Question--Where was you prepared to be made a Mark Master Mason? A. In
the room adjoining the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge
of such, duly assembled in a room or place, representing a workshop
that was erected near the ruins of King Solomon's Temple.
Q. How was you prepared? A. By being divested of all my outward
apparel and all money; my breast bare, with a cable-tow four times
about my body, in which situation I was conducted to the door of a
Lodge, where I gave four distinct knocks.
Q. What do these four distinct knocks allude to? A. To the fourth
degree of Masonry; it being that on which I was about to enter.
Q. What was said to you from within? A. Who comes there?
Q. Your answer? A. A worthy brother, who has been regularly initiated
as an Entered Apprentice, served a proper time as such; passed to the
Fellow Craft; raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason; and now
wishes further light in Masonry, by being advanced to the more
honorable degree of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. What further was said to you from within? A. I was asked if it was
of my own free will and accord I made this request; if I was duly and
truly prepared; worthy and well qualified; had wrought in the
quarries, and exhibited specimens of my skill and proficiency in the
preceding degrees; all of which being answered in the affirmative, I
was asked by what further right or benefit I expected to gain this
favor.
Q. Your answer? A. By the benefit of a pass-word.
Q. What was that pass-word? A. JOPPA.
Q. What did it allude to? A. The city of Joppa, the place where the
materials were landed for building king Solomon's Temple, after being
prepared in the forest of Lebanon, and carried there on floats (by
sea). [Masonic tradition informs us that the banks of this place are
so perpendicular that it was impossible to ascend them without
assistance from above, which was effected by brethren stationed there,
with this strong grip; this has been explained; which, together with
the word JOPPA, has since been adopted as a proper pass to be given
before entering any well-regulated Lodge of Mark Master Masons.]
Q. What further was said to you from within? A. I was bid to wait till
the Right Worshipful Master in the East was made acquainted with my
request and his answer returned.
Q. When his answer was returned, what followed? A. I was caused to
enter the Lodge.
Q. On what did you enter? A. On the edge of the engraving chisel,
under the pressure of the mallet, which was to demonstrate the moral
precepts of this degree, and make a deep and lasting impression on my
mind and conscience.
Q. How was you then disposed of? A. I was conducted four times
regularly around the Lodge and halted at the Junior Warden's in the
South, where the same questions were asked, and answers returned as at
the door.
Q. How did the Junior Warden dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be
conducted to the Senior Warden in the West, where the same questions
were asked, and the same answers returned as before.
Q. How did the Senior Warden dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be
conducted to the Right Worshipful Master in the East, where the same
questions were asked, and answers returned as before; who likewise
demanded of me from whence I came, and whither I was traveling.
Q. Your answer? A. From the West, and traveling to the East.
Q. Why do you leave the West and travel to the East? A. In search of
light.
Q. How did the Right Worshipful Master dispose of you? A. He ordered
me to be conducted back to the West, from whence I came, and put in
the care of the Senior Warden, who taught me how to approach the East,
the place of light, by advancing upon four upright regular steps to
the fourth step, my feet forming a square, and my body erect at the
altar before the Right Worshipful Master.
Q. What did the Right Worshipful Master do with you? A. He made a Mark
Master Mason of me.
Q. How? A. In due form.
Q. What was that due form? A. Both knees bent, they forming a square,
both my hands on the Holy Bible, Square, and Compass, my body being
erect; in which posture I took upon me the solemn oath or obligation
of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. Have you that oath or obligation? A. I have.
Q. Will you give it me? A. I will, with your assistance. [Here, as in
the preceding degree, you repeat after the Right Worshipful Master, I,
A. B., etc. See pages 67 and 68.]
Q. After your oath or obligation, what follows? A. Information was
brought that the Temple was almost completed, but the craft was all in
confusion for want of a certain keystone, which none of them had been
instrumental to make.
Q. What followed? A. King Solomon believing in confidence, that our
worthy Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, had completed this keystone
agreeable to the original plan, ordered inquiry to be made among the
Master Overseers, if a stone bearing a particular mark had been
presented to them for inspection; and on inquiry being made, it was
found that there had.
Q. What followed? A. King Solomon ordered search to be made for the
stone, when it was found, and afterwards applied to its intended use.
Q. What color was the stone? A. White.
Q. What did it allude to? A. To a passage in Scripture, where it says,
"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written,
which no man knoweth saving him that receiveth."
Q. What was that new name? A. The letters on the stone and the
initials of the words for which they stand, viz.: H. T. W. S. S. T. K.
S.
Q. Of what use is this new name to you in Masonry? A. It was the
original mark of our worthy Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, and is the
general mark of this degree, and the letters form the circle, in the
centre of which every brother of this degree places his particular
mark, to which his obligation alludes.
Q. What followed? A. I was more fully instructed with the secrets of
this degree.
Q. Of what do they consist? A. Of signs and tokens.
Q. Have you a sign? A. I have.
Q. What is it called? A. Heave over.
Q. What does it allude to? A. To the manner of heaving over work that
the Overseers said was unfit for the Temple; also the manner the
keystone was hove over.
Q. Have you any other sign? A. I have (at the same time giving it).
Q. What is that? A. The due-guard of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. What does it allude to? A. To the penalty of my obligation; which
is, that my right ear should be smote off, that I might forever be
unable to hear the word, and my right hand be chopped off, as the
penalty of an impostor, if I should ever prove wilfully guilty of
revealing any part of my obligation.
Q. Have you any further sign? A. I have.
Q. What is that? A. The grand sign, or sign of distress.
Q. What does it allude to? A. To the manner the Fellow Crafts carry
their work up to the Temple for inspection; also the manner I was
taught to carry my work, on my advancement to this degree.
Q. Have you any other sign? A. I have not; but I have a token (gives
it to him).
Q. What is this? A. The pass-grip of a Mark Master Mason.