Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor - Rose Croix

apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbors, and
ourselves; so that in old age, as Master Masons, we may enjoy the happy reflections
consequent on a well-spent life, and die in the hope of a glorious immortality.
They also allude to the three principal supports in Masonry, namely, Wisdom, Strength.
and Beauty; for it is necessary that there should be wisdom to contrive, strength to
support, and beauty to adorn all great and important undertakings.
They further allude to the three principal officers of the Lodge, viz.: Master, and Senior
and Junior Wardens.
Stepping forward to the five steps, he continues:
The five steps allude to the five orders of architecture and the five human senses.
The five orders of architecture are Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.
(Reads from Monitor respecting the orders of architecture.)
The five human senses are hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting, the first three of
which have ever been highly es-teemed among Masons: hearing, to hear the word;
seeing, to see the sign; feeling, to feel the grip, whereby one Mason may know another in
the dark as well as in the light. (Steps forward to the seven steps.)
The seven steps allude to the seven Sabbatical years, seven
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years of famine, seven years in building the Temple, seven golden candlesticks, seven
wonders of the world, seven wise men of the east, seven planets; but, more especially, the
seven liberal arts and sciences, which are grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry,
music, and astronomy. For this and many other reasons the number seven has ever been
held in high estimation among Masons. (Reads from Monitor respecting grammar,
rhetoric, &., &c.)
By this time the Senior Deacon has passed the entire representation of the flight of stairs,
and is now at the Junior Warden's station in the south. Upon arriving here, he (the Senior
Deacon) says to the candidate:
Brother, we are now approaching the outer door of King Solomon's Temple, which
appears to be tyled or guarded by the Junior Warden. (Some say--our Junior Warden.)
As they approach the Junior Warden's desk, he (the Junior Warden) exclaims:
J. W.--Who comes here?
S. D.--A Craftsman, on his way to the Middle Chamber of King Solomon's Temple.