The
ceremonies of the degree of Royal Master are very brief and
simple—briefer and simpler, indeed, than those of any of the
preceding degrees. Symbolically, however, they present one great
idea—the truly masonic one—of the laborer seeking for his
reward. Throughout all the
symbolism of masonry, from the first to the last degree, the search
for the WORD has been considered but as a symbolic expression for the
search after Truth. The attainment of this Truth has always been
acknowledged to be the great object and design of all Masonic labor.
Divine Truth—the knowledge of God—concealed in the old
Cabalistic doctrine, under the symbol of his Ineffable Name, and
typified in the masonic system, under the mystical expression of the
True Word, is the reward proposed to every mason who has faithfully
wrought his task. It is, in short, the “Master's wages.”
Now
all this is beautifully symbolized in the degree of Royal Master.
The reward had been promised, and the time had now come, as Adoniram
thought, when the promise was to be redeemed and the true word—divine
Truth—was to be imparted. Hence, in the person of Adoniram, or
the Royal Master, we see symbolized the speculative mason, who,
having labored to complete his spiritual temple, comes to the Divine
Master that he may receive his reward, and that his labor may be
consummated by the acquisition of Truth. But the temple that he has
been building is the temple of this life; that first temple which
must be destroyed by death, that the second temple of the future life
may be built on its foundations. And in this first temple the truth
cannot be found. We must be content with its substitute.
This,
then, is the symbolism of the Royal Master's degree.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
The
events recorded in the degree of Royal Master, looking at them in a
legendary point of view, must have occurred at the building of the
first temple, and during that brief period of time after the death of
the Builder which is embraced between the discovery of his body and
its “masonic interment.” In all the initiations into the
mysteries of the ancient world, there was, as it is well known to
scholars, a legend of the violent death of some distinguished
personage, to whose memory the particular mystery was consecrated; of
the concealment of the body and of its subsequent discovery. That
part of the initiation which referred to the concealment of the body
was called the aphanism, from a Greek verb which signifies “to
conceal,” and that part which referred to the subsequent
finding was called the euresis, from another Greek verb, which
signifies “to discover.” It is impossible to avoid
seeing the coincidences between this system of initiation and that
practiced in the masonry of the third degree.
But
the ancient initiation was not terminated by the euresis or
discovery. Up to that point the ceremonies had been funereal and
lugubrious in their character. But now they were changed from
wailing to rejoicing. Other ceremonies were performed by which the
restoration of the personage to life or his apotheosis or change to
immortality was represented, and then came the autopsy or
illumination of the neophyte, when he was invested with a full
knowledge of all the religious doctrines which it was the object and
design of the ancient mysteries to teach,—when, in a word, he
was instructed in Divine Truth.
Now
a similar course is pursued in masonry. Here also there is an
illumination, a symbolical teaching, or, as we call it, an
investiture with that which is the representative of Divine
Truth. The communication to the candidate in the Master's degree of
that which is admitted to be merely a representation of or a
substitution for that symbol of Divine Truth, the search for which,
under the name of the true word, makes so important a part of
the degree, however imperfect it may be, in comparison with that more
thorough knowledge which only future researches can enable the Master
Mason to attain, constitutes the autopsy of the third degree.
Now the principal event recorded in the degree of Royal Master, the
interview between Adoniram and his two Royal Masters, is to be placed
precisely at that juncture of time which is between the euresis, or
discovery, in the Master Mason's degree, and the autopsy, or
investiture with the great secret. It occurred between the
discovery, by means of the sprig of acacia, and the final interment.
It was at the time when Solomon and his colleague, Hiram of Tyre,
were in profound consultation as to the mode of repairing the loss
which they then supposed had befallen them.
We
must come to this conclusion, because there is abundant reference,
both in the organized form of the Council and in the ritual of the
degree, to the death as an event that had already occurred; and, on
the other hand, while it is evident that Solomon had been made
acquainted with the failure to recover, on the person of the Builder,
that which had been lost, there is no reference whatever to the
well-known substitution which was made at the time of the
interment.
