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Reception.
The Compasses are peculiarly dedicated to this degree, and as a Master
Mason you are taught that between their extreme points are contained the
most important tenets of Freemasonry--Friendship, Morality and Brotherly
Love.
Perambulation.
The following passage of Scripture is introduced:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days
come not,
Nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in
them; while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not
darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong
men shall bow themselves,
And the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of
the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets,
When the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice
of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be
in the way,
And the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a
burden, and desire 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. (Eccl. xii, 1-7.)
[Illustration: Ecclesiastes XII.]
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Presentation of Working Tools.
The Working Tools of a Master Mason are all the implements of Masonry,
especially the Trowel.
The Trowel is an instrument used by operative masons to spread the
cement which unites the building into one common mass; but we, as Free
and Accepted Masons, are taught to use 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,
save that noble contention, or rather emulation, of who best can work
and best agree.