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The Symbolism Of Solomon's Temple
CHAPTER XII
the symbolism of freemasonry
albert gallatin mackey
I have said that the operative art is symbolized—that is to say, used
as a symbol—in the speculative science. Let us now inquire, as the subject
of the present essay, how this is done in reference to a system of
symbolism dependent for its construction on types and figures derived from
the temple of Solomon, and which we hence call the "Temple Symbolism of
Freemasonry."
Bearing in mind that speculative Masonry dates its origin from the
building of King Solomon's temple by Jewish and Tyrian artisans,53
the first important fact that attracts the attention is,
that the operative masons at Jerusalem were engaged in the construction of
an earthly and material temple, to be dedicated to the service and worship
of God—a house in which Jehovah was to dwell visibly by his Shekinah, and
whence he was, by the Urim and Thummim, to send forth his oracles for the
government and direction of his chosen people.
Now, the operative art having, for us, ceased, we, as
speculative Masons, symbolize the labors of our predecessors by engaging
in the construction of a spiritual temple in our hearts, pure and
spotless, fit for the dwelling-place of Him who is the author of
purity—where God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and whence
every evil thought and unruly passion is to be banished, as the sinner and
the Gentile were excluded from the sanctuary of the Jewish temple.
This spiritualizing of the temple of Solomon is the first, the most
prominent and most pervading of all the symbolic instructions of
Freemasonry. It is the link that binds the operative and speculative
divisions of the order. It is this which gives it its religious character.
Take from Freemasonry its dependence on the temple, leave out of its
ritual all reference to that sacred edifice, and to the legends connected
with it, and the system itself must at once decay and die, or at best
remain only as some fossilized bone, imperfectly to show the nature of the
living body to which it once belonged.
Temple worship is in itself an ancient type of the religious sentiment
in its progress towards spiritual elevation. As soon as a nation emerged,
in the world's progress, out of Fetichism, or the worship of visible
objects,—the most degraded form of idolatry,—its people began to establish
a priesthood and to erect temples.54
The Scandinavians, the Celts, the Egyptians, and the
Greeks, however much they may have differed in the ritual and the objects
of their polytheistic worship, all were possessed of priests and temples.
The Jews first constructed their tabernacle, or portable temple, and then,
when time and opportunity permitted, transferred their monotheistic
worship to that more permanent edifice which is now the subject of our
contemplation. The mosque of the Mohammedan and the church or the chapel
of the Christian are but embodiments of the same idea of temple worship in
a simpler form.
The adaptation, therefore, of the material temple to a science of
symbolism would be an easy, and by no means a novel task, to both the
Jewish and the Tyrian mind. Doubtless, at its original conception, the
idea was rude and unembellished, to be perfected and polished only by
future aggregations of succeeding intellects. And yet no biblical scholar
will venture to deny that there was, in the mode of building, and in all
the circumstances connected with the construction of King Solomon's
temple, an apparent design to establish a foundation for symbolism.55
I propose now to illustrate, by a few examples, the method in which the
speculative Masons have appropriated this design of King Solomon to their
own use.
To construct his earthly temple, the operative mason followed the
architectural designs laid down on the trestle-board, or
tracing-board, or book of plans of the architect. By these he hewed and
squared his materials; by these he raised his walls; by these he
constructed his arches; and by these strength and durability, combined
with grace and beauty, were bestowed upon the edifice which he was
constructing.
The trestle-board becomes, therefore, one of our elementary symbols.
For in the masonic ritual the speculative Mason is reminded that, as the
operative artist erects his temporal building, in accordance with the
rules and designs laid down on the trestle-board of the master-workman, so
should he erect that spiritual building, of which the material is a type,
in obedience to the rules and designs, the precepts and commands, laid
down by the grand Architect of the universe, in those great books of
nature and revelation, which constitute the spiritual trestle-board of
every Freemason.
The trestle-board is, then, the symbol of the natural and moral law.
