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

work with the brain. They dealt in the material; we in the spiritual.
They used in their labor wood and stones; we use thoughts, and
feelings,
and affections. We both devote ourselves to labor, but the object of
the
labor and the mode of the labor are different.
The French rituals have given us the key-note to the explanation of
what
is masonic labor when they say that "Freemasons erect temples for
virtue
and dungeons for vice."
The modern Freemasons, like the Masons of old, are engaged in the
construction of a temple;--but with this difference: that the temple of
the latter was material, that of the former spiritual. When the
operative
art was the predominant characteristic of the Order, Masons were
engaged
in the construction of material and earthly temples. But when the
operative art ceased, and the speculative science took its place, then
the
Freemasons symbolized the labors of their predecessors by engaging in
the
construction of a spiritual temple in their hearts, which was to be
made
so pure that it might become the dwelling-place of Him who is all
purity.
It was to be "a house not made with hands," where the hewn stone was to
be
a purified heart.
This symbolism, which represents man as a temple, a house, a sacred
building in which God is to dwell, is not new, nor peculiar to the
masonic
science. It was known to the Jewish, and is still recognized by the
Christian, system. The Talmudists had a saying that the threefold
repetition of the words "Temple of Jehovah," in the seventh chapter and
fourth verse of the book of Jeremiah, was intended to allude to the
existence of three temples; and hence in one of their treatises it is
said, "Two temples have been destroyed, but the third will endure
forever," in which it is manifest that they referred to the temple of
the
immortal soul in man.
By a similar allusion, which, however, the Jews chose wilfully to
misunderstand, Christ declared, "Destroy this temple, and in three days
I
will raise it up." And the beloved disciple, who records the
conversation,
does not allow us to doubt of the Saviour's meaning.
"Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building,
and
wilt thou rear it up in three days?
"But he spake of the temple of his body." [202]