Corn, Wine and Oil

Corn, Wine and Oil

by Bro. Oppong Clifford Benjamin

The entered apprentice or first degree of craft masonry has,in some reasons,been labeled the material degree or the gains. It was in this level of the industry that workers were paid a weekly allowance of corn, wine and oil.
Moreover, the priceless word which designates all Entered Apprentice Freemasons across the universe has also some allusions to wealth. The word, I dare say,you recollect is B**z.

When we read through the book of Ruth,we appreciate how the man noticed Ruth in his field,how generous he allowed her to harvest and dine with him. And when Ruth returned home to Naomi(her mother in-law), this is what Naomi had to say“That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian redeemers.”
The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55). Thus,it is also obligatory for an EA to provide relief.
Charity is much emphasized also during our initiation. The WM through out the initiation ceremony dilates on the excellences of charity. He awakens the charitable claims on every new made brother and impresses upon him to embrace the honourable duty of providing relief. Though charity is not only for the EA, it is
only in this degree that it is much mentioned.

Perhaps because the EA is symbolically a rich owner of large grains farm with thousands of slaves or harvesters,as he is ceremonially joined to a lineage of a rich man.
From the Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry by Albert Mackey, Vol. 1, page 244 , 1929
"Corn, wine and oil are the Masonic elements of consecration. The
adoption of these symbols is supported by the highest antiquity.
Corn, wine and oil were the most important productions of Eastern countries; they constituted the
wealth of the people, and were esteemed as the supports of life and
the means of refreshment.
David enumerates them among the greatest blessings that we enjoy, and speaks of them as: Psalm 104: 15: "wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart "
Therefore an Entered Apprentice being thus a rich man in his gains is reminded to ;
give a portion of his bread to feed the hungry, send a cup of his wine to cheer the sorrowful, and to pour the healing oil of your
consolation into the wounds which sickness had made in the bodies, or affliction rent in the heart, of your fellow-travellers.

But as we are not operative masons but rather free and accepted or speculative, we apply the symbolic meanings of these items.
Corn...The Staff of Life: In processions, the corn alone is carried in a golden pitcher, the wine and oil are placed in silver vessels, and this is to remind us that the first, as of necessity and the "staff of life" is of more importance and more
worthy of honor than the others, which are but comforts.
Wine: ...as a symbol of the inward refreshment of a good conscience is intended, under the name of the
Wine of Refreshment , to remind us of the eternal refreshments which the good are to receive in the future
life for the faithful performance of duty in the present.
Oil: The Hebrews anointed their Kings, Prophets and High Priests with oil mingled with the richest spices. They also anointed themselves with oil on all festive occasions, whence the expression in Psalm 14: 7"God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness "
...And, thus, your unspotted white lambskin Masonic apron is a symbol
reminding you of the necessity of the purity of heart, and uprightness of conduct in order to earn the
Masonic wages which are due you.

Your final wages will be earned when you leave this world and
travel to: "that House not made with hands",
where you will receive your Masonic wages for a life well spent
in the "coin" of that realm.
The working tool of the EA includes the 24 inch gauge which also teaches the act of helping a friend or brother in the times of distress and talks also about refreshment after labour,thus in correspondence with the wages.

And this is what The Great Architect of the Universe has to say to all Masons who never forgot that they were once initiated and were taught peculiar duties in their initiation,those who to their first degree obligation keep,their EA working tools use and their charge obey, this is what GAOTU sayeth unto thee;
King James Version
Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I
will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will
no more make you a reproach among the heathen.
I tell you my brothers,that by our initiation alone we are blessed beyond reproach,we are blessed beyond financial constraints,we are blessed to give to our fellow men and to influence positively on society,we are made whole and never half. By our initiation we are made billionaires in morality,personality and all aspects of a noble man.
Thank you for reading. IGYW.

Reference:
1. The Volume of Sacred Law (KJV)
2.Albert Mackey dissertation on
Wine, our Masonic Wages.
3. the Revised Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry by Albert Mackey,

The Myth of the Middle Chamber and its Allusion.

