Q. How did the Worshipful Master dispose of you?

A. He ordered me to be returned to the Senior Warden in the west, who taught me to approach the east by three upright regular steps, my feet forming the angle of a perfect square, my body erect at the altar, before the Worshipful Master in the east.

Q. What did the Worshipful Master do with you?

A. He made me a Master Mason in due form.

Q. What was that due form?

A. Kneeling on both my naked knees, both hands resting on the Holy Bible, square, and compasses; in which due form I took the solemn oath of a Master Mason, which is as follows:

(Here give the obligation; but it is never required–being only a matter of form.)

p. 136

Q. After the obligation, what were you asked?

A. What I most desired.

Q. Your answer?

A. Further light in Masonry.

Q. Did you receive it?

A. I did, by order of the Worshipful Master and the assistance of the brethren.

Q. On being brought to light, what did you discover more than you had heretofore discovered?

A. Both points of the compasses elevated above the square, which was to teach me never to lose sight of those truly Masonic virtues, which are friendship, morality, and brotherly love.

Q. What did you then discover?

A. The Worshipful Master approaching me from the east, under the duegard of a Master Mason, who, in token of further continuance of his brotherly love and favor, presented me with his right hand, and with it the pass and token of the pass of a Master Mason, and ordered me to arise and salute the Junior and Senior Wardens as such.

Q. After saluting the Wardens, what did you first discover?

A. The Worshipful Master, who ordered me to the Senior Warden in the west, who taught me how to wear my apron as a Master Mason.

Q. How should a Master Mason wear his apron?

A. With the flap and corners turned down, which is to distinguish him as a Master Mason, or an overseer of the work.

Q. After being taught to wear your apron as a Master Mason, how were you then disposed of?

A. I was conducted to the Worshipful Master in the east, who presented me with the working-tools of a Master Mason, which are all the implements of Masonry indiscriminately, but more especially the trowel.

Q. What is the use of these tools?

A. The trowel is an instrument made use of by operative Masons to spread the cement, which unites a building into one common mass; but we, as free and accepted Masons, are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of spreading the cement of brotherly love and affection, &c., &c. (See Monitor for the balance of this answer, or page 99 of this work.)

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 wait the Worshipful Master’s will and pleasure.

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SECOND SECTION.

Q. What does a Master’s Lodge represent?

A. The unfinished Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies, of King Solomon’s Temple.

Q. Did you ever return to the Lodge?

A. I did.

Q. On your return to the Lodge, where were you placed?

A. In the centre, where I was caused to kneel, and implore the blessings of Deity.

Q. After imploring the blessings of Deity, what followed?

A. I arose, and on my passage around the Lodge was accosted by three Fellow Crafts, who thrice demanded of me the secrets of a Master Mason; and, on being refused, the first gave me a blow with the twenty-four-inch gauge, across my throat; the second with a square, across my breast; the third with a setting-maul, on my forehead, which felled me on the spot.

Q. What did you then represent?

A. Our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, who was slain just before the completion of King Solomon’s Temple.

Q. Was his death premeditated?

A. It was, by fifteen Fellow Crafts, who, seeing the Temple about to be completed, and being desirous of obtaining the secrets of a Master Mason, whereby they might travel in foreign countries, work, and receive Master’s wages, entered into a horrid conspiracy to extort them from our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, or take his life; but, reflecting with horror on the atrocity of the crime, twelve of them recanted; the other three persisted in their murderous designs.

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