Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

62 EMBLEMS OF ROYAL ARCH MASONRY.
H
to the tabernacle and to the mercy seat, in which the glory
of the Highest dwelt, not to the tables of the covenant, not
to the altar and golden candlestick, not to the consecrated
garments of the Levitical priesthood, all which she assumes.
Masonry has, properly, nothing to do with these things;
she cannot use them without sacrilege. Masonry may with
equal justice take for her emblems, the awful representations
of the Apocalypse; the seven trumpets, the seven
vials, the river of water of life, ami the hew Jerusalem, and
the throne of God!
Masonry has, properly, nothing to do with any of these
things; and to represent it otherwise, is fearful. When
Mr. Cross, the grand lecturer, gives Moses with his flocks,
covering his eyes on the holy ground before the Lord in the
bush which burned and consumed not; and when this emblem
is sanctioned by the most excellent names of the fraternity,
the impression conveyed, and intended to be conveyed,
is, that Free Masonry has some interesting connexion,
to say the least, with that portentous event.* It does
not become a master to speak as though he knew the secrets
of the Royal Arch; but it is proper for him to speak
as one who knows the art of which he has by proper authorities
been entitled a master; and as a lawfully constituted
master of the art of Free Masonry, I declare my thorough
conviction, that Free Masonry has no more legitimate
connexion with Moses and the burning bush, than it has
with the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse; that it has no
more rightful claim to the tabernacle and its utensils, than
to the Christian sacraments for emblems. The use of
common utensils for emblems is harmless, if the thing signified
be innocent; the use of things holy in the same way,
is an abuse of them not justifiable on any conceivable explanation.!
Therefore it is, that I am indignant to see the Holy of
* The F. M. Library quotes the account from Ex. ili. 1—6, to be read in
the ceremonial of this degree, p. 241.
t Possibly the higher degrees spare not the sacraments: the following