"So soon as any one has received the consecration of our Order, we say to
him that we are building a mystical temple;" and he adds that "this temple
which we Masons are building is nothing else than that which will conduce
to the greatest possible happiness of mankind." [210]
And another German brother, Von Wedekind, asserts that "we only labor in
our temple when we make man our predominating object, when we unite
goodness of heart with polished manners, truth with beauty, virtue with
grace." [211]
Again we have Reinhold telling us, in true Teutonic expansiveness of
expression, that "by the mystical Solomonic temple we are to understand
the high ideal or archetype of humanity in the best possible condition of
social improvement, wherein every evil inclination is overcome, every
passion is resolved into the spirit of love, and wherein each for all,
and all for each, kindly strive to work." [212]
And thus the German Masons call this striving for an almost millennial
result _labor in the temple_.
The English Masons, although they have not treated the symbolism of the
Order with the same abstruse investigation that has distinguished those of
Germany and France, still have not been insensible to this idea that the
building of the Solomonic temple is intended to indicate a cultivation of
the human character. Thus Hutchinson, one of the earliest of the symbolic
writers of England, shows a very competent conception--for the age in
which he lived--of the mystical meaning of the temple; and later writers
have improved upon his crude views. It must, however, be acknowledged that
neither Hutchinson nor Oliver, nor any other of the distinguished masonic
writers of England, has dwelt on this peculiar symbolism of a moral temple
with that earnest appreciation of the idea that is to be found in the
works of the French and German Masons. But although the allusions are
rather casual and incidental, yet the symbolic theory is evidently
recognized.[213]
Our own country has produced many students of Masonic symbolism, who have
thoroughly grasped this noble thought, and treated it with eloquence and
erudition.
Fifty years ago Salem Towne wrote thus: "Speculative Masonry, according to
present acceptation, has an ultimate reference to that spiritual building
erected by virtue in the heart, and summarily implies the arrangement and
perfection of those holy and sublime principles by which the soul is
fitted for a meet temple of God in a world of immortality." [214]
Charles Scott has devoted one of the lectures in his "Analogy of Ancient
Craft Masonry to Natural and Revealed Religion" to a thorough
consideration of this subject. The language is too long for quotation, but
the symbol has been well interpreted by him.[215]
Still more recently, Bro. John A. Loclor has treated the topic in an
essay, which I regret has not had a larger circulation. A single and brief
passage may show the spirit of the production, and how completely it
sustains the idea of this symbolism.
"We may disguise it as we will," says Bro. Lodor, "we may evade a scrutiny
of it; but our character, as it is, with its faults and blemishes, its
weaknesses and infirmities, its vices and its stains, together with its
redeeming traits, its better parts, is our speculative temple." And he
goes on to extend the symbolic idea: "Like the exemplar temple on Mount
Moriah, it should be preserved as a hallowed shrine, and guarded with the
same vigilant care. It should be our pearl of price set round with walls
and enclosures, even as was the Jewish temple, and the impure, the
vicious, the guilty, and the profane be banished from even its outer
courts. A faithful sentinel should be placed at every gate, a watchman on
every wall, and the first approach of a cowan and eavesdropper be
promptly met and resisted."
Teachings like this are now so common that every American Mason who has
studied the symbolism of his Order believes, with Carlyle, that "there is
but one temple in the world, and that is the body of man."
This inquiry into the meaning and object of labor, as a masonic symbol,
brings us to these conclusions:--
1. That our ancient brethren worked as long as the operative art
predominated in the institution at material temples, the most prominent of
these being the temple of King Solomon.
2. That when the speculative science took the place of the operative art,
the modern Masons, working no longer at material temples, but holding
still to the sacred thought, the reverential idea, of a holy temple, a
Lord's house to be built, began to labor at living temples, and to make
man, the true house of the Lord, the tabernacle for the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.
And, 3. Therefore to every Freemason who rightly comprehends his art, this
construction of a living temple is his labor.
"Labor," says Gadicke, the German masonic lexicographer, "is an important
word in Masonry; indeed, we might say the most important. For this, and
this alone, does a man become a Freemason. Every other object is secondary
or incidental. Labor is the accustomed design of every lodge meeting. But
does such meeting always furnish evidence of industry? The labor of an
operative mason will be visible, and he will receive his reward for it,
even though the building he has constructed may, in the next hour, be
overthrown by a tempest. He knows that he has done his labor. And so must
the Freemason labor. His labor must be visible to himself and to his
brethren, or, at least, it must conduce to his own internal satisfaction.
As we build neither a visible Solomonic temple nor an Egyptian pyramid,
our industry must become visible in works that are imperishable, so that
when we vanish from the eyes of mortals it may be said of us that our
labor was well done."
And remembering what the apostle has said, that we are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, we know that our labor is so to
build that temple that it shall become worthy of its divine Dweller.
And thus, too, at last, we can understand the saying of the old monks that
"labor is worship;" and as Masons we labor in our lodge, labor to make
ourselves a perfect building, without blemish, working hopefully for the
consummation, when the house of our earthly tabernacle shall be finished,
when the LOST WORD of divine truth shall at last be discovered, and when
we shall be found by our own efforts at perfection to have done God
service. For so truly is the meaning of those noble words--LABOR IS
WORSHIP.