Daily Mason

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THIS 17 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, by J. S. M. Ward. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564591336…. More >>

The York Rite And The Allied Degrees

A Mohammedan sect that became notorious from its removal of the celebrated black stone of the Kasba, and, after retaining it for twenty-two years, voluntarily surrendered it. Founded by Sarmata at Irak in the ninth century.

KATHARSIS

Greek, The ceremony of purification in the Ancient Mysteries. Muller says that one of the important parts of the Pythagorean worship was the poean, which was sung to the lyre in spring-time by a person sitting in the midst of a circle of listeners: this was called the Catharsis or purification” (Dorians I, 384).

Masonic Poetry – Anonymous

FREEMASON’S MARCH

“The words of this song were first printed in Watt’s “Musical
Miscellany, (V. 111), 1730, under the title ‘The Freemason , 3
Health.’ It appears in many eighteenth century song collec­tions, the tune most commonly used appearing for the first time in ‘Pills to Purge Melancholy,’ (Vol. 2), 1719. It was popular well into the nineteenth century.”–The Builder.

Come, let us prepare,
We brothers that are
Met together on merry Occasion;
Let us drink, laugh and sing,
Our Wine has a Spring,
‘Tis a Health to an Accepted Mason.
The World is in Pain
Our Secret to gain,
But still let them wonder and gaze on;
Till they’re shewn the Light
They’ll ne’er know the right
Word or Sign of an Accepted Mason.
‘Tis This and ’tis That, They cannot tell what,
Why so many great Men in the Nation
Should Aprons put on,
To make themselves one
With a Free or an Accepted Mason.
Great Kings, Dukes, and Lords,
Have laid by their Swords,
This our Myst’ry to put a good Grace on,
And ne’er been asham’d
To hear themselves nam’d
With a Free or an Accepted Mason.
Antiquity’s Pride We have on our Side,
It makes a Man Just in his Station;
There’s nought but what’s Good
To be understood
By a Free or an Accepted Mason.
Then Joyn Hand in Hand,
T’each other firm stand,
Let’s be merry, and put a bright Face on;
What Mortal can boast
So noble a Toast,
As a Free or an Accepted Mason?

The Old Records of the Institution state that the Fraternity met annually in their General Assembly. The Halliwell or Regius Manuscript (line 475) says it is true that the Assembly may be held triennially, “Each year or third year it should be hold” but wherever spoken of in subsequent records, it is always as an Annual Meeting. It is not until 1717 that we find anything said of Quarterly Communications; and the first allusion to these subordinate meetings in any printed work to which we now have access is in 1738, in the edition of the Constitutions published in that year. The expression there used is that the Quarterly Communications were “forthwith revived.” This of course implies that they had previously existed; but as no mention is made of them in the Regulations of 1663, which speak only of an “Annual General Assembly,” we infer that quarterly communications were first introduced into the Masonic system after the middle of the seventeenth century. They are still retained by the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in the United States only by those of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Masonic Poetry – Anonymous

THE MASTER DEGREE
THE TRAVEL

Life’s brief moments, swiftly flying,
Speed us near and nearer Death;
Earth and Time are quickly dying,
Passing like a vapour breath.

Earth and all its passions perish,
Time and all its duties cease;
Wealth and power, that mankind cherish,
Bring us here no joy and peace.

Swift, swifter still, at every breath,
Near, and more near, steals silent Death;
Help! help us now, 0 Then Most High!
In this dread hour of mystery.

Masonic Poetry – Anonymous

APPRENTICE DEGREE
THE TRAVEL

Through midnight dark I feebly grope my way
Oppressed with fear;
I dread to go, and yet I dare not stay
With danger near;
Eternal Father! guide my feet aright,
And lead me, step by step, up to the Light.

I do not know the secret path I tread
Thro’ scenes unknown,
I humbly wander whither I am led­
Thy power I own;
Eternal Father! guide me through this night,
And lead me, -step by step, up to the Light.

The World, its pride and passions, wealth and power,
All, all are gone;
Blind, poor, and weak I trust, in this dread hour,
On Thee alone;
Eternal Father! guide me in Thy Might,
And lead me, step by step, up to the Light.

Masonic Poetry – Anonymous

AN ANCIENT MASONIC SONG
This song was first published in 1756
From The Freemason, London)

‘Tis Masonry unites mankind,
To gen’rous actions, forms the Soul;
In friendly Converse all conjoined,
One Spirit animates the whole.

Where’er aspiring Domes arise,
Wherever sacred Altars stand;
These Altars blaze into the skies,
The Domes proclaim the Mason’s Hand.
As passions rough the Soul disguise,

Till Science cultivates the Mind;
So the rude Stone unshapen lies,
Till by the Mason’s art refin’d.

Tho’ still our chief Concern and Care
Be to deserve the Brother’s Name:
Yet ever mindful of the fair,
Their kindest Influence we claim
Let wretches at our Manhood rail;

But they who once our Order prove,
Will own that we who build so well,
With equal energy can love

Among the traditions of the Order there is a legend referring to the tablets used by Hiram Abiff as a Trestle- Board on which to lay down his designs. This legend, of course, can lay no claim to authenticity, but is intended simply as a symbol inculcating the duty of every man to work in the daily labor of life after a design that will construct in his body a spiritual.

Masonic Poetry – Br. Roll Morris

MIND OF GOD

And can we know the mind of GOD,
A window to the will Supreme?
And is His purpose all exposed

To human eye, so faint and dim?
Look! open upward broadly lies
The WORD OF God–the unerring LAW,
Threatening and promising by turns,
As Masons yield to fear or love,

Oh, be it ours to walk therein
And at the end have sure reward!

Masonic Poetry – Br. J.K. Mitchell

MASONIC ODE

The following ode was composed for the occasion of laying the corner stone of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, which took place December, 1854

” 0! glorious Builder of the vaulted skies!

Almighty Architect of Earth and Heaven!
Come down and bless the Mason’s enterprise,
To Thee, 0 God, in Faith and Mercy given.
A home to Friendship, Truth and Love we raise,
Where, ages yet to come, shall sound our Master’s praise.

“0 make its deep foundations firm and fast!
0 bless the rearing of the mighty pile!
And when to Thee its spires look up at last,

Upon its finished work, the workmen smile!
Nor less the inner works of kindness bless!
And make the Mason’s labor-peace and happiness!

“Enlarge our spirit!-let our means improve!
Enforce our faith!-make strong our mystic ties!
Exalt our friendship, and refine our love!
And let our hearts be pure before Thine eyes,
So that, while God approves, the world may see
How great and good a thing is Ancient Freemasonry!

“Aid us to wipe the widow’s bitter tears!
Help us to hear the orphan’s lonely cries!
Be present when we soothe a Brother’s cares!
And be our strength in all calamities!
For what can we as one, or many, do,
Unless, 0 Lord! with Thee, our labors we pursue!

“0! therefore, Builder of the vaulted skies!
Almighty Architect of Earth and Heaven!
Come down and bless our holy enterprise,
To Thee, 0 God, in Faith and Mercy given.
A home to Friendship, Truth and Love we raise,

Where, ages yet to come, shall sound our Master’s praise.”