My Brother:
You have now received all the light which this Lodge may impart to you of our ritual, our procedure and our work. But possessing these, you will know that we have not taught you all that a Master Mason can learn.
In this book, the Holy writings, which is the volume of the sacred law to Freemasons, is the wisdom of the ages. It is given you here not as the special book of any religion. No matter what your faith may be, you will find in this book of books counsel, instruction, and inspiration. You may worship the God you know by any name you wish and yet find here the story of His mercy and His goodness.
If you are troubled, here you shall find ease. If you are joyful, in these pages will you find triumphant songs to sing. If grief visits your house, here is comfort.
To Masons this book is "The Rule and Guide of our Faith." Much of our ritual is based upon it. All of our truths are taken from it. On it we have all taken our obligations. On all Masonic Altars it lies open when Lodge is open. Nowhere may a Lodge be held without it.
The Holy writings belong to all men, but Freemasons have a special reverence for it as law as well as revealed religion.
This is the actual bible upon which you were obligated. Your name is written in it. It is now my pleasure to present it to you in the hope that you will use it and learn it, thus making of yourself a better and squarer stone for that temple not made with hands into which this, your Lodge, tries to build of all its Master Masons.
May the Great Architect bless you and cause His peace to come to you through the pages of His book.
Bible Presentation As Might Be Given To a Mason of Christian Faith
My Brother, you are now a Master Mason. You have earned that right and privilege
to obediently sit with the craft in all their lawful Masonic workings. You have earned that
right and privilege by being a bearer of burden and a hewer of stone in the rock quarry.
By serving your apprenticeship well, you have now come to that coveted position in life
where you may become an overseer of the craft and travel in foreign countries where
you may practice your art and skill as a craftsman and receive the wages of a Master
Mason. It may be that in coming years you will travel afar, where noble deeds and
worthy efforts will be attributed to you work, even the laurel leaves of victory and the
honored purple of our fraternity may rest upon your head and shoulders. But it should
be remembered by you at all times that it was the Brothers of this Lodge that gave you
your working tools and taught you their Masonic uses.
By the twenty four-
divided into 24 equal parts was emblematic of the 24 hours in the day, which you were
taught to divide into three equal parts; whereby you found 8 hours for the service of God
and a distressed worthy Brother, 8 for your usual avocations, and 8 for refreshment and
sleep. They gave you the common gavel and taught you by its proper use you could
divest your heart and conscious of all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby fitting
your mind as a living stone, that when the appointed time should come that you should
cross over the river and be with Him that rules Supreme and that you would find your
place in that spiritual Temple, that house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.
They gave you the plumb, square, and level and taught you by their proper uses you
could add virtues to morality. The plumb admonishing you to walk uprightly in your
several stations before God and Man, squaring your actions by the square of virtue, and
remembering that you are traveling upon the level of time to that undiscovered country,
from whose bourn no traveler returns.
And tonight, My Brother, they gave you the trowel and informed you that operative
Masons use such an instrument to spread the cement that unites a building into one
common mass, but we as free and accepted Masons are taught to make use of it for a
more noble and glorious purpose-
friendship; that cement which has united us together as one of the greatest fraternities
the world has ever known, a Brotherhood extending from one corner of the globe to the
other.
But it now becomes my duty to inform you, My Brother, that there is one thing they
haven't given you as yet, and that is your set of plans; or better know in our Masonic
language as your trestle board. A trestle board being an instrument made use of by the
Masters of the craft to draw out designs upon, so that the entered apprentice and the
fellowcraft alike may go thereto to find out the course that they may pursue throughout
the day for a successful ending. So shall it be with the set of plans that I shall give you.
You can always go to it and find out the course that you may pursue, that you, too, may
come to a successful ending. And it now becomes my privilege and pleasure on behalf
of this Lodge to present you that set of plans-
Between the lids of this book contains one of the greatest set of plans that was ever
delivered unto man. It has the answers and solutions to every problem that has ever
arisen before man throughout the ages past, present, and will throughout the ages to
come. It will lead you through the darkest valleys and guide you to the greatest light. It
will be your strength in weakness. It will support you when you are strong. It will uphold
you in the hours of distress and comfort you in the hours of death. It has traveled more
highways, byways, and knocked on more doors and spoke to more people in its Mother
language than any other book on earth. But how you will choose to use it, My Brother,
is not for me to say. The great Apostle said, "Let every man work out his own salvation
with fear and trembling."
But let me assure you of one thing, My
Brother, whenever you have turned your Attention to this set of plans, it will
never fail you. You may fail it, but it will never, never fail you. And what can I say
further, My Brother, but take it and use it for the purpose which it was intended-
will guide you in your business, social, and family life, and when you shall stand before
the Great White Throne to be judged by Him that rules Supreme, may you not be found
wanting or lacking for the knowledge contained between the lids of this book. And now
in the name of Almighty God and this worshipful Lodge of ancient free and accepted
Masons, let me exhort you, My Brother, when you go out of this Lodge tonight to face
the world and the challenge that lies before you, face it, My Brother, as a man and a
Mason.
My Brother, the Bible is presented to you open to teach you that in the Lodge as well as in the home, the Great Light is ever available to those who seek the Word, Wisdom, and Love of God. So my Brother, I say to you "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness".
