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Official Visit to Keith Lodge No. 23
Worshipful Master
Distinguished East
Past & Present Grand Lodge Officers
Brethren All,
The Secretary has read an
invitation to all, to assist in the laying of the Corner Stone of our
new Grand Lodge. An important event in the life of our Grand Lodge and
an impressive, time honoured tradition.
The
cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone our ancient
operative brethren traditionally set in the North-East corner to begin
the construction of a masonry foundation. Obviously a most important
event, since all other stones are set in reference to it, thus
determining the position of the entire structure.
Over
time this ceremony became the ceremony of setting a stone in a prominent
location on the outside of a building, with an inscription on the stone
indicating the construction dates of the building and the names of
architect, builder and other significant individuals but, the rite of
laying a cornerstone is an important cultural component of western
architecture and metaphorically in sacred architecture generally.
Do you
remember, as the very last act of the Entered Apprentice degree you were
placed in the north-east corner of the Lodge and told by the Worshipful
Master that there you stand, an upright man and Mason, your feet forming
the angle of a square, and it was given you strictly in charge ever to
walk and act as such before God and man.
The
Ritual does not elaborate, but remember that the Ritual throughout is a
veil, and always masks far deeper truths than its surface-words exhibit
and here too, it's symbolism is strong and powerful - in this position
we were symbolically laying our spiritual corner-stone.
The
operative mason was engaged in the construction of a material temple,
formed, it is true, of the most magnificent materials which the quarries
of Palestine, the mountains of Lebanon, and the wealth of the kingdom
could contribute; but we, as speculative masons engage ourselves with
the erection of a spiritual house, - a house not
made with hands, - in which, the stones, cedar, gold, and precious
stones, are substituted with the virtues of the heart, the pure emotions
of the soul, and the warm affections from the hidden fountain of the
spirit.
The
Speculative Mason, then, if he rightly comprehends the scope and design
of his profession, is occupied, from his very first admission into the
Order until the close of his labors and his life, in the construction,
the adornment, and the completion of this Spiritual Temple of his body.
He lays its foundation in a firm belief and an unshaken confidence in
the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. This he has affirmed on his
first entrance into the Lodge and without it, he can advance no further
than the threshold of initiation. On this basis he prepares his
materials with the Gauge and Gavel of Truth, raises the walls by the
Plumbline of Rectitude, Squares his work with the Square of Virtue,
connects the whole with the Cement of Brotherly Love, and thus skilfully
erects the living edifice of thoughts, and words, and deeds, in
accordance with the designs laid down by the Master Architect of the
Universe in the great Book of Revelation.
In
Masonry, the north has ever been deemed the place of darkness; and in
obedience to this principle, no symbolic light is allowed to illuminate
the northern part of the Lodge. On the other hand, the east in Masonry
is symbolic of Masonic Light or universal knowledge.
The N.E.
corner is a point of much symbolic significance. It is the meeting place
of N. and E., of darkness and light, and, therefore, representative of
the Candidate's own condition. Standing at this point, he can
henceforward at will step onward to the E., or backward to the N.,
advancing further to the Light or relapsing into darkness; it will rest
with himself which direction his life will henceforth take.
The
candidate is placed in the north-east corner of the Lodge, because it is
symbolic of his relation to the Order and to the World. He has just
emerged From the profane world. Some of its imperfections are still upon
him; some of its darkness is still about him; and as such he belongs in
part to the north. But his pathway is directed towards the East in his
quest for light and truth. His allegiance, if I may use the word, is
divided. He is not altogether in darkness, nor altogether in light. If
he were wholly in darkness, the north would be the place to put him. If
he was wholly in light - a Master Mason, - the east would have received
him. But but he is neither; he is an Entered Apprentice, with some of
the ignorance of the world still with him, and some of the light of the
Order beaming upon him. One side of him faces the north, and the other
side faces the east. He is neither wholly in one part nor wholly in the
other part. He has just left the West, travelling East in search of
light and therefore rightly placed in the north-east corner of the
Lodge, the joining point of darkness and light. The dawn of a new day,
with darkness fading and light rising.
My,
Brothers, we can recognize three different levels why the novice is
placed in the north-east corner; Mentally, Physically, and Spiritually.
Masonry is a beautiful system of morality, veiled in allegory and
illustrated by symbols. Our Ritual gives us the allegory and the
symbols, but only of our own free will and accord through our own desire
will we be able to remove the veils.
As we
have seen, the Corner-Stone, as the foundation on which the entire
building is supposed to rest, is the most important stone in the whole
edifice. By extension, that teaches us, as Master Masons, that we have
placed another corner stone for Masonry. We, the Craft, are charged with
giving him all our knowledge of Masonry and hope and pray that he, in
turn, will become qualified to pass it on, for if he never becomes
qualified, the teachings of Masonry will die with us.
The
Entered Apprentice is charged with, first becoming qualified to receive
this knowledge, second with receiving and understanding it, and third
and most important, seeing that only those duly qualified receive it
from him. In this manner the teachings of Masonry have been preserved
over the ages. As the Corner-Stone of Masonry he is the link between
those that have the knowledge and the ones that will come to Masonry in
the future to find the knowledge.
I cannot
too strongly impress upon you, Brethren, the fact that, throughout our
rituals and our lectures, the references made to the Lodge are not to
the building in which we meet. That building itself is intended to be
but a symbol, a veil of allegory concealing something else. �Know ye
not� says the great initiate St. Paul, �that ye are the temples of the
Most High; and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?� The real Lodge
referred to throughout our rituals is our own individual personalities,
and if we interpret our doctrine in the light of this fact we shall find
that it reveals an entirely new aspect of the purpose of our Craft.
It is
after investment with the apron and the working tools, that the
initiate is placed in the N.E. corner. Thereby he is intended to learn
that at his birth into this world the foundation-stone of his spiritual
life was duly and truly laid and implanted within himself; and he is
charged to develop it; to create a superstructure upon it. Two paths are
open to him at this stage, a path of light and a path of darkness; a
path of good and a path of evil. The N.E. corner is the symbolical
dividing place between the two. In symbolical language, the N. always
signifies the place of imperfection and undevelopment, it represents the
condition of the spiritually unenlightened man; the novice in whom the
spiritual light latent within him has not yet risen above the horizon of
consciousness and dispersed the clouds of material interests and the
impulses of the lower and merely sensual life. The initiate placed in
the N.E. corner is intended to see, then, that on the one side of him is
the path that leads to the perpetual light of the East, into which he is
encouraged to proceed, and that on the other is that of spiritual
obscurity and ignorance into which it is possible for him to remain or
relapse. It is a parable of the dual paths of life open to each one of
us; on the one hand the path of selfishness, material desires and
sensual indulgence, of intellectual blindness and moral stagnation; on
the other the path of moral and spiritual progress, in pursuing which
one may decorate and adorn the Lodge within him with the ornaments a
jewels of grace and with the invaluable furniture of true knowledge, and
which he may dedicate, in all his actions, to the service of God and of
his fellow men And mark that of those jewels some are said to be
moveable and transferable, because when displayed in our own lives and
natures their influence becomes transferred and communicated to others
and helps to uplift and sweeten the lives of our fellows; whilst some
are immoveable because they are permanently fixed and planted in the
roots of our own being, and are indeed the raw material which has been
entrusted to us to work out of chaos and roughness into due and true
form.
This,
my Brethren, is why we are placed in the north-east corner of the Lodge
- as the Corner-Stone of Masonry.
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