Master_Mason_Examination

MASTER MASON EXAMINATION:

Q: Are you a Master Mason?

A: I am.

Q: What induced you to become a Master Mason?

A: That I might obtain the Master’s word, travel in

foreign countries, work and receive Master’s

wages, and be thereby better enabled to support

myself and family, and contribute to the relief of

distressed worthy Master Masons, their widows

and orphans.

Q: What makes you a Master Mason?

A: My Obligation.

Q: Where were you made a Master Mason?

A: Within the body of a just and duly constituted

Lodge of Master Masons, assembled in a place

representing the Sanctum Sanctorum of King

Solomon’s Temple.

Q: How may I know you to be a Master Mason?

A: By certain signs and tokens.

Q: What are signs?

A: Right angles, horizontals, and perpendiculars.

Q: Advance a sign. Has that an allusion?

A: It has; to the position of my hands while taking

the Obligation.

Q: Have you a further sign?

A: I have.

Q: Has that an allusion?

A: It has; to the penalty of the Obligation.

Q: What are tokens?

A: Certain friendly or brotherly grips whereby one

Mason may know another in the dark as in the

light.

Q: Advance and give me a token. What is that?

A: The pass-grip of a Master Mason.

Q: Has it a name?

A: It has.

Q: Will you give it to me?

A: I did not so receive it; neither will I so impart it.

Q: How will you dispose of it?

A: Letter or syllable it.

Q: Syllable it and begin.

A: You begin.

Q: Begin you.

A: Tu;

Q: bal;

A: cain.

A: Tubalcain.

Q: Will you be off or from?

A: From.

Q: From what, and to what?

A: From the pass-grip of a Master Mason to the real

grip of the same.

Q: Pass. What is that?

A: The real grip of a Master Mason, or lion’s paw.

Q: Has it a name?

A: It has.

Q: Will you give it to me?

A: Place yourself in the proper position to receive it

and I will.

Q: What is the proper position to receive it.

A: On the Five Points of Fellowship.

Q: What are the Five Points of Fellowship?

A: Foot to foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand

to back, and cheek to cheek, or mouth to ear.

(Five Points of Fellowship are assumed as the

response is being given)

A: Ma;

Q: Ha;

A: Bone (whispered)

Q: Where were you prepared to be made a Master

Mason?

A. In a room adjoining the body of a just and duly

constituted Lodge of Master Masons.

Q: How were you prepared?

A: By being divested of all metallic substances,

neither naked nor clothed, barefoot, both knees

and breasts bare, hood-winked, and with a cable-tow

three times around my body, clothed as a

Fellow Craft, in which condition I was conducted

to a door of the Lodge and caused to give three

distinct knocks, which were answered by three

within.

Q: Why was the cable-tow three times around your

body?

A: To teach me that as a Master Mason I was under

a threefold tie to the Fraternity.

Q: To what do the three knocks allude?

A: To the Third Degree upon which I was then

entering.

Q: What was said to you from within?

A: Who comes here?

Q: Your answer?

A: Brother _____ ______, who has been duly

initiated an Entered Apprentice, passed to the

Degree of Fellow Craft, and now wishes further

Light in Masonry by being raised to the Sublime

Degree of Master Mason.

Q: What were you then asked?

A: If this was an act of my own free will and accord,

if I was worthy and well qualified, duly and truly

prepared, if I had made suitable proficiency in

the preceding degree, all of which being

answered in the affirmative, I was then asked by

what further right or benefit I expected to obtain

this important privilege.

Q: Your answer?

A: By the benefit of the pass-word.

Q: Had you the pass-word?

A: I had not. My conductor had and gave it for me.

Q: What were you then told?

A: Since I was in possession of all these necessary

qualifications, I should wait until the Worshipful

Master could be informed of my request and his

answer returned.

Q: What was his answer when returned?

A: Let him enter this Worshipful Lodge of Master

Masons and be received in due and ancient form.

Q: How were you received?

A: On the points of the Compasses, extending from

my naked right to my naked left breast, which

was to teach me that as within the breast are

contained the most vital parts of man, so between

the extreme points of the Compasses are

contained the most valuable tenets of

Freemasonry, which are Friendship, Morality, and

Brotherly Love.

Q: How were you then disposed of?

A: Conducted three times regularly around the

Lodge and to the Junior Warden 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: Directed me conducted to the Senior Warden in

the West, where the same questions were asked

and answers returned as before.

Q: How did the Senior Warden dispose of you?

A: Directed me conducted to the Worshipful Master

in the East, where the same questions were asked

and answers returned as before, who also

demanded of me whence I came and whither

traveling.

Q: Your answer?

A: From the West, traveling East.

Q: Why did you leave the West and travel East?

A: In search of further Light in Masonry.

Q: What was then ordered?

A: That I be re-conducted to the Senior Warden in

the West, who taught me how to approach the

East in due and ancient form.

Q: What is that due and ancient form?

A: Advancing on my left foot, bringing the heel of

my right to the heel of my left, thereby forming

the angle of a square, body erect, facing East.

Q: What did the Worshipful Master then do with you?

A: Obligated me as a Master Mason.

Q: How?

A: In due form.

Q: What is that due form?

A: Kneeling on my naked knees, both hands resting

on the Holy Bible, Square and Compasses, in

which due form I took the solemn Obligation of a

Master Mason.

