Blanchard J (anti-masonic) - Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated Part I

170 MASTER ELECT OF NINE. INITIATION. 171Moat Sovereign-Brother Stolkin, you will now coneduct our new brother to his seat, to listen attentively tethe discourse by our Grand Orator.ANSwER.Place your right hand on your heartsay Nekab.Aoa~ Cr.TOKEN.Clinch the fingers ofyour right hand, andat the same time elevateyour thumb. Thesecond seizes y o u rthumb with the righthand, at the same timeelevating his thumb; signifying the nine elected, eightclose together and one by itself.PASS WORD :—Begoal-Kol.SACRED WORD :—Nekam; answer Nelcak.BATTERY :—Nine strokes by eight and one; 0000-0000 0.AGE :—Full eight and one.HOURS OF WORK :—From break of day until evening.MORAL :—That we should be careful how we sufferourselves to be led away by an excess of zeal, even in agood cause, to execute on an individual the vengeancedue for the violation of divine or human laws.DISCOURSE BY GRAND ORATOR.Thrice ‘Respectable Brother Elected, the unanimityand earnestness with which this respectable assemblyrequested your pardon, dIsposed our heari~ to grant it,especially as your crime was owing to an over zeal. Inthis you have imitated Joabert, King Solomon’s favoriteas I am now going to inform you.You, my brother, without doubt recollect the melancholycatastrophe of our respectable Master Hiram Abiff,whose death is the constant subject of our grief andtears; and in this we take an example from the wisest ofkings, who bemoaned the irreparable loss he has sustainedby his death. You will know that Solomon, onhearing that he was missing, immediately put a stop tobuilding and swore that no person should be paid hiswages until this great man was found dead or alive.You will also recollect that brethren went out in searchof him, and that Stolkin at length found him assassinatedand buried under a sprig of acacia. Stolkin’s goodluck on this melancholy occasion endeared him to theKing, and procured him his most intimate confidence.Solomon after having the funeral obsequies of that greatman celebrated with as much splendor and magnificenceas possible, determined to take public satisfaction of theperpetrators of that horrid crime and sacrifice them tothe manes of his deceased friend. He issued a proclamationpromising a considerable reward to any personwho should detect the place where the villains lay concealed,who committed this horrid murder, declaring atthe same time that he would even forgive the assassin