shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.—Ecclesiastes xii. 1–7.
The passage of Scripture here selected is a beautiful and affecting description of the body of man suffering under the infirmities of old age, and metaphorically compared to a worn-out house about to fall into decay. How appropriate is such an introduction to the sublime and awful ceremonies of that degree, in which death, the resurrection, and life eternal are the lessons to be taught by all its symbols and allegories!
The Working Tools of a Master Mason are all the implements of masonry indiscriminately, but more especially the Trowel.
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; that cement which unites us into one sacred band, or society of friends and brothers, among whom no contention should ever exist, but that noble contention, or rather emulation, of who can best work and best agree.
The three precious jewels of a Master Mason are here referred to.