The Myth of the Middle Chamber and its Allusion.
By Bro. Oppong Clifford Benjamin

It was mentioned in some part of our history that , at the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, EAs and FCs were employed. The EAs received a weekly salary of corn, oil and wine, and the FCs went into the middle chamber to acquired their species. Now the question that seems to germinate is, could there have been a middle Chamber in a structure they were yet to build or were building? Sir Charles Warren while a Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge of research gave an expression to the best opinions of masonic scholars in saying that "there was never a middle Chamber in the temple " . Fellow crafts were only employed at the construction field, given a set of tools to work with. Let us give the benefit to the doubt,even if this chamber existed, they would not have been allowed to desecrate it by use as a pay office.

Albert Mackey, a conservative masonic writer, in his book symbolism of Freemasonry, points to us the same fashion I am drawing, he said and I quote "the whole legend is, in fact, a historical myth, in which the mystic number of the steps,the process of passing into the chamber, and the wages there received, are inventions added to or ingrafted on the fundamental history contained in the sixth book of Kings, to inculcate important symbolic instructions relative to the principles of the order".
The story was told of the winding staircase, which led to the middle Chamber,consisting of three, five and seven or more steps and peculiar manner of their ascension into the middle Chamber. We are made aware of their allusions to our history but not so much of the symbolic teachings they have or might have in our lives.
A myth has been defined as a philosophy in the making. And just like the ancient Egyptian priest or prophets, and like any other lesson Freemasonry teaches, it conceals the truth in so beautiful a ceremony such that, the normal man would be lost in its fantasy and romance. It takes the telegnostic to decrypt the hidden knowledge. Therefore making Freemasonry uncommon to the common man and tasteful to the tongue that searches amidst the many pleasures it bring may.

The passage from the Outer Porch to the Middle Chamber represents a definite step in the journey to enlightenment. The wages received in the Middle Chamber come as a result of achieving this distinction. Remember that the candidate had to first ascend the Winding Staircase in order to gain admission. The Fellowcraft must become proficient in the Seven Liberal Arts. A regular study of the subjects is demanded to gain admission to the outer doors leading to this Middle Chamber. It is when the initiate begins to perceive the synthetic vision of this Masonic education and a special intuition begins to dawn within his mind and conscience that he knows the inner doors are opening to that Chamber within. Outside, the candidate was shown a symbol of plenty, but here it has been established in fact.
The narrow sense of it is that, it represents the benefits derived from education, of mental culture, as learning is the peculiar work of a FC. Learning stores the mind (your mc) with facts and preserves one from bigotry and superstition, it is the possession of these riches that the winding staircase of the seven liberal arts and sciences bring you at last.

It is when we have painstakingly laboured,thus, study hard, that we can take our wages without scruple or diffidence. Without scruple , well knowing we are justly entitled to them, and without diffidence, from the great reliance we place on the integrity of our employers. Which is hereby, to say, education makes us confident and demand its corresponding wages. It prepares us for elevations in life and make it possible to influence others.
Brethren, lets study more, especially such of the liberal arts and sciences, as may lie within the compass of our attainment, without neglecting the ordinary duties of our station. Education in each is essential qualification, it makes us fit members of a regularly organized society.
Dare to be an educated mason, dare to enjoy the wages in your middle chamber (your mind).IGYW and wish you happy Easter.

References: Albert Mackey, Symbolism of Freemasonry

BITE A CAKE, TAKE A BEER AND MOVE ON.

BITE A CAKE, TAKE A BEER AND MOVE ON.

There comes a moment in every craftman's life,when you get carewore about the trade you have artistically built over years or months.
That period when you wish you could put the pencil down at last and suspire. It is the minute of your doom and you literally or metaphorically implode.

