THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

see that the stones were not only duly prepared, but that the most
exact
accuracy had been observed in giving to them their true juxtaposition
in
the edifice. It was then only that the last and finishing labor[63] was
performed, and the cement was applied by these skilful workmen, to
secure
the materials in their appropriate places, and to unite the building in
one enduring and connected mass. Hence the _trowel_, we are informed,
was
the most important, though of course not the only, implement in use
among
the master builders. They did not permit this last, indelible operation
to
be performed by any hands less skilful than their own. They required
that
the craftsmen should prove the correctness of their work by the square,
level, and plumb, and test, by these unerring instruments, the accuracy
of
their joints; and, when satisfied of the just arrangement of every
part,
the cement, which was to give an unchangeable union to the whole, was
then
applied by themselves.
Hence, in speculative Masonry, the trowel has been assigned to the
third
degree as its proper implement, and the symbolic meaning which
accompanies
it has a strict and beautiful reference to the purposes for which it
was
used in the ancient temple; for as it was there employed "to spread the
cement which united the building in one common mass," so is it selected
as
the symbol of brotherly love--that cement whose object is to unite our
mystic association in one sacred and harmonious band of brethren.
Here, then, we perceive the first, or, as I have already called it, the
elementary form of our symbolism--the adaptation of the terms, and
implements, and processes of an operative art to a speculative science.
The temple is now completed. The stones having been hewed, squared, and
numbered in the quarries by the apprentices,--having been properly
adjusted by the craftsmen, and finally secured in their appropriate
places, with the strongest and purest cement, by the master builders,-the
temple of King Solomon presented, in its finished condition, so noble
an
appearance of sublimity and grandeur as to well deserve to be selected,
as
it has been, for the type or symbol of that immortal temple of the
body,
to which Christ significantly and symbolically alluded when he said,
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
This idea of representing the interior and spiritual man by a material
temple is so apposite in all its parts as to have occurred on more than
one occasion to the first teachers of Christianity. Christ himself