Like every other symbol of the order, it is universal and tolerant in its
application; and while, as Christian Masons, we cling with unfaltering
integrity to that explanation which makes the Scriptures of both
dispensations our trestle-board, we permit our Jewish and Mohammedan
brethren to content themselves with the books of the Old Testament, or the
Koran. Masonry does not interfere with the peculiar form or development of
any one's religious faith. All that it asks is, that the interpretation of
the symbol shall be according to what each one supposes to be the revealed
will of his Creator. But so rigidly exacting is it that the symbol shall
be preserved, and, in some rational way, interpreted, that it peremptorily
excludes the Atheist from its communion, because, believing in no Supreme
Being, no divine Architect, he must necessarily be without a spiritual
trestle-board on which the designs of that Being may be inscribed for his
direction.
But the operative mason required materials wherewith to construct his
temple. There was, for instance, the rough ashlar—the stone in its
rude and natural state—unformed and unpolished, as it had been lying in
the quarries of Tyre from the foundation of the earth. This stone was to
be hewed and squared, to be fitted and adjusted, by simple, but
appropriate implements, until it became a perfect ashlar, or
well-finished stone, ready to take its destined place in the building.
Here, then, again, in these materials do we find other elementary
symbols. The rough and unpolished stone is a symbol of man's natural
state—ignorant, uncultivated, and, as the Roman historian expresses it, "grovelling
to the earth, like the beasts of the field, and obedient to every sordid
appetite;"
56 but when education has exerted its salutary
influences in expanding his intellect, in restraining his hitherto unruly
passions, and purifying his life, he is then represented by the perfect
ashlar, or finished stone, which, under the skilful hands of the workman,
has been smoothed, and squared, and fitted for its appropriate place in
the building.
Here an interesting circumstance in the history of the preparation of
these materials has been seized and beautifully appropriated by our
symbolic science. We learn from the account of the temple, contained in
the First Book of Kings, that "The house, when it was in building, was
built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither, so that there
was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while
it was in building."
57
Now, this mode of construction, undoubtedly adopted to avoid confusion
and discord among so many thousand workmen,58
has been selected as an elementary symbol of concord and
harmony—virtues which are not more essential to the preservation and
perpetuity of our own society than they are to that of every human
association.
The perfect ashlar, therefore,—the stone thus fitted for its
appropriate position in the temple,—becomes not only a symbol of human
perfection (in itself, of course, only a comparative term), but also, when
we refer to the mode in which it was prepared, of that species of
perfection which results from the concord and union of men in society. It
is, in fact, a symbol of the social character of the institution.
There are other elementary symbols, to which I may hereafter have
occasion to revert; the three, however, already described,—the rough
ashlar, the perfect ashlar, and the trestle-board,—and which, from their
importance, have received the name of "jewels," will be sufficient to give
some idea of the nature of what may be called the "symbolic alphabet" of
Masonry. Let us now proceed to a brief consideration of the method in
which this alphabet of the science is applied to the more elevated and
abstruser portions of the system, and which, as the temple constitutes its
most important type, I have chosen to call the "Temple Symbolism of
Masonry."
Both Scripture and tradition inform us that, at the building of King
Solomon's temple, the masons were divided into different classes, each
engaged in different tasks. We learn, from the Second Book of Chronicles,
that these classes were the bearers of burdens, the hewers of stones, and
the overseers, called by the old masonic writers the Ish sabal, the
Ish chotzeb, and the Menatzchim. Now, without pretending to
say that the modern institution has preserved precisely the same system of
regulations as that which was observed at the temple, we shall certainly
find a similarity in these divisions to the Apprentices, Fellow Crafts and
Master Masons of our own day. At all events, the three divisions made by
King Solomon, in the workmen at Jerusalem, have been adopted as the types
of the three degrees now practised in speculative Masonry; and as such we
are, therefore, to consider them. The mode in which these three divisions
of workmen labored in constructing the temple, has been beautifully
symbolized in speculative Masonry, and constitutes an important and
interesting part of temple symbolism.
