The symbolism of the gloves, it will be admitted, is, in fact, but a modification of that of the apron.  They both signify the same thing; both are allusive to a purification of life.  “Who shall ascend,” says the Psalmist, “into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.”  The apron may be said to refer to the “pure heart,” the gloves to the “clean hands.”  Both are significant of purification—­of that purification which was always symbolized by the ablution which preceded the ancient initiations into the sacred Mysteries.  But while our American and English masons have adhered only to the apron, and rejected the gloves as a Masonic symbol, the latter appear to be far more important in symbolic science, because the allusions to pure or clean hands are abundant in all the ancient writers.

“Hands,” says Wemyss, in his “Clavis Symbolica,” “are the symbols of human actions; pure hands are pure actions; unjust hands are deeds of injustice.”  There are numerous references in sacred and profane writers to this symbolism.  The washing of the hands has the outward sign of an internal purification.  Hence the Psalmist says, “I will wash my hands in innocence, and I will encompass thine altar, Jehovah.”

In the ancient Mysteries the washing of the hands was always an introductory ceremony to the initiation, and, of course, it was used symbolically to indicate the necessity of purity from crime as a qualification of those who sought admission into the sacred rites; and hence on a temple in the Island of Crete this inscription was placed:  “Cleanse your feet, wash your hands, and then enter.”

Indeed, the washing of hands, as symbolic of purity, was among the ancients a peculiarly religious rite.  No one dared to pray to the gods until he had cleansed his hands.  Thus Homer makes Hector say,—­

    [Greek:  “Chersi\ d’ a)ni/Ptoisin Dii\+lei/bein A(\zomai."]—­Iliad, vi. 266.

    “I dread with unwashed hands to bring
    My incensed wine to Jove an offering.”

In a similar spirit of religion, AEneas, when leaving burning Troy, refuses to enter the temple of Ceres until his hands, polluted by recent strife, had been washed in the living stream.

    “Me bello e tanto digressum et caede recenti,
    Attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo
    Abluero.”—­AEn. ii. 718.

    “In me, now fresh from war and recent strife,
    ’Tis impious the sacred things to touch
    Till in the living stream myself I bathe.”

The same practice prevailed among the Jews, and a striking instance of the symbolism is exhibited in that well-known action of Pilate, who, when the Jews clamored for Jesus, that they might crucify him, appeared before the people, and, having taken water, washed his hands, saying at the same time, “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.  See ye to it.”  In the Christian church of the middle ages, gloves were always worn by bishops or priests when in the performance of ecclesiastical functions.  They were made of linen, and were white; and Durandus, a celebrated ritualist, says that “by the white gloves were denoted chastity and purity, because the hands were thus kept clean and free from all impurity.”