Master Mason Degree Scriptures Master Mason Degree Scriptures
"Remember
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them."
The lesson here conveyed: Think who made you and for what purpose you were made. Reflect, that as sentient being, you were molded by the hand of God and to him made responsible for the proper use of the faculties with which you have been endowed, for the proper employment of the years, and the acceptance of the opportunities offered during the period of active, vigorous manhood.
"While the evil day come not,
nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them."
The grievance of old age, the days of sorrow, the years of pain, when the natural decay of the faculties brings the "ills that flesh is prone to" and ushers in the years of mental and physical decrepitude, when there is no longer any pleasure in life.
"While the Sun, or the light,
or the Moon,
or the Stars be not darkened,
nor the clouds return after the rain."
The darkening of light and luminaries refer to coming blindness or extreme near-sightedness, and the clouds which return after the rain to a continuation of poor sight, even after much weeping.
"In the days when the keepers
of the house shall tremble,
"And the strong men shall bow themselves"
When the hands and arms that guard and protect this tenement of clay are palsied with old age and we are no longer firm and erect.
"And the grinders cease because
they are few,
And those that look out of the windows be darkened.
And the doors shall be shut in the streets."
The teeth now few in number and the eyes which are the windows through which the soul of a man looks out of are now curtained by the shadow of declining years. The ears lose their activities in old age.
"When the sound of the grinders
is low,
And he shall rise up at the voice of the birds,
And all the daughters of music shall be bought low.
The pressing of food upon the toothless gums; The soundness of slumber no longer his, the old man sleeps lightly and rises from restless bed at the crowing of the rooster at dawn; The daughters of music are the organs of speech.
"Also, when they
shall be afraid
of that which is high,
and fear shall be in the way.
And the almond tree shall flourish,
And the grasshopper shall be a burden,
and desire shall fail."
When the dizziness of old age prevents the mounting to high places; The silver hair of old age; no longer able to sustain the lightest weight and sensual desire no longer occurs.
"Because man goeth to his long
home,
And the mourners go about the streets"
That
undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns;
Those who sorrow at his death.
"Or even the silver chord be
loosed,
or the golden bow be broken.
Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain,
or the wheel broken at the cistern."
The golden bowl, the head, the silver chord, the spinal column which supports it. Golden and Silver denote the preciousness of man's life and nature. The wheel the heart, the pitcher the great vessels which pour blood into the arterial system.
"Then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was,
and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."
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