Q. What was the first libation?  A. To the memory of Solomon, King of Israel.

Q. What was the second libation?  A. To the memory of Hiram, King of Tyre.

Q. What was the third?  A. To the memory of Hiram, the widow’s son, who lost his life in defence of his integrity.

Q. What followed?  A. The Grand Commander then addressed me:  “Pilgrim, the Order to which you seek to unite yourself is founded on the Christian religion; let us, then, attend to a lesson from the holy evangelist.”

Q. What followed?  A. The Most Excellent Prelate then read a lesson relative to the apostasy of Judas Iscariot. (See Templar’s Chart.)

Q. What followed?  A. The Grand Commander then addressed me:  “Pilgrim, the twelve tapers you see around the triangle, correspond in number with the disciples of our Saviour while on earth, one of whom fell by transgression, and betrayed his Lord and Master; and as a constant admonition to you always to persevere in the paths of honor, integrity, and truth, and as a perpetual memorial of the apostasy of Judas Iscariot, you are required by the rules of our Order to extinguish one of those tapers; and let it ever remind you that he who can basely violate his vow and betray his secret, is worthy of no better fate than Judas Iscariot.” (The candidate extinguishes one of the tapers; the triangle is placed in the centre of the room, on which are twelve burning candles; between each candle stick a glass of wine; in the centre of the triangle is placed a coffin, on which are the Bible, skull and cross-bones.)

Q. What followed?  A. The relics were then uncovered, and the Grand Commander thus addressed me:  “Pilgrim, you here behold an emblem of mortality resting on divinity—­a human skull resting on the Holy Scriptures; it is to teach us that among all the trials and vicissitudes which we are destined to endure while passing through the pilgrimage of this life, a firm reliance on divine protection can alone afford us the consolation and satisfaction which the world can neither give nor take away.”

Q. What followed?  A. The Most Excellent Prelate then read a lesson to me with respect to the bitter cup.

Q. What followed?  A. The Grand Commander took the skull in his hand, and pronounced the following soliloquy:  “How striking is this emblem of mortality, once animated, like us, but now it ceases to act or think; its vital energies are extinct, and all the powers of life have ceased their operations; and such, my brethren, is the state to which we are all hastening; let us, therefore, gratefully improve the remaining space of life, that when our weak and frail bodies, like this memento, shall become cold and inanimate and mouldering in sepulchral dust and ruins, our disembodied spirits may soar aloft to the blessed regions, where dwell light and life eternal.”

Q. What followed?  A. The Most Excellent Prelate then read a lesson relative to the crucifixion. (See Templar’s Chart.)