203 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
203 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.X July, 1932 No.7
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TRESTLE-BOARD AND TRACING-BOARD
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by: Unknown
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Often confused, the trestle-board and the tracing-board are actually
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alike only in the similarity of their names.
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In the Master Mason’s Degree we hear, “The three steps usually
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delineated upon the Master’s Carpet, are, etc.” “What is this
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Master’s Carpet?” is often asked by the newly-raised Mason. He is
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in a good Lodge the Master of which can give him an intelligent
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answer!
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Among our movable jewels the trestle-board is mentioned and described
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last, and with elaboration, but the Entered Apprentice looks long,
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and often in vain, for a piece of furniture which bears any
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resemblance to the trestle-board shown on the screen, or pointed out
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on the chart by the Deacon’s rod.
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We learn that Hiram Abif entered the Sanctum Sanctorum at high twelve
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to offer his devotions to Deity, and to draw his designs upon the
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“trestle-board.” On that day when he was found missing there was a
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holiday in the half-finished Temple, because there were no designs on
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the trestle-board by which the workmen could proceed. But except in
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the ritual of the Entered Apprentice Degree, no explanation is given
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in the Lodge as to what a trestle-board may be.
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Therefore it is somewhat confusing to find that the Lodge notice of
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meetings is sometimes called a Trestle-board and still more so when
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some Masonic speaker refers to the Great Lights as “The Trestle-
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board.”
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The tracing-board is a child on the Master’s carpet, which is a
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descendant of operative designs drawn upon the ground, or on the
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floors of the buildings used by operative builders for meeting
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purposes, and during construction hours as what we would term an
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architect’s office.
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Early operative builders plans, drawn upon floor or earth, were
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erased and destroyed as soon as used. When Lodges changed from
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operative to Speculative, the custom of drawing designs upon the
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Lodge floor was continued; the “designs” for the Speculative Lodge,
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of course, were the emblems and symbols for the construction of the
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Speculative Temple of Character.
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From their position such plans became known as Carpets
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the Master’s Carpet, of course was the design made upon the Lodge
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room floor during the Master’s Degree.
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Such carpets were drawn with chalk or charcoal. It was the duty of
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the youngest Entered Apprentice to erase this Carpet after the
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meeting, using a mop and pail for the purpose. Doubtless this use of
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chalk and charcoal first suggested to our ritualistic fathers the
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availability of these materials as symbols. Incidentally, how did it
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“not” occur to some good brother of the olden days to make a symbol
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of that mop and pail!
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Later it became evident that as no real Masonic secrets were drawn on
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the Carpet, the essentials of the institution were not disclosed by
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leaving them where the profane might see them. For convenience, the
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several symbols of the degrees were then painted on cloth and laid
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upon the floor; true Carpets now. Still later these Carpets were
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held erect on easels; in America the chart - in England the Tracing-
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board - is still a commonplace of Lodge furniture, although the more
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convenient and beautiful lantern slide is often used in this country
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where finances and electric light permit.
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Old Tracing-boards (charts) are already objects of interest to
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Masonic antiquarians, and those early ones which follow almost
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exactly the illustrations in Jeremy Cross’ “True Masonic Chart”
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(1820) are increasingly valuable as the years go by. Charts or
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Tracing-boards have performed a most valuable service; together with
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the printed monitors or manuals, they have kept a reasonable
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uniformity in the exoteric part of American work, thus making for a
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unity which is sometimes difficult for the newly made Mason to
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discover when he compares the esoteric work of one Jurisdiction with
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that of another.
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The trestle-board is so entirely different from the tracing-board
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that it is difficult to understand how so earnest a student as Oliver
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confounded them. Such mistakes made the most prolific of Masonic
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writers somewhat doubted as an authority.
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“Trestle” comes from an old Scotch word, “trest,” meaning a
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supporting framework. Carpenters use trestles, or “saw horses,” to
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support boards to be sawed or planed. A board across two trestles
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provided a natural and easy way to display plans. Hence the name
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trestle-board; a board supported by trestles, on which plans were
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shown or made.
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Mackey observes: “The trestle-board is at least two hundred years
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old; it is found in Pritchard’s “Masonry Dissected,” earliest of the
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exposes of Masonic Ritual. Here it is called “trestle-board,” but
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the object is he same, although the spelling of its name is
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different.
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Symbols differ in relative importance according to the truths they
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conceal. Eagle and flag are both symbols of American ideals, but the
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flag is far the greater symbol of the two. The eagle is the American
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symbol of liberty - the flag, not only of liberty, but also of
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government of, for and by the people; of equality of opportunity; of
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free thought; of the nation as a whole. If one disagrees with Mackey
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and considers the tracing-board a symbol, it is, at most, one of
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teaching and learning; the trestle-board, on the contrary, has a
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symbolic content comparable in Freemasonry to that of the flag of the
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nation.
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From the meanest hut to the mightiest Cathedral, never a building was
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not first an idea in some man’s mind. Never a pile of masonry of any
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pretensions but first a series of drawings, designs, plans. From Mt.
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St. Albans, newest of the glorious Cathedrals erected to the Most
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High, to Strassburg, Rheims, Canterbury, Cologne and Notre Dame, all
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were first drawn upon the trestle-board. Every bridge, every
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battleship, every engineering work, every dam, tunnel, monument,
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canal, tower erected by man must first be drawn upon paper with
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pencil and rule; with square and compasses.