Thus we know, from our own experience among modern workmen, who still
pursue the same method, as well as from the traditions of the order, that
the implements used in the quarries were few and simple, the work there
requiring necessarily, indeed, but two tools, namely, the twenty-four
inch gauge, or two foot rule, and the common gavel, or
stone-cutter's hammer. With the former implement, the operative mason took
the necessary dimensions of the stone he was about to prepare, and with
the latter, by repeated blows, skilfully applied, he broke off every
unnecessary protuberance, and rendered it smooth and square, and fit to
take its place in the building.
And thus, in the first degree of speculative Masonry, the Entered
Apprentice receives these simple implements, as the emblematic working
tools of his profession, with their appropriate symbolical instruction. To
the operative mason their mechanical and practical use alone is signified,
and nothing more of value does their presence convey to his mind. To the
speculative Mason the sight of them is suggestive of far nobler and
sublimer thoughts; they teach him to measure, not stones, but time; not to
smooth and polish the marble for the builder's use, but to purify and
cleanse his heart from every vice and imperfection that would render it
unfit for a place in the spiritual temple of his body.
In the symbolic alphabet of Freemasonry, therefore, the twenty-four
inch gauge is a symbol of time well employed; the common gavel, of the
purification of the heart.
Here we may pause for a moment to refer to one of the coincidences
between Freemasonry and those Mysteries59
which formed so important a part of the ancient
religions, and which coincidences have led the writers on this subject to
the formation of a well-supported theory that there was a common
connection between them. The coincidence to which I at present allude is
this: in all these Mysteries—the incipient ceremony of initiation—the
first step taken by the candidate was a lustration or purification. The
aspirant was not permitted to enter the sacred vestibule, or take any part
in the secret formula of initiation, until, by water or by fire, he was
emblematically purified from the corruptions of the world which he was
about to leave behind. I need not, after this, do more than suggest the
similarity of this formula, in principle, to a corresponding one in
Freemasonry, where the first symbols presented to the apprentice are those
which inculcate a purification of the heart, of which the purification of
the body in the ancient Mysteries was symbolic.
We no longer use the bath or the fountain, because in our philosophical
system the symbolization is more abstract, if I may use the term; but we
present the aspirant with the lamb-skin apron, the gauge,
and the gavel, as symbols of a spiritual purification. The design
is the same, but the mode in which it is accomplished is different.
Let us now resume the connected series of temple symbolism.
At the building of the temple, the stones having been thus prepared by
the workmen of the lowest degree (the Apprentices, as we now call them,
the aspirants of the ancient Mysteries), we are informed that they were
transported to the site of the edifice on Mount Moriah, and were there
placed in the hands of another class of workmen, who are now technically
called the Fellow Crafts, and who correspond to the Mystes, or those who
had received the second degree of the ancient Mysteries. At this stage of
the operative work more extensive and important labors were to be
performed, and accordingly a greater amount of skill and knowledge was
required of those to whom these labors were intrusted. The stones, having
been prepared by the Apprentices60
(for hereafter, in speaking of the workmen of the
temple, I shall use the equivalent appellations of the more modern
Masons), were now to be deposited in their destined places in the
building, and the massive walls were to be erected. For these purposes
implements of a higher and more complicated character than the gauge and
gavel were necessary. The
square was required to fit the joints with sufficient accuracy, the
level to run the courses in a horizontal line, and the plumb
to erect the whole with due regard to perfect perpendicularity. This
portion of the labor finds its symbolism in the second degree of the
speculative science, and in applying this symbolism we still continue to
refer to the idea of erecting a spiritual temple in the heart.
