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

masonic legend of the Third Degree.
Hence, then, Hiram Abif is, in the masonic system, the symbol of human
nature, as developed in the life here and the life to come; and so,
while
the temple was, as I have heretofore shown, the visible symbol of the
world, its builder became the mythical symbol of man, the dweller and
worker in that world.
Now, is not this symbolism evident to every reflective mind?
Man, setting forth on the voyage of life, with faculties and powers
fitting him for the due exercise of the high duties to whose
performance
he has been called, holds, if he be "a curious and cunning workman,"
[162]
skilled in all moral and intellectual purposes (and it is only of such
men
that the temple builder can be the symbol), within the grasp of his
attainment the knowledge of all that divine truth imparted to him as
the
heirloom of his race--that race to whom it has been granted to look,
with
exalted countenance, on high;[163] which divine truth is symbolized by
the
WORD.
Thus provided with the word of life, he occupies his time in the
construction of a spiritual temple, and travels onward in the faithful
discharge of all his duties, laying down his designs upon the
trestle-board of the future and invoking the assistance and direction
of
God.
But is his path always over flowery meads and through pleasant groves?
Is
there no hidden foe to obstruct his progress? Is all before him clear
and
calm, with joyous sunshine and refreshing zephyrs? Alas! not so. "Man
is
born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward." At every "gate of life"--as
the Orientalists have beautifully called the different ages--he is
beset
by peril. Temptations allure his youth, misfortunes darken the pathway
of
his manhood, and his old age is encumbered with infirmity and disease.
But
clothed in the armor of virtue he may resist the temptation; he may
cast
misfortunes aside, and rise triumphantly above them; but to the last,
the
direst, the most inexorable foe of his race, he must eventually yield;
and stricken down by death, he sinks prostrate into the grave, _and is
buried in the rubbish_ of his sin and human frailty.
Here, then, in Masonry, is what was called the _aphanism_[164] in
the ancient Mysteries. The bitter but necessary lesson of death has