If,
therefore, as is admitted by all masonic ritualists, the substitution
was precedent and preliminary to the establishment of the Master
Mason's degree, it is evident that at the time when the degree of
Royal Master is said to have been founded in the ancient temple by
our “first Most Excellent Grand Master,” all persons
present, except the first and second officers, must have been merely
Fellow-Craft Masons. In compliance with this tradition, therefore, a
Royal Master is at this day supposed to represent a Fellow-Craft in
the search of, and making his demand for, that reward which was to
elevate him to the rank of a Master Mason.
COUNCIL OF ROYAL MASTERS.
The
symbolic colors of a Royal Master are black and red. The black is
significant of the grief of
the Craft for the loss of their Operative Grand Master, and
the red, of his blood, which was shed in defense of his integrity.
Hence the apron and collar of a Royal Master should be black, lined
and edged with red. The apron must be triangular in form, in
allusion to the sacred Delta.
The
place of meeting is called the “Council Chamber,” and
represents the private apartment of the King of Israel, in which he
is said to have met his two colleagues during the erection of the
temple, for the purpose of consultation on all matters relating to
the craft.
When
a candidate is initiated, he is said to be “honored with the
degree of Royal Master.”
PRAYER AT THE OPENING A COUNCIL OF ROYAL MASTERS.
Almighty God, thou art from
everlasting to everlasting; unchangeable in thy being; unbounded and
incomprehensible. Thou didst speak into being this vast fabric of
the Universe. We adore and bow before thee with reverential awe, and
acknowledge our sins and misdeeds, for thou hast promised to heal our
backslidings and to love us freely. Look down from thy holy
habitation and bless us with thy approbation. Teach us to praise thy
holy Name aright, for thou art the God whom we fear, and to whom we
bow with humble submission. Lord, hear our prayer, and accept our
sacrifice of thanksgiving. So mote it be. Amen.
RECEPTION.
The
following passages of Scripture are appropriate to the reception of
the candidate in this degree:
“And
he set the cherubim within the inner house; and they stretched forth
the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the
one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall;
and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.”
— 1 Kings 6:27.
“And,
behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man
according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may
enter in through the gates into the city.” — Revelations
22:12-14.
THE EXTENDED WINGS OF THE CHERUBIM.
The
Cherubim were certain figures conspicuous in the ceremonial of the
Jewish tabernacle and temple. There is much diversity of opinion
among the learned as to their form, but all agree in this: that they
were furnished with wings, and that their wings were extended. Two
of them were placed in the tabernacle of Moses, in a stooping
attitude, at each end of the mercy-seat or covering of the ark, which
they overshadowed with their expanded wings. They were afterwards
transferred, with the Ark of the Covenant, of which indeed they
formed a component part, to the Holy of Holies of King Solomon's
Temple. In the intervening space, above the ark and beneath the
extended wings, were the Schechinah or sacred flame, that symbolized
the Divine Presence, and the letters of the ineffable name of
Jehovah. From this is derived that peculiar phraseology of the
sacred writers, who always speak of the Deity as dwelling between the
Cherubim; and whenever the Almighty is described as sitting on a
throne, or riding in a triumphal chariot, the Cherubim constitute an
important part of the description.
The
Cherubim were eminently and purely symbolical. But although there is
great diversity of opinion as to their exact signification, yet there
is a very general agreement that, under some one manifestation or
another, they allude to and symbolize the protecting and
overshadowing power of the Deity. When therefore the initiate is
received beneath the extended wings of the Cherubim, we are
taught by this symbolism how appropriate it is, that he who comes to
ask and to seek Truth, symbolized by the True Word, should begin by
placing himself under the protection of that Divine Power who alone
is Truth, and from whom alone Truth can be obtained.
ALPHA AND OMEGA.
Alpha
(A) is the first and Omega
(Ω)
is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, equivalent to the beginning
and the end or the first and the last of any thing. The Jews used
the first and last letters of their alphabet, Aleph
(א) and Tav
(ת), to
express the same idea, but St. John, although a Hebrew, used the
Grecian letters in the Apocalypse, because he was writing in the
Greek language.