The necessary preparations, then, having been made in the first degree,
the lessons having been received by which the aspirant is taught to
commence the labor of life with the purification of the heart, as a Fellow
Craft he continues the task by cultivating those virtues which give form
and impression to the character, as well adapted stones give shape and
stability to the building. And hence the "working tools" of the Fellow
Craft are referred, in their symbolic application, to those virtues. In
the alphabet of symbolism, we find the square, the level, and the plumb
appropriated to this second degree. The square is a symbol denoting
morality. It teaches us to apply the unerring principles of moral science
to every action of our lives, to see that all the motives and results of
our conduct shall coincide with the dictates of divine justice, and that
all our thoughts, words, and deeds shall harmoniously conspire, like the
well-adjusted and rightly-squared joints of an edifice, to produce a
smooth, unbroken life of virtue.
The plumb is a symbol of rectitude of conduct, and inculcates that
integrity of life and undeviating course of moral uprightness which can
alone distinguish the good and just man. As the operative workman erects
his temporal building with strict observance of that plumb-line, which
will not permit him to deviate a hair's breadth to the right or to the
left, so the speculative Mason, guided by the unerring principles of right
and truth inculcated in the symbolic teachings of the same implement, is
steadfast in the pursuit of truth, neither bending beneath the frowns of
adversity nor yielding to the seductions of prosperity.61
The level, the last of the three working tools of the operative
craftsman, is a symbol of equality of station. Not that equality of civil
or social position which is to be found only in the vain dreams of the
anarchist or the Utopian, but that great moral and physical equality which
affects the whole human race as the children of one common Father, who
causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall on all alike, and who has so
appointed the universal lot of humanity, that death, the leveller of all
human greatness, is made to visit with equal pace the prince's palace and
the peasant's hut.62
Here, then, we have three more signs or hieroglyphics added to our
alphabet of symbolism. Others there are in this degree, but they belong to
a higher grade of interpretation, and cannot be appropriately discussed in
an essay on temple symbolism only.
We now reach the third degree, the Master Masons of the modern science,
and the Epopts, or beholders of the sacred things in the ancient
Mysteries.
In the third degree the symbolic allusions to the temple of Solomon,
and the implements of Masonry employed in its construction, are extended
and fully completed. At the building of that edifice, we have already seen
that one class of the workmen was employed in the preparation of the
materials, while another was engaged in placing those materials in their
proper position. But there was a third and higher class,—the master
workmen,—whose duty it was to superintend the two other classes, and to
see that the stones were not only duly prepared, but that the most exact
accuracy had been observed in giving to them their true juxtaposition in
the edifice. It was then only that the last and finishing labor63
was performed, and the cement was applied by these
skilful workmen, to secure the materials in their appropriate places, and
to unite the building in one enduring and connected mass. Hence the
trowel, we are informed, was the most important, though of course not
the only, implement in use among the master builders. They did not permit
this last, indelible operation to be performed by any hands less skilful
than their own. They required that the craftsmen should prove the
correctness of their work by the square, level, and plumb, and test, by
these unerring instruments, the accuracy of their joints; and, when
satisfied of the just arrangement of every part, the cement, which was to
give an unchangeable union to the whole, was then applied by themselves.
Hence, in speculative Masonry, the trowel has been assigned to the
third degree as its proper implement, and the symbolic meaning which
accompanies it has a strict and beautiful reference to the purposes for
which it was used in the ancient temple; for as it was there employed "to
spread the cement which united the building in one common mass," so is it
selected as the symbol of brotherly love—that cement whose object is to
unite our mystic association in one sacred and harmonious band of
brethren.
Here, then, we perceive the first, or, as I have already called it, the
elementary form of our symbolism—the adaptation of the terms, and
implements, and processes of an operative art to a speculative science.
