Second Section
Question—Where was you prepared to be made a Mark Master Mason? A. In the room adjoining the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of such, duly assembled in a room or place, representing a workshop that was erected near the ruins of King Solomon’s Temple.
Q. How was you prepared? A. By being divested of all my outward apparel and all money; my breast bare, with a cable-tow four times about my body, in which situation I was conducted to the door of a Lodge, where I gave four distinct knocks.
Q. What do these four distinct knocks allude to? A. To the fourth degree of Masonry; it being that on which I was about to enter.
Q. What was said to you from within? A. Who comes there?
Q. Your answer? A. A worthy brother, who has been regularly initiated as an Entered Apprentice, served a proper time as such; passed to the Fellow Craft; raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason; and now wishes further light in Masonry, by being advanced to the more honorable degree of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. What further was said to you from within? A. I was asked if it was of my own free will and accord I made this request; if I was duly and truly prepared; worthy and well qualified; had wrought in the quarries, and exhibited specimens of my skill and proficiency in the preceding degrees; all of which being answered in the affirmative, I was asked by what further right or benefit I expected to gain this favor.
Q. Your answer? A. By the benefit of a pass-word.
Q. What was that pass-word? A. Joppa.
Q. What did it allude to? A. The city of Joppa, the place where the materials were landed for building king Solomon’s Temple, after being prepared in the forest of Lebanon, and carried there on floats (by sea). [Masonic tradition informs us that the banks of this place are so perpendicular that it was impossible to ascend them without assistance from above, which was effected by brethren stationed there, with this strong grip; this has been explained; which, together with the word Joppa, has since been adopted as a proper pass to be given before entering any well-regulated Lodge of Mark Master Masons.]
Q. What further was said to you from within? A. I was bid to wait till the Right Worshipful Master in the East was made acquainted with my request and his answer returned.
Q. When his answer was returned, what followed? A. I was caused to enter the Lodge.
Q. On what did you enter? A. On the edge of the engraving chisel, under the pressure of the mallet, which was to demonstrate the moral precepts of this degree, and make a deep and lasting impression on my mind and conscience.
Q. How was you then disposed of? A. I was conducted four times regularly around the Lodge and halted at the Junior Warden’s in the South, where the same questions were asked, and answers returned as at the door.
Q. How did the Junior Warden dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be conducted to the Senior Warden in the West, where the same questions were asked, and the same answers returned as before.
Q. How did the Senior Warden dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be conducted to the Right Worshipful Master in the East, where the same questions were asked, and answers returned as before; who likewise demanded of me from whence I came, and whither I was traveling.
Q. Your answer? A. From the West, and traveling to the East.
Q. Why do you leave the West and travel to the East? A. In search of light.
Q. How did the Right Worshipful Master dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be conducted back to the West, from whence I came, and put in the care of the Senior Warden, who taught me how to approach the East, the place of light, by advancing upon four upright regular steps to the fourth step, my feet forming a square, and my body erect at the altar before the Right Worshipful Master.
Q. What did the Right Worshipful Master do with you? A. He made a Mark Master Mason of me.
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 Compass, 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 assistance. [Here, as in the preceding degree, you repeat after the Right Worshipful 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 passage 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 pass-grip of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. What is the name of it? A. “Joppa.”
Q. What does it allude to? A. The city of Joppa.
Q. Have you any other token? A. I have.
Q. What is this? A. The real grip of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. What is the name of it? A. Mark well.
Q. What does it allude to? A. To a passage of Scripture, where it says, “Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looketh towards the East, and it was shut; and the Lord said unto me, son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and the laws thereof, and mark well the entering in of the house, with the going forth of the sanctuary.”
Q. Who founded this degree? A. Our three ancient Grand Masters, viz.: Solomon, King of Israel, Hiram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff.
Q. Why was it founded? A. Not only as an honorary reward, to be conferred on all who have proved themselves meritorious in the preceding degrees, but to render it impossible for a brother to suffer for the immediate necessities of life, when the price of his mark will procure them.
Q. A brother pledging his mark and asking a favor, who does he represent? A. Our worthy Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, who was a poor man, but on account of his great skill and mysterious conduct at the building of King Solomon’s Temple, was most eminently distinguished.
Q. A brother receiving a pledge and granting a favor, whom does he represent? A. King Solomon, who was a rich man, but renowned for his benevolence.