Alpha
and Omega are adopted as a symbol of the Deity, and are found
repeatedly in mediaeval paintings attached to representations of
Christ as God. Prudentius, in his 9th hymn, gives expression to this
idea:—
“Alpha
et Omega cognominatur ipse; fons et clausula, Omnium quae sunt,
fuerunt, vel post futura sunt.”
“Alpha
and Omega is He called; the source and end of all things which are,
which were, or will hereafter be.”
The
passage from the Apocalypse, which is read during the
circumambulation, is therefore exceedingly appropriate in referring,
by this symbol, to the eternal nature of God, since that is the great
truth for which, under the form of the WORD, the candidate is in
search.
THE HOLY OF HOLIES.
Previous
monitorial writers on this degree have given long descriptions of the
Holy of Holies, and of the Ark of the Covenant which was placed
within it. But the truth is (if we are guided by the tradition which
the degree itself relates), that at the time that the incidents which
it describes occurred, the Holy of Holies had not been finished, and
the Ark had not yet been deposited in it. The Holy of Holies was
still the resort of workmen who were engaged in its construction, and
was, as we learn from the very words of the legend, as related by
Adoniram, the place where the Builder prepared his designs; and the
Ark was not deposited until the temple was completed and dedicated,
neither of which circumstances had taken place at the time
commemorated in the ceremonies and legend of the degree.
With
the Ark of the Covenant the degree of Royal Master has no connection.
ADONIRAM.
The first notice that we have in
Scripture of Adoniram is in the Second Book of Samuel (20:24), where
he is referred to by the abbreviated form Adoram, as having been
“over the tribute” in the house of David, or, as Gesenius
translates it, “prefect over the tribute service, or tribute
master,” that is to say, in modern phrase, he was the chief
receiver of the taxes. Clarke accordingly calls him, “Chancellor
of the Exchequer.” Seven years afterwards
we find him exercising the duties of the same office in the
household of King Solomon, for it is said (1 Kings 4:6), that
“Adoniram, the son of Abda, was over the tribute.” And
lastly we hear of him as still occupying the same station in the
household of King Rehoboam, the successor of Solomon. Forty-seven
years after his first mention in the Book of Samuel, he is stated (1
Kings 12:18) to have been stoned to death while in the discharge of
his duty, by the people, who were justly indignant at the oppressions
of his master. Although commentators have been at a loss to
determine whether the tax-receiver under David, under Solomon, and
under Rehoboam, was the same person, there seems to be no reason to
doubt it, for, as Kitto says, “it appears very unlikely that
even two persons of the same name should successively bear the same
office, in an age when no example occurs of the father's name being
given to his son. We find also that not more than forty-seven years
elapsed between the first and last mention of the Adoniram who was
'over the tribute,' and as this, although a long term of service, is
not too long for one life, and as the person who held the office in
the beginning of Rehoboam's reign, had served in it long enough to
make himself odious to the people, it appears on the whole most
probable, that one and the same person is intended throughout.”
[Kitto, John., ed. Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, vol. I.
p. 72, see Adoniram.] All of this however is merely
conjectural. Even if the tax-receiver of Solomon was the man who
held the same office under Rehoboam, we still have no means of
knowing whether the odium he incurred was to be attributed to the
unpopularity of the office or the oppressive conduct of the officer.
In a Masonic point of view, we can only consider Adoniram as the
incorruptible laborer in the temple and the diligent searcher after
truth. He is, to the Mason, simply a symbol.
Adoniram
occupies an important position in the Masonic system, but the time of
action in which he appears is confined to the period occupied in the
construction of the temple. The legends and traditions which connect
him with that edifice derive their support from a single passage in
the First Book of Kings (5:13-14), where it is said that Solomon made
a levy of thirty thousand workmen from among the Israelites; that he
sent these in courses of ten thousand a month to labor on Mount
Lebanon, and that he placed Adoniram over these as their
superintendent. From this brief statement the Adoniramite Masons
have deduced the theory that Adoniram was the architect of the
temple, while the Hiramites, assigning this office to Hiram Ahif,
still believe that Adoniram occupied an important post in the
construction of that edifice. He has been called “the first of
the Fellow-Crafts;” is said, in one tradition, to have been the
brother-in-law of Hiram Abif, the latter having demanded of King
Solomon the hand of Adoniram's sister in marriage, and that the
nuptials were honored by the kings of Israel and Tyre with a public
celebration; while another tradition, preserved in the Royal Master's
degree, informs us that he was the one to whom the three Grand
Masters had intended first to communicate that knowledge which they
had reserved as a fitting reward to be bestowed upon all meritorious
craftsmen at the completion of the temple.
