THE MASONIC MANUAL
A pocket Companion for the Initiated
Compiled and arranged by Robert Macoy
Revised Edition 1867
X.
ROYAL MASTER.
THIS degree is intimately connected with Royal Arch Masonry; and cannot be conferred upon any one who has not received the Royal Arch degree. It is short, but contains much valuable information, and enables us to comprehend those mysteries which are essentially necessary to a correct understanding of Royal Arch Masonry.
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The following passages of Scripture are appropriate to this degree:
And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the LORD: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was; and the candlesticks of pure gold; five on the right side and five on the left, before the oracle; with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold; and the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the censers, of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king Solomon for the house of the LORD. - 1 KINGS vii. 48. 50. 40.* * * * * *
"And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. - REV. xxii. 12-14.
The officers, their titles and stations in a Council of Royal Masters are as follows:
Most Illustrious Grand Master, as S., K of I in the East; Right Illustrious Grand Master, H. K. of T., on the right of the M. I. M. G.; illustrious Conductor of the Work, (Adoniram, as Rep. of H. A.,) in the West; Master of the Exchequer, as Treasurer, at the foot of the throne on the right; Recorder, at the foot of the throne, on the left; Conductor of the Council, near the South; Captain of the Guards, in the West, on the right; Sentinel, at the Door.
And he set the cherubims within the inner house; and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. - I KINGS vi. 27.
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The Ark, called the glory of Israel, which was seated in the middle of the holy place, under the wings of the cherubim, was a small chest or coffer, three feet nine inches long, two feet three inches wide, and three feet three inches high. It was made of wood, excepting only the mercy-seat, but overlaid with gold both inside and out. It had a ledge of gold surrounding it at the top, into which the cover, called the mercy-seat, was let in. The mercy-scat was of solid gold, the thickness of an hand's breadth; at the two ends were the two cherubim, looking inward towards each other, with their wings expanded, which, embracing the whole circumference of the mercy-seat, they met on each side, in the middle; all of the Rabbins say it was made out of the same mass, without any soldering of parts.
Here the Shekinah, or Divine Presence rested, and was visible in the appearance of a cloud over it. From hence the Bathkoll issued, and gave answers when GOD was consulted. And hence it is, that GOD is said, in the Scripture, to dwell between the cherubim; that is, between the cherubim on the mercy-seat, because there was the seat or throne of the visible appearance of his glory among them.