The temple is now completed. The stones having been hewed, squared, and
numbered in the quarries by the apprentices,—having been properly adjusted
by the craftsmen, and finally secured in their appropriate places, with
the strongest and purest cement, by the master builders,—the temple of
King Solomon presented, in its finished condition, so noble an appearance
of sublimity and grandeur as to well deserve to be selected, as it has
been, for the type or symbol of that immortal temple of the body, to which
Christ significantly and symbolically alluded when he said, "Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
This idea of representing the interior and spiritual man by a material
temple is so apposite in all its parts as to have occurred on more than
one occasion to the first teachers of Christianity. Christ himself
repeatedly alludes to it in other passages, and the eloquent and
figurative St. Paul beautifully extends the idea in one of his Epistles to
the Corinthians, in the following language: "Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" And again, in
a subsequent passage of the same Epistle, he reiterates the idea in a more
positive form: "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" And
Dr. Adam Clarke, while commenting on this latter passage, makes the very
allusions which have been the topic of discussion in the present essay.
"As truly," says he, "as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle and
in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls
of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were
holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to
the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy, and
should be employed in the service of God alone."
The idea, therefore, of making the temple a symbol of the body, is not
exclusively masonic; but the mode of treating the symbolism by a reference
to the particular temple of Solomon, and to the operative art engaged in
its construction, is peculiar to Freemasonry. It is this which isolates it
from all other similar associations. Having many things in common with the
secret societies and religious Mysteries of antiquity, in this "temple
symbolism" it differs from them all. FOOTNOTES
53. This proposition I
ask to be conceded; the evidences of its truth are, however, abundant,
were it necessary to produce them. The craft, generally, will, I presume,
assent to it.
54.
"The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the
shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them—ere he
framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of
anthems—in the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt
down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And
supplication."—BRYANT.
55. Theologians have
always given a spiritual application to the temple of Solomon, referring
it to the mysteries of the Christian dispensation. For this, consult all
the biblical commentators. But I may particularly mention, on this
subject, Bunyan's "Solomon's Temple Spiritualized," and a rare work in
folio, by Samuel Lee, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, published at
London in 1659, and entitled "Orbis Miraculum, or the Temple of Solomon
portrayed by Scripture Light." A copy of this scarce work, which treats
very learnedly of "the spiritual mysteries of the gospel veiled under the
temple," I have lately been, by good fortune, enabled to add to my
library.
56. Veluti pecora, quae
natura finxit prona et obedientia ventri.—SALLUST, Bell. Catil. i.
58. In further
illustration of the wisdom of these temple contrivances, it may be
mentioned that, by marks placed upon the materials which had been thus
prepared at a distance, the individual production of every craftsman was
easily ascertained, and the means were provided of rewarding merit and
punishing indolence.
59. "Each of the pagan
gods had (besides the public and
open) a secret worship paid unto him; to which none were
admitted but those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies, called
Initiation. This secret-worship was termed the
Mysteries."—WARBURTON, Div. Leg. I. i. p. 189.
60. It must be
remarked, however, that many of the Fellow Crafts were also stone-cutters
in the mountains, chotzeb bahor, and, with their nicer implements,
more accurately adjusted the stones which had been imperfectly prepared by
the apprentices. This fact does not at all affect the character of the
symbolism we are describing. The due preparation of the materials, the
symbol of purification, was necessarily continued in all the degrees. The
task of purification never ceases.
61. The classical
reader will here be reminded of that beautiful passage of Horace,
commencing with "Justum et tenacem propositi virum."—Lib. iii. od. 3.
62. "Pallida mors aequo
pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres."—HOR. lib. i. od. 4.
63. It is worth
noticing that the verb natzach, from which the title of the
menatzchim (the overseers or Master Masons in the ancient temple), is
derived, signifies also in Hebrew to be perfected, to be completed.
The third degree is the perfection of the symbolism of the temple, and its
lessons lead us to the completion of life. In like manner the Mysteries,
says Christie, "were termed τελεταὶ,
perfections, because they were supposed to induce a perfectness of
life. Those who were purified by them were styled τελουμένοι, and
τετελεσμένοι, that is, brought to perfection."—Observations on
Ouvaroff's Essay on the Eleusinian Mysteries, p. 183.
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