Adoniram
is the Masonic symbol of the seeker after truth.
THE TRIPLE TRIANGLE.
The
triple triangle is one of the oldest symbols of mystical science. It
is perhaps better known as the Pentalpha, from the Greek
pente, “five,” and Alpha, the
first letter of the Greek alphabet, whose form is precisely that of
the English letter A. It is so called because its peculiar
configuration presents the appearance of that letter in five
different positions.
In
the school of Pythagoras it was adopted as the symbol of health, and
each of the five salient points was represented by one of the five
letters of the Greek word
ΥΓEIA
“health.” Hence the Pythagoreans placed it at the
beginning of their epistles as a form of salutation. The early
Christians referred it to the five wounds of the Saviour, because,
when properly inscribed upon the representation of a human body, the
five points will respectively extend to and touch the side, the two
hands, and the two feet. Among the Druids the figure of the
pentalpha was worn on the shoes as a symbol of the Deity, and they
esteemed it as a sign of safety. It was drawn on cradles,
thresholds, and especially on stable doors, in order to keep away
wizards and witches, and has been used even at the present day as a
protection against demoniacal powers, and is probably the origin of
the well-known superstition of the horseshoe among the lower orders.
Thus Aubrey, the antiquary, says that “it is a thing very
common to nail horseshoes on the thresholds of doors, which is to
hinder the power of witches that enter into the house.” The
mediaeval Freemasons considered it a symbol of deep wisdom, and it is
found among the architectural ornaments of most of the ecclesiastical
edifices of the middle ages.
It
is, in Masonic symbology, sometimes called the “Shield of
David,” and sometimes the “Seal of Solomon,” and is
said to have been inscribed, with the tetragrammaton in the center,
upon the celebrated Stone of Foundation.
But
as a Masonic symbol it peculiarly claims attention from the fact that
it forms the outlines of the five-pointed star, which is
typical of the bond of brotherly love that unites the whole
fraternity, and alludes, therefore, to the five points of
fellowship. It is in this view that the pentalpha or triple
triangle is referred to in the Royal Master's degree, as representing
the intimate union that existed between our three Ancient Grand
Masters, and which is commemorated by the living pentalpha at the
closing of every Royal Arch Chapter.
THE BROKEN SQUARE.
The
square, containing four equal sides and four equal angles, is the
most perfect figure in geometry. Hence in Masonry it is the
universally acknowledged symbol of perfection. And as that condition
of perfection was so pre-eminently exhibited in the mystical union of
our three Grand Masters, whose Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty devised,
erected, and adorned the temple, so the Broken Square, by the
dismemberment of the perfect figure, is emblematic of that
imperfection and loss which ensued upon the untimely death of one of
the three.
If,
therefore, the Triple Triangle is peculiarly appropriate to the Royal
Arch, as symbolic of the perfect union of the Illustrious Three, so
is the Broken Square equally appropriate to the Royal Master, as
symbolic of the unhappy dissolution of that union by death. The
Broken Square is preeminently the symbol of this degree.
PRAYER AT THE CLOSING OF A COUNCIL OF ROYAL MASTERS.
Incomprehensibly holy, supremely
good and All-wise God, thou art our father and our friend; we are thy
people and the sheep of thy pasture. Prostrating ourselves before
thee, we acknowledge our unworthiness to appear in thy presence. But
thou hast said that thou art the Lord God, mercifully forgiving sin
and transgression. Pardon, we beseech thee, what thou hast seen
amiss in us at this time. Confirm and strengthen us in every good
work, and take us henceforth under thy holy protection. For thine is
the power and the glory, forever and ever. So mote it be. Amen.
BENEDICTION.
Let
brotherly love continue. Be ye careful to entertain strangers. And
may the God of peace and love be with us always. So mote it be. Amen.