Symbols and Allegories of the Second Degree.
Of the allegories peculiar to this Degree the most striking and important is that in which you acted the part of a man approaching King Solomon’s Temple; you came into its outer precincts, passed between the two pillars, climbed a winding stair and at last entered the Middle Chamber where our ancient Brethren received their wages of Corn, Wine and Oil. During certain stages of thisallegorical journey, you listened to various parts of a discourse, which Masonry calls the Middle Chamber Lecture.
We gradually achieve a greater appreciation of the great values of life; religion, which is man’s quest for God; brotherhood, which is a life of fellowship grounded in good will; art by which we enjoy the beautiful; citizenship, by which we enjoy the good of communal life; science, by which we learn the nature of the world we live in; literature, by which we enter into communion with the life of all mankind. A good life is one in which all such things are appreciated and enjoyed.
All this is commonplace, in the sense that it conforms to the experience of wise men everywhere. It is not commonplace in the sense that all men understand it or follow it. For many men do not understand it, or if they do, have not the will to follow it. Such men, when young, are so impatient or indolent or conceited, that they refuse to submit to a long and painful apprenticeship and reach adult life with all its tasks and responsibilities without training and without knowledge, blindly trusting to their luck.
This belief that the good things of life come by chance to the fortunate is a fatal blunder. The satisfying values of life, spiritual; moral, intellectual, or physical cannot be won life a lottery prize; they cannot come at all expect thought patient, intelligent and sustained effort.
Your instructions relative to the wages of a Fellow Craft given in the place representing the Middle Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple, are by no means completed at this point, for, in common with all other values of Freemasonry, they are a continuing experience. The “wages” are the intangible but no less real compensation for a faithful and intelligent use of the Working Tools, fidelity to your obligations, and unflagging interest in and study of the structure, purpose, and possibilities of the Fraternity. Such wages may be defined in terms of a deeper understanding of Brotherhood, a clearer conception of ethical living, a broader toleration, a sharper impatience with mediocre and unworthy, and a more resolute will to think justly, independently, and honestly.
You recall the prominence which was given the letter “G”. It is doubtful if this symbol in its present form was of any Masonic significance prior to the 18thcentury, but since that time it has come to have a double interpretation: first, as being the first letter of our name for that Deity in whose existence all Masons have professed belief, the continued expression of which is symbolized by the Volume of the Sacred Law upon our altar; second, as being the initial of Geometry, regarded as the basic science of Operative Masonry, now symbolizing to Speculative Masons the unchanging natural laws which govern the whole material universe. Together they symbolize that attribute of God revealed to us through Geometry: God as the great Intelligence of the universe. This is consistent, as the entire Degree makes its appeal to the intellect.
Such are some of the meanings of your allegorical entrance into Solomon’s Temple as a candidate in the Second Degree. Other symbols and allegories in the Degree may be interpreted in the light of these definitions when the degree as a whole becomes a living influence upon our lives, not only in the Lodge room, but in the world of human experience of which the Lodge room is a symbol.
Excerpted from “The Masonic Scholar: A Manual of MasonicEducation for Candidates”
Printed by the Grand Lodge F.&A.M. of California.