It is easier saying you are tired and need some rest,and it is another story making your respite become your day of reckoning. Every artist has something unique inside him that seems to conflagrate his muse or passion,it is only that some times,the hour produces some sort of otiosity.
However,I give it to you all in strong terms of recommendation,to bite a cake,take a beer if you do drink and move on,for the temple was not built half way. Until you throw the canopy or network over the pillars,you just cannot rest.
The times will be hard,in fact no one promised us a smooth run,hurdles are placed in our paths,to make the journey interesting and a memorable one, that when we are eventually labeled masters of the craft,it must be that we served the world in good faith,it must be that we ran a good race,it must be that we helped shape society.

Financial constraints,health breakdown and employment conundrum cannot impede on our order,for every man to himself a temple build,and at the end he shall be judged by the exquisite design and workmanship on the pillars he erected,our words and actions make the world dance in a style.
This I say to awaken the spirits of all the tired Masons,of which,I am one big victim. Forward to all haggard Masons to resuscitate their interest.
Bro. Oppong Clifford Benjamin
Excelsior Lodge No. 7670 EC.

Man Is a Builder and Artist.

Man Is a Builder and Artist.

He who finds the desire in either drawing, writing or building, has found the purpose of his existence and his soul will forever be at peace with nature.
Man has been always considered a builder and artist, and nowhere has he shown himself more significantly than the building he has erected or the words he has written or the gallery he has painted. When we stand before them - whether it be a mud house, a mansion, a pyramid, a pantheon, a poem, a short story, a painting or a picture - we seem to read into their soul. 

The builder or artist may have long gone, perhaps ages before, but here he has left something of himself, his hopes, his fears, his ideas, his dreams, his tears, his joy, his life and his death. Even in the remote recesses of the Andes, amidst the riot of nature, and where man is now a mere savage, we come upon the remains of vast, vanished civilizations, where art and science and religion reached unknown heights.
Wherever humanity has lived, and wrought, we find the crumbling ruins of towers, temples, tombs, and scrolls of vellum or parchment, and monuments of its industry and its aspiration. Also, whatever else man may have been -cruel, tyrannical, vindictive-his building or words always have reference to religion.
They bespeak a vivid sense of the unseen and his awareness of his relations to it. Of a truth, the story of the Tower of Babel is more than a myth. Man has ever been trying to build to heaven, and the story of the codex gigas, is proven beyond all possible incertitude, to be true, that man has ever written the biggest book, embodying his prayer and his dreams in brick and stone and the ink.

For there are two set of realities-material and spiritual-but they are so interwoven that all practical laws are exponents of moral law. These laws are found to be sacrifices, truth, Power, beauty, life, memory and , as the crowning grace of all that principle to which polity owes its stability, life its happiness, faith its acceptance, and creation its continuance-obedience. These laws are as applicable to the building of a character as to the construction of a cathedral, they are as relevant to humanity as the writing of our heart.
Therefore, my brother it is important that we build a superstructure perfect in all parts to the builder, the laws of nature and to the Great Architect of the Universe(God).
We are afraid of losing what we have, whether its our life or possession and property, But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life story and history of the world was written by the same hand.

Oppong Clifford Benjamin
(Modified words of Joseph Fort Newton and Additions)

An Interview With A Prospective Candidate

A conversation between Bro. Oppong Clifford Benjamin and an uninitiated Poet. People often would find it very difficult to ask certain questions about their doubts before joining a lodge. Eventually when they are initiated, they seem to blame their curiosity and fight their intuition. This poet took the time to understand what lies in masonry for him and this interview is not only helpful to the interested candidate but also to some brethren.

Poet : hello Mr. Oppong. How are you doing Sir?
Bro Cliff: Am mighty fine by the grace of God. You?

Poet: Am also good Sir.
Poet: The last time we met on Facebook, you spoke of morality and respect, what else should a wannabe need to have before joining Freemasonry?
Bro Cliff:Wow, did I mention those? well you will need all of them. Time and some money to spare. But above all commitment. But the basic requirements are a belief in a supreme being and you need to be free man of matured age of 21years.

