Part 10 (1/2)
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 Compa.s.s, 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 a.s.sistance. [Here, as in the preceding degree, you repeat after the Right Wors.h.i.+pful 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s-grip of a Mark Master Mason.