gloves for themselves and their
wives. This shows that the custom, still
preserved on the Continent of Euro p e, once
was practised in England ; although there,
as well as in America, it is discontinued,
which is perhaps to be regretted .
But although the presentation of the
gloves to the candidate is no longer practised
as a ceremony in England or America,
yet the use of them as a part of the proper
professional clothing of a Mason m the
duties of the Lodge or in processions, is
still retained ; and in many well-regulated
Lodges the members are almost as regularly
clothed in their white gloves as in their
white aprons .
The symbolism of the gloves, it will be
admitted, is in fact but a modification of
that of the apron . They both signify the
same thing, both are allusive to a purification
of life . "Who shall ascend," says the
Psalmist, "into the hill of the Lord? or who
shall stand in his holy place? He that
hath clean hands and a pure heart." The
apron may be said to refer to the "pure
heart" ; the gloves, to the "clean hands."
Both are significant of purification-of that
purification which was always symbolized
by the ablution which preceded the ancient
initiations into the sacred mysteries . But
while our American and English Masons
have adhered only to the apron, and rejected
the gloves as a Masonic symbol, the latter
appear to be far more important in symbolic
science, because the allusions to pure or
clean hands are abundant in all the ancient
writers.
"Hands," says Wemyss, in his Clavis
Symbolica, "are the symbols of human actions-pure
hands are pure actions ; unjust
hands are deeds of injustice . There are
numerous references in sacred or profane
writers to this symbolism. The washing
of the hands has the outward sign of an