Poet: oh OK, noted. People have the idea that,you become rich when you join the fraternity.how true is that?
Bro Cliff: Well, that is a truthful lie.
So to say you may be rich or poor depending on individual's industry and his commitment to the strict principles of Masonry in cooking a better self and will.

Poet: So it all comes back to how commitment you will be.
What about links ?
Bro Cliff: By links I don't know what you mean.

Poet: Meeting people who operate in your area of career or talent.
Bro Cliff: That is a bonus. But again much will be required of your human relations skills. No body goes to a lodge and discuss business opportunities or network, in fact no body will even ask you of your profession but a man who is skilled may easily strike a business conversation with any man what so ever.
And let me quickly put across that the wealthiest man is in the lodge and it is the same corner you will find the poorest man.

Poet: But why will a poor man be in the lodge with all these wealthy people? I thought the fraternity deals with helping each other?
Bro Cliff: That is a question nature can only have an answer to.
But suffice it to say, that charity characterizes every one of Mason's heart,and it is our usual custom to awaken the feelings of Masons to the wailings of a brother in distress. However, as the Chinese wise men will say,if you give a man fish you have fed him for a day,but if you teach a man how to fish,you have given him a reason to be satisfied.
Brothers who may be in distress and are ready to accept something for only the moment are sure to labour with hunger for a long time and those who are ready to learn how to solve their problems are sure to catch up.

Poet: I see. so its better to give a man a job than to feed him. Is the primary reason of joinin the fraternity for protection?
Bro Cliff: Protection against what?
Why am I asking as if there is some protection of a sort.

Poet: Against spiritual attacks , at least that's what we were taught while growing up.
Bro Cliff: No. That can't be guaranteed. Our only recourse is in our creator.

Poet: How many times do you meet in a month?
Bro Cliff: Once or none per lodge. However, if your mother lodge is not meeting, you can join other lodges as visitor. There is some sweet nectar in visiting, you just cannot wait to 'pollinate'.

Poet: Hahaha, interesting. Am learning a lot.
Bro Cliff: And am enjoying a lot. Your company.
Poet: Deep Grey on facebook was my junior at senior high school?
Bro Cliff: oh I see. Bro Grey, of which school?
Poet:Swedru Senior high school
I admire him for his business mindedness, he got ideas.
Bro Cliff: I see, didn't know that of him. Anyway I didn't only ask.
Poet: What will you say to people who claim you must kill a family member to join the freemasonry?
Bro Cliff: Ignorance. People,especially Africans, are afraid of knowledge. They readily would talk about science and nature when sitting in a class but talk about it in a sequestered place and you are titled all sort of evil.
A devoted mason will decipher the hidden mysteries of science and nature and eventually build a superstructure of moral self.

Poet: wow
Bro Cliff:sorry to flummox you but do I make some sense to the popular world?
If not, man has been in it integrality likened unto a builder, no process apart from construction best tells the story of growth.
So Masonry been a progressive building science and a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, is not only by chance or by bamboozling the ideologies and philosophies of life.
But it makes a man unleash a better self through graded lessons or principles. When best applied would yield a happy and successful life. Maybe that's why we have many members of opulence and influential in our societies.

Poet: oh ok it makes sense, meaning there are principles to follow to be successful.
Bro Cliff: Of course yes. And these are basic lessons you can lay hands on even at the market place. But unlike the uninitiated man,a mason is taught these principles in a drama and it indelibly imprint on his mind lessons, never forgotten.

Poet: I see. The first time i saw a pic of Lawyer Addison and my junior Deep Grey,i said wow. The only thing i said was that,deep grey has gone far because he is very successful.
Bro Cliff: Oh yes, the fraternizing with great men is one of the bonuses. In our circles,there is a famous statement 'on the level', which means that we are brothers and we meet without our positions or social status. Hence you will see an old man of about 65yrs freely mingling with young men.

Poet: I see.that's why i keep saying it will be weird to see a young Freemason who isn't successful in life.
Bro Cliff: Hahaha. Is it weird to see a young Christian unsuccessful in life?

