Albert Gallatin Mackey
Manual of the Freemasonry Lodge
Monitorial Instructions in the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2020 OK Publishing
EAN 4064066392888
Table of Contents
Ancient Ceremonies of the Order.
Section I. Consecration, Dedication, Constitution, and Installation of the Officers of a New Lodge.
Section II. Annual Installation of the Officers of a Lodge.
Section III. Installation of the Officers of a Grand Lodge.
Section IV. Ceremony Observed at Grand Visitations.
Section V. Festivals of the Order.
Section VI. At Laying the Foundation Stones of Public Structures.
Section VII. Dedication of Freemasons' Halls.
Section VIII. Funeral Service.
Section IX. Regulations for Processions.
I. The Twenty-five Landmarks of Freemasonry.
"Antiquity considered Initiation as a delivery from a living death of vice, brutality, and misery; and the beginning of a new life of virtue, reason, and happiness."—Washington
TO
WINSLOW LEWIS, M. D.,
PAST GRAND MASTER OF MASSACHUSETTS,
THIS WORK
Is Deidcated,
NOT MORE
AS A TRIBUTE OF THE RESPECT WHICH I FEEL
FOR
HIS INTELLECTUAL ATTAINMENTS,
THAN
As a Token of that Sincere Affection long since won from me
BY THE
LARGENESS AND KINDNESS OF HIS HEART.
PREFACE.
The popularity which has been accorded to the "Book of the Chapter" has induced me to believe that a Manual of the Three Symbolic Degrees, prepared according to the same method which had guided the composition of that work, would be equally acceptable to the craft.
The present volume has, therefore, been written to supply what I have long supposed to be a desideratum in Masonic literature, namely, the means of enabling the young Mason or the recent initiate more thoroughly to understand the ceremonies through which he has just passed, and to extend his researches into that sublime system of symbolism of which in the ordinary lectures of the Lodge he has received only the faint out lines.
Many who anxiously desire to obtain "more light" on the obscure subject of Masonic symbolism, and who would, if possible, learn more of the true signification of our emblems and allegories, are either unwilling or unable to devote to these objects the time and labor requisite for poring over the ponderous volumes of Masonic writers in which these subjects are discussed.
To such students, a manual arranged so as to facilitate inquiry, by making every explanation correspond, in order of time and place, with the regular progress of initiation, must be of great value, because its study involves neither a great expenditure of time, which many can not well spare, nor does it demand more intellectual exertion than almost every one is able to bestow.
In obtruding another monitorial instructor on the fraternity, already too much burdened with this class of publications, I can offer only this improved method of teaching as my excuse. I have made no innovations, but have sought to accommodate the order of ceremonies to the system of lectures long since adopted and now generally prevailing in this country.
But these lectures are only the alphabet of Masonry. He who desires to appreciate the whole truth and beauty of Masonic symbolism and philosophy, must go still further and make profounder researches. To enable