Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor - Rose Croix

not from its intrinsic valuation, but that it might be laid up, among the relics in the
archives of the Lodge, as a memorial that I was therein made a Mason; but, on strict
examination, I found myself entirely destitute.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. I was ordered to be returned to the place from whence I came, and reinvested of what I
had been divested of, and returned to the Lodge for further instructions.
Q. On your return to the Lodge, where were you placed, as the youngest Entered
Apprentice?
A. In the northeast corner, my feet forming a right angle, my body erect, at the right hand
of the Worshipful Master in the east, an upright man and Mason, and it was given me
strictly in charge ever to walk and act as such.
Q. What did the Worshipful Master then present you with?
A. The working-tools of an Entered Apprentice Mason, which are the twenty-four-inch
gauge and common gavel.
Q. What is their use?
A. The twenty-four-inch gauge is an instrument made use of by operative masons, to
measure and lay out their work; but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make
use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of dividing our time. It being divided
into twenty-four equal parts is emblematical of the twenty-four hours of the day, which
we are taught to divide into three parts, whereby we find a portion for the service of God
and the relief of a distressed worthy brother, a portion for our usual avocations, and a
portion for refreshment and sleep.
The common gavel is an instrument made use of by operative masons, to break off the
superfluous corners of rough stones, the better to fit them for the builder's use; but we, as
Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious
purpose of divesting our minds and consciences of all the vices and superfluities of life,
thereby fitting us, as living stones of that spiritual building, that house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.
This generally ends the first section of the lecture as given in Lodges at the present day;
but as some Lodges persist still in keeping up the old lecture as revealed by William
Morgan, in
p. 47
1826, and by Bernard, Allyn, Richardson, and others, the author will give it, that it may
go to the world a complete Masonic lecture.