Poet: Yes. With all the heap of wisdom and principles.
Bro Cliff: So you want to say every one in the church is successful?
Anyway how do you measure success in a life?

Poet: You must be self fulfilled.
Do you know Christians are the most poorest today. Sometimes i believe Africans have twist the principles of Christianity. We have people who say material things are not necessary because you wont carry it along when you die.
Bro Cliff: Yes. I agree with them.

Poet: But Cliff you and i know that,when you not happy or you are not financially stable, you cant serve God. How do you pay your tithe,bills,etc.
Bro Cliff: No,I don't know that truth yet.
I think it is our churches which are twisting Christianity, so I ask most Christians what they attend church for?

Poet: You can never have a position in your family or church if you are not financially stable.
Bro Cliff: Positions, they form part of vanity.

Poet: The difference between the mason and the ordinary man on the street is knowledge?
Bro Cliff: You may say so.Ancient knowledge valuable than gifts of gold. Know thy self and passions and know nature and you are a complete man. But these are not only privy to masons alone.

Poet: That's why i have always wanted to join the freemasonry. So i read a lot about it on Wikipedia n realized everything that i was told was wrong.
Bro Cliff: And what is that you were told?

Poet: About human sacrifice and its an occult group
Bro Cliff: Those are some wild conspiracy theories, which I don't know where it emanated from. Perhaps the Nigerian occult movies.

Poet: Hahahahaha. So can Christians be part of the fraternity?
Bro Cliff: Oh yes. Why not? 
In fact before you can be initiated you must express a belief in a supreme being(God) and all our secrets and teachings come out of the Bible dear.

Poet:ok. That it means there are secrets in which you will only get access to unless you re a mason?
Bro Cliff: Yes. And those secrets are in the Bible.

Poet: Seven books of Moses?
Bro Cliff: Don't know of that. Is it in the Bible?

Poet: No but people claim they were books by Moses.
What was your primary reason for joining the fraternity?

Bro Cliff: Anyway for me, I just needed to belong and feel the belonging, now that answers you and makes me keep my reason to my chest.

Poet:my last question.what are the punishments when a member unveils the secrets of the fraternity?
Bro Cliff: Will be branded a willfully perjured individual, void of all moral wealth and unfit to be accepted into a warranted and worthy lodge of free and accepted masons.
To clear your mind of confusion, he won't be accepted in our midst,that's all.

Poet: Thats great. Thank you for your time Sir Cliff. Check on you again soon.
Bro Cliff: Thank you too, even if you don't check on me, I know where to find you. Hahahahaha

This is it. I learned something from this.

Are Freemasons getting the Value for their Monies?

Are Freemasons getting the Value for their Monies?

So I'm coming from the house of my lodge Secretary and this thought of money for value crossed my shaking mind. It shakes, just like the trotro(public transport) I board from Atinga junction to Atonsu. Money. Value. I asked myself if at all members are getting the value of Freemasonry, a society of which they have paid so much money to belong. And just at somewhere the mate (conductor) jounces on my shoulder for his money, again, I thought about whether I have received a service worth the Ghc1.20p claim he was legally demanding of me. I don't know. Maybe not when I have not reached Atonsu yet or maybe yes.
I will pay you later when we have reached Atonsu, I said politely in Twi(the local dialect of Ashantis) and unusual of trotro mates, this one had patience. And neither the driver nor the mate bothered me. Or I was too busy typing this piece to pay any mind to what might seem a tincture.

