The Lost Key: An Explanation of Masonic Symbols

86The Lost Key257. The first Section of this Degree teaches the requirements ofperfect obedience to the lessons of the Divine Law and to thescientific teaching given in the Degrees. The “oblong square” is nolonger tolerated for the candidate is now about to become a MasterMason, a Master Builder of the Temple of the Spirit.THE TROWEL258. The Working Tools of the Master Mason are all theimplements of Masonry indiscriminately but more especially theTrowel. The Trowel is the most wonderful of all the WorkingTools and teaches the lesson of service to humanity as well asrepeating the lesson of Love taught by the Apron and which weconsidered in Sections 171 to 191. The Trowel is the instrument bywhich the Cement is spread and it is the Cement which bindsashlar to ashlar in the great wall of the Temple of Humanity. TheRitual itself tells us what the Cement means, Brotherly Love andAffection, but its meaning would be obvious even without thisexplanation.259. The Cement binds the ashlars together and the ashlars are thestones from which the walls are built. The ashlars represent theindividual human beings. What is it that binds them together butLove? Only that Love must be known, and it can be known onlyas it expresses itself and shows itself in service. So the Trowelsymbolizes SERVICE. The Cement is the Love that binds the ashlarstogether. The Trowel is the Tool which spreads the Cement.Service to humanity is the means whereby the real Love, thespiritual Love, is spread.REVIEW260. If the reader will now go back in thought over the ground whichwe have so far covered and watch, in memory, the candidate gothrough the rituals and exemplify the symboIism, he cannot help