INVESTITURE, RITE OF.  That part of the ceremony of initiation which consists of clothing the candidate masonically.  It is a symbol of purity.

ISH CHOTZEB.  Hebrew, hewers of stones.  The Fellow Crafts at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.).

ISH SABAL.  Hebrew, bearers of burdens.  The Apprentices at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.).

J

JAH.  It is in Hebrew [Hebrew:  yod-heh] whence Maimonides calls it “the two-lettered name,” and derives it from the tetragrammaton, of which it is an abbreviation.  Others have denied this, and assert that Jah is a name independent of Jehovah, but expressing the same idea of the divine essenee.  See Gataker, De Nom.  Tetrag..

JEHOVAH.  The incommunicable, ineffable name of God, in Hebrew [Hebrew:  yod-heh-vau-heh], and called, from the four letters of which it consists, the tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name.

L

LABOR.  Since the article on the Symbolism of Labor was written, I have met with an address delivered in 1868 by brother Troue, before St. Peter’s Lodge in Martinico, which contains sentiments on the relation of Masonry to labor which are well worth a translation from the original French.  See Bulletin du Grand Orient de France, December, 1868.

“Our name of Mason, and our emblems, distinctly announce that our object is the elevation of labor.

“We do not, as masons, consider labor as a punishment inflicted on man; but on the contrary, we elevate it in our thought to the height of a religious act, which is the most acceptable to God because it is the most useful to man and to society.

“We decorate ourselves with the emblems of labor to affirm that our doctrine is an incessant protest against the stigma branded on the law of labor, and which an error of apprehension, proceeding from the ignorance of men in primitive times has erected into a dogma; an error that has resulted in the production of this anti-social phenomenon which we meet with every day; namely, that the degradation of the workman is the greater as his labor is more severe, and the elevation of the idler is higher as his idleness is more complete.  But the study of the laws which maintain order in nature, released from the fetters of preconceived ideas, has led the Freemasons to that doctrine, far more moral than the contrary belief, that labor is not an expiation, but a law of harmony, from the subjection to which man cannot be released without impairing his own happiness, and deranging the order of creation.  The design of Freemasons is, then, the rehabilitation of labor, which is indicated by the apron which we wear, and the gavel, the trowel, and the level, which are found among our symbols.”

Hence the doctrine of this work is, that Freemasonry teaches not only the necessity, but the nobility, of labor.