Freemasonry, viewed no longer, as too long it has been, as a merely social institution, has now assumed its original and undoubted position as a speculative science.  While the mere ritual is still carefully preserved, as the casket should be which contains so bright a jewel; while its charities are still dispensed as the necessary though incidental result of all its moral teachings; while its social tendencies are still cultivated as the tenacious cement which is to unite so fair a fabric in symmetry and strength, the masonic mind is everywhere beginning to look and ask for something, which, like the manna in the desert, shall feed us, in our pilgrimage, with intellectual food.  The universal cry, throughout the masonic world, is for light; our lodges are henceforth to be schools; our labor is to be study; our wages are to be learning; the types and symbols, the myths and allegories, of the institution are beginning to be investigated with reference to their ultimate meaning; our history is now traced by zealous inquiries as to its connection with antiquity; and Freemasons now thoroughly understand that often quoted definition, that “Masonry is a science of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”

Thus to learn Masonry is to know our work and to do it well.  What true mason would shrink from the task?

Synoptical Index.

A

AB.  The Hebrew word AB signifies “father,” and was among the Hebrews a title of honor.  From it, by the addition of the possessive pronoun, is compounded the word Abif, signifying “his father,” and applied to the Temple Builder.

ABIF.  See Hiram Abif.

ABNET.  The band or apron, made of fine linen, variously wrought, and worn by the Jewish priesthood.  It seems to have been borrowed directly from the Egyptians, upon the representations of all of whose gods is to be found a similar girdle.  Like the zennaar, or sacred cord of the Brahmins, and the white shield of the Scandinavians, it is the analogue of the masonic apron.

ACACIA, SPRIG OF.  No symbol is more interesting to the masonic student than the sprig of acacia.

It is the mimosa nilotica of Linnaeus, the shittah of the Hebrew writers, and grows abundantly in Palestine.

It is preeminently the symbol of the immortality of the soul.

It was for this reason planted by the Jews at the head of a grave.

This symbolism is derived from its never-fading character as an evergreen.

It is also a symbol of innocence, and this symbolism is derived from the double meaning of the word [Greek:  akakia], which in Greek signifies the plant, and innocence; in this point of view Hutchinson has Christianized the symbol.

It is, lastly, a symbol of initiation.

This symbolism is derived from the fact that it is the sacred plant of Masonry; and in all the ancient rites there were sacred plants, which became in each rite the respective symbol of initiation into its Mysteries; hence the idea was borrowed by Freemasonry.