I had gone to the secretary's house with a candidate for initiation, purposely to pay the required amount of money expected of every candidate for Freemasonry. He had in a white envelope the cedi equivalent of the pounds sterling component. That money goes to the United Grand Lodge of England, so it should have been changed into its sterling equivalent, the secretary humbly said. But a quick flash of the thoughts whisked by and I saw a duty in myself as a proposer. I asked myself simple questions yet complex ones. Is this man going to get out of Freemasonry the value for his money? Is he going to be patient to appreciate that, indeed, Masonry is expensive but worth it? After his initiation the only time he will enjoy his membership is to be here on whatsapp with brethren, but again, you ask yourself that, who pays so much just to end up in a whatsapp group? We might be the most expensive whatsapp group then.
 Who will talk about Freemasonry with him? Who will explain to him the initiation ceremony he will just in days pass through? Is he also going to be disappointed like I was after my passing? Like me, will he take exhilaration in doing his personal research about the craft? So many of these questions kept exciting my confused mind. You see, like any other man I have initiated, about fifteen of them, I will add him to Sustain the Craft Whatsapp group, hoping to entertain him while we do our very best to educate him, making him feel belonged and above all, sustaining his interest in the Fraternity, but again, who pays so much for just for a WhatSapp group? Though I might recite a portion of the charge after initiation to him come Saturday, I can only say for certain that it will make no sense to him. The part which says.....From the very commendable attention(no attention is paid, we know) you appear to have given to this charge, I am led to hope you will duly appreciate the value of Freemasonry and indelibly imprint on your heart the sacred dictates of truth, of honour, and of virtue. You see, no one appreciates this when said to him for the first time. We have learned to know. At least for the most.
I pray every new made brother to be patient, calm and remember his obligation keep. As humans, and worse as Africans, we find it very difficult to grow. We don't grow. Yet we write about growth. That is why it is not startling to see a Ghanaian man struggling to operate his new TV set while the instructions booklet stays in its wrapper undisturbed. Such is our nature. And we seem to like it that way. What point am I proving? Freemasonry, I have grown to appreciate it as a gentle man's club, more reading is required of its members. More thinking and more contemplation are needed. Patience. Industry. Your corporeal and mental faculties in their fullest energy will be employed most, thereby enabling you to exert those talents wherewith God has blessed you, as well to his glory as the welfare of your fellow creatures.

I am ashamed to mention that mentor-ship in the lodge as been so much downplayed that, even when the candidate's mind has been prepared for reading, there is no such a resource, at least, at this side of our masonic world. I am not the first to mention this and certainly won't be the last. Until you are raised you are not suppose to know anything about Freemasonry? I think that was a question right. To who? Please reader don't find trouble for me, I beg.

Else where mentorship is piquant in nature, at least I can commend the District Grand lodge of East Africa, and of South Africa. They have a printed booklet for the candidate on each ceremony he experiences. Thus for the initiation, passing and raising ceremonies. And they assign to each candidate at his initiation, a senior and experienced Mason, who happily will embrace the honourable duty of mentorship. He will rather walk to the new made brother and request for his telephone contact and his residential address. Obviously, the shy poor man who finds himself in the midst of odd faces, will feel loved and welcomed. So he won't hesitate to exchange details with his mentor.

This is a simple exercise we as Ghanaian masons are not doing hence endangering our fraternity. Right here, rumour has it that, the moment you are nearing a senior Mason, it is because you need a job or favour from him. So bad a thought of them. But hold on for a second, what would you ask if you are jobless and suffering? Certainly not for wisdom and peace, the senior Mason ain't God. You will surely ask for help from him or his connections. Is that too bad of young masons? (Rhetorical question)
Please dear new made brother, I pray you, zeal, passion, research, humility, trust, patience and industry to mention but few, I hope you will discover the value for your monies.
And the mate hinted me when we got to Atonsu, hopeful that I paid his money.Which I did pay. I think it was a good drive with so much traffic snarl up. But with patience and industry, I am finally here and have enjoyed the value of my money. I hope it makes some sense to the new brother.
Thank you.
Bro Oppong Clifford Benjamin
Excelsior Lodge No. 7670 EC

THE TEMPLE

THE TEMPLE

Brethren, I need not ask but for the purpose of recollection, condescend to answer me;Which Temple is the most popular in the life of Freemasonry?
Right glad am I to find your answers correct. The King Solomon's Temple, of course has the greatest connection with Freemasons. It has great allusions to our teachings and it is quite dramatically rhapsodic to relate our ceremonies in the craft Freemasonry to its contruction.
It, therefore becomes more than necessary that we learned a little about this historic superstructure, which has continued to shape good men into better ones even after its collapse.

