FIRST SECTION.
The first section of the Entered Apprentice's Lecture principally consists of a recapitulation of the ceremonies of initiation. But, on this account, a knowledge of it is highly necessary to every Mason, that he may be the better enabled to assist in the correct performance of the ritual of the degree. It is, however, introduced by some general heads, which qualify us to examine the rights of others to our privileges, while they prove our claims to the character we profess.
It is, of course, impossible, in a monitorial work, to give a full explanation of the various symbols and ceremonies which are used in the inculcation of moral and religious truths; but an allusion, in even general terms, to the most important ones, in the order in which they occur, will be sufficient to lead the contemplative Mason to a further examination of their import.
THE SHOCK OF ENTRANCE.
In the symbolic science of Masonry, the Lodge is often represented as a symbol of life. In this case, Lodge labor becomes the symbol of the labor of life, its duties, trials, and temptations, and the Mason is the type of the laborer and actor in that life. The Lodge is, then, at the time of the reception of an Entered Apprentice, a symbol of the world, and the initiation is a type of the new life upon which the candidate is about to enter. There he stands without our portals, on the threshold of this new Masonic life, in darkness, helplessness, and ignorance. Having been wandering amid the errors and covered over with the pollutions of the outer and profane world, he comes inquiringly to our doors, seeking the new birth, and asking a withdrawal of the vail which conceals divine truth from his uninitiated sight. And here, as with Moses at the burning bush, the solemn admonition is given, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground;" and ceremonial preparations surround him, all of a significant character, to indicate to him that some great change is about to take place in his
