Psalm cxxii.  “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.  Our feet shall stand within Thy gates, O Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together.  Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.  For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee.  Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.  For my brethren and companions’ sakes I will now say, Peace be within thee.  Because of the house of the Lord, our God, I will seek thy good.”

The reading of the foregoing is so timed as not to be fully ended until the Senior Deacon and candidate have performed the sixth revolution.  Immediately after this, the Senior Deacon and candidate arrive at the Junior Warden’s station in the South, when the same questions are asked and answers returned, as at the door (Who comes here, etc.).  The Junior Warden then directs the candidate to pass on to the Senior Warden in the West for further examination; where the same questions are asked and answers returned, as before.  The Senior Warden directs him to be conducted to the Right Worshipful Master in the East for further examination.  The Right Worshipful Master asks the same questions, and receives the same answers as before.  He then says, “Please to conduct the candidate back to the West from whence he came, and put him in the care of the Senior Warden, and request him to teach the candidate how to approach the East, by advancing upon six upright regular steps to the sixth step, and place him in a proper position to take upon him the solemn oath or obligation of a Most Excellent Master Mason.”  The candidate is conducted back to the West, and put in care of the Senior Warden, who informs him how to approach the East, as directed by the Most Excellent Master.  The candidate kneels on both knees, and places both hands on the leaves of an opened Bible, Square and Compass.  The Most Excellent Master now comes forward and says, “Brother, you are now placed in a proper position to take upon you the solemn oath or obligation of a Most Excellent Master Mason; which, I assure you, as before, is neither to affect your religion or politics.  If you are willing to take it, repeat your name and say after me.”  The following obligation is then administered: 

“I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in presence of Almighty God, and this Lodge of Most Excellent Master Masons, do hereby and hereon, in addition to my former obligations, most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, that I will not give the degree of a Most Excellent Master to any of an inferior degree, nor to any other person or persons in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother or brethren of this degree, and within the body of a just and lawfully constituted