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The ancient builders erected Cathedrals by following the designs upon
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the Master’s trestle-board. Where he indicated stone, stone was
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laid. Where he drew a flying buttress, stone took wings. Where he
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showed a tower, a spire pointed to the vault. Where he indicated
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carvings, stone lace appeared.
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Speculative Freemasons build not of stone, but with character. We
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erect not Cathedrals, but the “House Not Made With Hands.” Our
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trestle-board, “spiritual, Moral and Masonic” as the ritual has it,
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is as important in character building as the plans and designs laid
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down by the Master on the trestle-board by which the operative
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workman builds his temporal building.
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The trestle-board of the Speculative Mason, so we are told by the
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ritual, is to be found in “the great books of nature and revelation.”
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Mackey considers that the Volume of the Sacred Law as the real
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trestle-board of Speculative Freemasonry. He Says:
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“The trestle-board is then the symbol of the natural and moral law.
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Like every other symbol of the Order, it is universal and tolerant in
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its application; and while, as Christian Masons, we cling with
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unfaltering integrity to the explanation which makes the scriptures
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of both dispensations our trestle-board, we permit Jewish and
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Mohammedan brethren to content themselves with the books of the Old
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Testament or Koran. Masonry does not interfere with the peculiar
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form or development of any one’s religious faith. All that it asks
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is that the interpretation of the symbol shall be in accordance to
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what each one supposes to be the revealed will of the Creator. But
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so rigidly is it that the symbol shall be preserved and, in some
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rational way, interpreted, that it peremptorily excludes the atheist
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from its communion, because, believing in no Supreme Being - no
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Divine Architect - he must necessarily be without a spiritual
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trestle-board on which the designs of that Being may be inscribed for
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his direction.”
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Modern scholars amplify Mackey’s dictum rather than quarrel with it.
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The ritual speaks of the great books of nature and revelation, and by
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“revelation” the Speculative Freemason understands the Volume of
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Sacred Law. But the great book of nature must not be forgotten when
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considering just what is and what is not the trestle-board of
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Freemasonry.
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For Nature is the source of all knowledge. Without the “The great
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Book of Nature” to read, man could not learn, no matter what his
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power of reasoning and insight might be. All science comes from
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observation of nature. In the last analysis, all knowledge is
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science, therefore all knowledge comes from observation of nature.
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This is true of the abstract as of the concrete. Philosophy, ethics,
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standards of conduct and the like, are not products of natural
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evolution, but created by men’s minds. They are the flowers of
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natural philosophy. Few blossoms spring directly from the earth; the
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flowers grow upon the stalk which come from the ground. Indirectly,
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all that is beautiful in orchid, rose and violet came from the earth
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in which the roots of the plant find sustenance. So flowers of the
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mind are traceable back to observations of nature; had there been no
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nature to contemplate, man could not have imagined a philosophy to
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account for it.
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Therefore modern Masonic scholarship thinks of the Speculative
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trestle-board as “both” nature - and by inference, all knowledge. all
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philosophy, all wisdom and learning; wherever dispersed and however
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made available - and the Volume of Sacred Law, the “revelation” of
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the ritual.
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All great symbols have more than one meaning. Consider again the
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Flag of our country, which means no one essential part- liberty or
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equality or freedom to worship as we wish - but all these and many
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more besides. The trestle-board is a symbol with more than one
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meaning - aye, more meanings than “nature and revelation.”
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As each ancient builder had his own trestle-board, on which he drew
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the designs from which the workman produced in stone the dream in his
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mind, so each Mason has his own private trestle board, on which he
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draws the design by which he erects his House No Made With Hands. He
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may draw it of any one of many designs - he may choose a spiritual
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Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. He may make his edifice beautiful,
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useful or merely ornamental. But draw “some” design he must, else he
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cannot build. And the Freemason who builds not, what kind of a
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Freemason is he?
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Within the Master’s reach in every Lodge is some table, stand,
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pedestal or other structure on which he may lay his papers. Often
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this is considered the trestle-board because upon it the Master draws
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the design for the meeting. Any brother has a right to read into any
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symbol his own interpretation; for those to whom this conception is
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sufficient, it is good enough. But it seems rather a reduction of
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the great level of the little. A light house is, indeed, a house
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with a light, but he who sees but the house and the light, but fails
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to visualize those lost ones who by it find their way; who cannot see
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the ships kept in safety by its ceaseless admonition that this way
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lies danger; who cannot behold it as a symbol as well as a structure,
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misses its beauty. Those who see only the pedestal which supports
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the Master’s plans as a Speculative Trestle-board miss the higher
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meaning of the symbol.
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Lodge notices are not infrequently called trestle-boards, since on
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them the Master draws the design for the coming work, and sends them
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out to the Craftsmen. This too, seems belittling of the symbol,
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unless the brethren are led to see that so denominating the monthly
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notice is but a play on words, and not a teaching.
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A Freemason’s trestle-board, his own combination of what he may learn
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from man and nature, from the Book of Revelation on the Altar, and
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the designs in his own heart, is a great and pregnant symbol. It is
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worthy of many hours of pondering; a Masonic teaching to be loved and
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lived. Who makes of it less misses something that is beautiful in
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Freemasonry
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