The Temple was built on a table of rock which apexed a hill in Jerusalem called Mount Moriah. This particular location,according to Hebrew tradition, was where Adam was created and his boys Cain and Abel sacrificed. It was on same hill that Noah built his altar at the hiatus of the flood, where Abraham offered a his son Isaac a sacrificial lamb to God and it was on same Mount Moriah, David erected his altar. The Mohammedans named it the centre of the world and gate to Heaven, for it was on this same hill that,Mohammed convinced his followers that he had made his famous ascent to Heaven.
Brethren, it cannot be by mere coincidence that KS, H of Tyre and HA chose this same location to erect the first Temple at Jerusalem. Freemasonry,like I have always said, has more than can be seen or heard in a lodge room. Only the seekers decipher the encrypted.

Few realize how high the temple towered in the history of the olden world and how the story of its building haunted the legends and traditions of timed following. Great writers such as Durandus and Bunyan,used it as a symbol of religious truth. Until proven otherwise about some 50yrs ago, many masonic writers of old,thought that our craft had been organized during the building of the Temple,even in detail,that our order has survived from then to now. Archaelogical research has proved that the Temple was built by phoenician Masons since some phoenician Marks were uncovered on the original foundation stones. Though history does not recognize the actual connection between the building of the Temple and our fraternity, we still don't have to minify the relevance of the Temple in our rituals and the dramatic nexus we have manufactured. For we stand as Masons, to all external appearances, just and upright Men, as was the Temple.
However, if we still will accept Vibert's contention that there existed no evidence of our possesion of the Temple until the eighteen century, we still have the question of how it entered our masonic system and why that time to answer. A masonic scholar, Brother Ryland said "no satisfactory reason has so far been offered why the Temple of Solomon and its builders have been selected to play an important part in one division of our legendary history"...well,what I say is, who cares.

Ever since Bro. Rylands wrote the above, Brother A.E Waite came up with a reason that I find befitting, holding that,many of the speculatives who were admitted in the 18th century were mostly Kabbalists in one degree or the other,therefore he believed that we may have borrowed the Temple symbolism from that source. A point I firmly second,because the Kabbalists owned the Temple symbolism some 400years before the 18th century and any inside out student of masonry will accept a basic fact that,symbolism in masonry was greatly influenced by Kabbalists, those guys were very influencial teachers. Be that as it may, we shall always retain the Temple symbolism,for nothing could better explain the ideal of craft masonry than the Temple - the building of a superstructure of morality in good men and the divine brotherhood among men on earth.
The temple was built of stones,wood and metals, which were collected from earth but well prepared,adjusted and joined to result in a solemn aesthetically beautiful house dedicated to the service of God. It has a likewise allusion to the development of self. We are also gathering materials which seem earthly or common, our flesh,appetites and passion. We so hope to also prepare,adjust and join in the holy communion of brotherly love, to build a house not made by hands, in which our human nature will be transfigured. As brothers to Solomon,we too have to build a Temple for God, but whereas the Jews would have Him dwell in Temples of stone, we would fain prepare for Him a Temple of Flesh. We hope that through the morphallaxis of men, the fraternity of men, The Great Architect would continue to cement and adorn us with every virtue that,when finally we are summoned fron this sublunary abode, we may ascend to the Grand Lodge Above, where the world's greatest Architect lives and reigns for ever.

By Bro. Oppong Clifford Benjamin
References : Symbolical Masonry by H.L. Haywood
The Great Teachings of Masonry by H.L Haywood
Speculative Masonry by A.S. MacBride
The Builders by Joseph Fort Newton
Symbolism of the Three Degrees by Oliver Day Street.