Q: Have you that Obligation?

A: I have.

Q: Repeat it.

A: I, _____ ______, of my own free will and accord,

in the presence of Almighty God and this

Worshipful Lodge of Master Masons, erected to

Him and dedicated to the memory of the Holy

Saints John, do hereby and hereon solemnly and

sincerely promise and swear that I will keep and

conceal and never reveal any of the secrets

belonging to the Degree of Master Mason, which

I have received, am about to receive, or may be

hereafter instructed in, to any person unless it

shall be to a worthy Brother Master Mason, or

within the body of a just and duly constituted Lodge

of such, and not unto him or them until by due

trial, strict examination, or lawful Masonic

information, I shall have found him or them justly

entitled to receive the same.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

support the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of

the State of Nevada, also all the laws, rules, and

edicts of the same, or of any other Grand Lodge

from whose jurisdiction I may hereafter hail;

together with the by-laws, rules, and regulations

of this or any other Lodge of which I may become

a member, so far as the same shall come to my

knowledge.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

answer and obey all due signs and regular

summons sent me from the body of a just and

duly constituted Lodge of Master Masons, or

handed me by a worthy Brother of this degree, if

within the length of my cable-tow.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

help, aid, and assist all poor and distressed

Master Masons, their widows and orphans, they

applying to me as such, I finding them worthy,

and can do so without material to myself or family.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

keep the secrets of a worthy Brother Master

Mason, when communicated to me as such, as

secure and inviolate in my breast as they were

in his before communication.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not give the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress of a

Master Mason, except for the benefit of the Craft

while at work or for the instruction of a Brother,

unless I am in real distress; and should I see the

sign given, or hear the word spoken, I will hasten

to the relief of the person so giving it.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not give the substitute for the Master’s Word in

any other way or manner than that in which I

receive it, which will be on the Five Points of

Fellowship, and at low breath.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not wrong, cheat, nor defraud a Master Masons

Lodge, or a worthy Brother of this degree to the

value of anything, knowingly, nor suffer it to be

done by another, if in my power to prevent.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not knowingly strike a Brother Master Mason, nor

otherwise do him personal violence in anger,

except in the necessary defense of myself, family

or property.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not have illicit carnal intercourse with a Master

Mason’s wife, widow, mother, sister or daughter,

nor suffer it to be done by another if in my power

to prevent.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not be present at the initiating, passing, or raising

of an old man in dotage, a young man under

age, an irreligious libertine, an atheist, a person

of unsound mind, or a woman, knowing them to

be such.

Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will

not be present at the initiating, passing, or raising

of a candidate clandestinely, nor hold Masonic

intercourse with a clandestine Mason, or with one

who has been suspended or expelled, knowing

him to be such, until duly restored.

To all of which I do solemnly and sincerely

promise and swear, without any hesitation, mental

reservation, or secret evasion of mind in me

whatsoever; binding myself under no less a

penalty than that of having my body severed in

twain, my bowels taken thence, and with my body

burned to ashes, and the ashes thereof scattered

to the four winds of Heaven, that there might

remain neither track, trace nor remembrance

among man or Masons of so vile and perjured a

wretch as I should be, should I ever knowingly or

willfully violate this, my solemn Obligation of a

Master Mason. So help me God and make me

steadfast to keep and perform the same.

Q: After the Obligation, what were you asked?

A: What I most desired.

Q: Your answer?

A: Further Light in Masonry.

Q: Did you receive it?

A: I did, by order of the Worshipful Master.

Q: On being brought to Light in this degree, what

did you first behold?

A: The Three Great Lights in Masonry, as in the

preceding degree, with this difference: Both

points of the Compasses were above the Square,

which was to teach me that I had received, and

was entitled to receive all the Light that could be

conferred upon or communicated to me in a

Master Masons Lodge.

Q: What did you next behold?

A: The Worshipful Master approaching me from the

East, upon the step, under the due-guard and

sign of an Entered Apprentice; upon the step,

under the due-guard and sign of a Fellow Craft;

upon the step, under the due-guard and sign of

a Master Mason, who presented his right hand in

token of the continuance of friendship and

brotherly love, and invested me with the pass-grip

and pass-word, ordered me to rise, salute

the Junior and Senior Wardens and satisfy them

that I was a duly Obligated Master Mason, in

possession of the step, due-guard, sign, pass-grip

and pass-word.

Q: What was then ordered?

A: That I be re-conducted to the Senior Warden in

the West, who taught me how to wear my apron

as a Master Mason.

Q: How should a Master Mason wear his apron?

A: With the flap turned down.

Q: With what were you then presented?

A: The working tools of a Master Mason.

Q: What are they?

A: All the tools in Masonry, especially the Trowel.

The Trowel is an instrument used by operative

masons to spread the cement which unites the

building into one common mass; but we, as Free

and Accepted Masons, are taught to use it for

the more noble and glorious purpose of spreading

the cement of brotherly love and affection - that

cement which unites us into one sacred band or

society of friends and Brothers, among whom

no contention should ever exist, save that noble

contention, or rather emulation, of who best can

work and best agree.

Q: What was then ordered?

A: That I be re-conducted to the place whence I

came, invested with that of which I had been

divested, and returned to the Lodge to represent

our ancient operative Grand Master Hiram Abif.

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