Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

*>LBLIME DEGREE OF MASTER MASON. 87
Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, the
latter is by far the most sacred and solemn.
" By the apprentice's order is implied the first knowledge
of the God of nature in the earliest age of man. By
the craftsman's order, reference is had to the Mosaic legation,
and Solomon's temple at Jerusalem ; as also to the
light which men received far the discovery of the divine wisdom
by geometrical solutions; but the order of Master Masons
is analogous to a dispensation which is by far more
perfect and sublime."* (See, also, Smith's Masonry, p. 33.
and Hutchinson, pp. 7.11. and 13.)
44 Three principal steps in our ladder there be,
44 A mystery to all but to those that are Free."
Akiman Resort, p. 123.
The three degrees of Masonry are figurative, then, of
three gracious dispensations; the one, that before the flooaV
another, the Mosaic; and & third, the Christian dispensation
!
This " light which men received for the discovery of the
divine wisdom by GEOMETRICAL SOLUTIONS," is a great secret!
Truly, u Masonry is the key-stone to all other arts
and sciences." (New Man. 189.)
" The initiation into the two first orders is attended with
rites of great solemnity; but those attached to the third
degree are calculated to leave a far more lasting impression
on the mind, than those which belong to either of the
preceding. During the performance of these last ceremonies,
of which none but those admitted to the degree of
Master Mason can have any conception, the soul is struck
* u The knowledge of the God of Nature forms the first estate of our
profession ; the worship of the Deity under the Jewish law is described in
the second stage of Masonry; and the Christian dispensation is distinguished
in the last and highest ord^r."—Hutchinson's &p. Mas. p. 17.