FIRST DEGREE.

"Entered Apprentices, at their making, are charged that they should travel honestly, love their fellows as themselves, and be faithful to the Lodge."—Ancient MS. in the reign of Edw. III.

ADDRESS TO A BROTHER AT HIS RECEPTION.

BROTHER: I salute you cheerily and affectionately by this endearing appellation. The communications made on our part, and the engagements entered into on yours, are mutual pledges of confidential trust and agreement, and tokens of an attachment sacred and inviolable.

From this moment we shall feel a special claim upon your friendship, and a special interest in your welfare: and we hope you will cultivate a warm attachment to that family of love into which you are now adopted; the pleasures and advantages of which you are beginning to realize. And we are certain that the better you understand, the more you will admire our principles and practices.

Our good opinion of you induced us to receive with pleasure your application; and vote, unanimously, to admit you into our Society. We have always wished to bring into our alliance the wise and the good; that, while we attach them to us, by the light we convey, we may borrow lustre for our Institution from their talents and their virtues. Let our expectations of you be all accomplished. Retain, we entreat you, that goodness of heart, that fair fame, that purity of intention, and love of virtue, of which we believe you now possessed; and of which the spotless vestment wherewith you are now girded, is at once the emblem, the badge, and the reward.

Be just to yourself and to us, to your profession and engagements; and it will be apparent to all that, in becoming a Mason, you become a better man.

Now look around you! Those, whose eyes, sparkling with joy, and countenances dressed in smiles, are directed towards you, are your brethren. Ready to discharge all the offices of that intimate relation, they now bid you welcome to their number and fellowship, to their affections and assistance, to their privileges and joys; and through me they promise to protect you by their influence and authority, to advise you by their abilities and skill, to assist you in exigence by their liberality and bounty, and to cheer you at all times with their kindness and love. And you will have the happiness of experiencing the truth of this ancient remark, that "Masons, being brethren, there exist no invidious distinctions among them;" and that they "love each other mightily, as hath been said; which indeed may not otherwise be, for good men and true, knowing each other to be such, do always love the more as they be the more good."

This, Brother, is the beginning of our Art. How successful is its progress, and how happy is its end, you may fully know if you are but attentive, faithful, and wise. Your diligence and activity in work, your skill in acquiring the instructions of your degree, and your zeal in the cause of Freemasonry, will lead you forwards to higher grades, to clearer views, and to nobler privileges.s

1 Ancient Masonic MS.

See the Bodleian MS. with the notes and explanations of the celebrated John Locke, Esq.

3 "Masonry is a progressive science, and not to be attained in any degree of perfection but by time, patience, and a considerable degree of application and industry; for no one is admitted to the profoundest secrets, or the highest honors of this fraternity, till by time we are assured he has learned secrecy and morality."

See a sermon entitled "Masonry founded on Scripture," by the Rev. W. Williams, 1752.

SECOND DEGREE.

"They that be laboring men, or Craftsmen, do it truly."

Ancient Charges, MS.

ADDRESS TO A BROTHER, ON HIS BEING CRafted.

We have now endeavored, Brother, to reward your diligence by conferring on you a higher rank in the scale of Masonry; making to you new and interesting discoveries, and assigning you work in an elevated apartment of the temple.

In behalf of the brethren, I congratulate your preferment. I assure you that the step you have taken is a safe one; and with a single eye you may see that your stagings are firm, your situation secure, and your prospects brightened.

You will now be instructed in the use of tools of a more artful and ingenious construction. Be not regardless of their symbolic application. By them you will learn to reduce rude matter into form, and rude manners into the more polished shape of moral and religious rectitude; becoming thereby, yourself, a more symmetrical part of the structure of human society. By the square of justice, learn to measure your actions. To the level of humility and condescension, reduce your disposition and demeanor; and by the plumb line of rectitude, regulate all your moral conduct.

The grade to which you are now advanced has its appropriate services and duties. It demands the exercise of strength, intellectual and moral; and it calls for the extension of relief to your brethren, according to your ability and their exigence.

While invincible as a Mason, and brave as a man, be sure to display the benignity of the friend, and the kindness of the brother.

You are to learn, now, to encounter trials with unyielding stability; and to endure tribulation with submissive patience. And you will find that Masonry prevents the pusillanimity of dejection, and silences the murmurs of discontent, by encouragements and supports peculiar to itself. But should a lot be your's in life, as we fervently hope, exempt from the pains of affliction and the pressure of adversity, let the lessons you are now acquiring teach you to help and relieve all your destitute and distressed brethren to the best of your power. Be willing to distribute to the necessitous a portion of those bounties your prosperity can spare; and ready to communicate to the afflicted some of those precious consolations which sympathy prepares and kindness administers. And your's be all the blessings promised the merciful by the God of mercy!

Brother, we have seen with pleasure your improvement in our Art, and are convinced that your industry and perseverance will soon lead you to the acquirement of greater knowledge and entitle you to greater honors.

"Maconnes teach the skylle of becommynge gude and parfyghte, withoughten the holpynges of fere and hope."-MS. Bodl."

THIRD DEGREE.

"Every one shall aunswere these three questions: How hast thou entered? How hast thou wrought? How hast thou lived? And if he can assoile these, and hath laud therein, he may be raised, and honoured, and rewarded."-Ancient MS.

ADDRESS TO A BROTHER AT HIS RAISING.

BROTHER: The arcana of our Craft are imparted gradually to its members, according to their improvement. As you have acquitted yourself well as an expert and ingenious craftsman, in reward for your diligence and ingenuity, we now admit you to our most confidential communications, and exalt you to the sublime degree of Master Mason.

This, brother, is a privilege which but few obtain: and must be the more grateful to you as the badges with which you are now invested, are conferred only on the worthy and the wise.

The affecting scene through which you have just passed must have deeply impressed your mind. Let the solemn cautions with which it was accompanied, and the excellent lessons it inculcates, be always remembered and invariably observed.

Support with dignity the respectable character you now bear.

Be just to your profession, and true to your engagements. Hold fast your integrity; and let no offers bribe and no threats intimidate you to betray your trust or violate your vow. Be faithful unto the death, and the acacian fragrance of a good report will embalm your memory. At the Supreme Grand Master's word your body will be raised in honor and your reward be glorious in the region of light and life eternal!