The preparation of a candidate

Before you were admitted to the Lodge you were prepared in your heart, interviewed by several experienced brethren, proposed and seconded into the Lodge and accepted by the Brethren in a secret ballot. On the evening of your initiation, you were prepared by the Tyler, for admission into Freemasonry, in the required manner.

You were prepared outside the door of the Lodge by the Tyler in the traditional manner. A cable-tow was placed about your neck, which as you later learned was to prevent any attempt at retreat. A poniard was presented to your naked left-breast which was to prevent any rash attempt to rush forward to gain our secrets improperly, and to demonstrate to you the serious and solemn nature of what was to follow. Your confirmation that you felt the point of the blade evinced to the Brethren that you carried no armour. You were hoodwinked, so that your mind might conceive before your eyes were enabled to discover the beauties of Freemasonry. So, you were received into the Degree and moreover, had you refused to go through the usual ceremony, you would have been led from the Lodge without observing its form. The reason for a cable-tow with a running noose having been placed about your neck has already been explained. In ancient days the Entered Apprentice wore a cable-tow to impress on his mind his duty to keep within hail, so as to come on in due time whenever summoned to his Lodge, unless prevented by sickness.

Your left-breast was bare, in order to affirm your gender, as none but free born men of mature age can be made Freemasons. Your right-arm was bare, that the Brethren might see that you had no weapon about you. You were deprived of all metallic substances and received in a state of seeming poverty as a warning to your heart that should you meet a Brother in distress, you should do to him as you would wish him to do to you. You were deprived of all metallic substances that you might bring nothing offensive or defensive into the Lodge to disturb its harmony, a further reason being that in the building of King Solomon’s Temple there was not heard the sound of metallic tools.

Your left-knee was bare because it was on that that you took your obligation. The left-side of a man has always been considered his weaker side, and although the Obligation you have taken is sacred and binding, it is considered imperfect without others which are to follow. You took it, therefore, on your left-knee, but your inherent weakness was strengthened by placing your right-hand on the Volume of the Sacred Law. You were slipshod because there was a custom observed by our ancient Brethren in the East where they remove a shoe as a pledge of Fidelity. This originated at the time that the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush, when he commanded him saying, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground’ (Exodus 3:5), and our Lodges being consecrated are considered to stand on

holy ground.

You gained admission to the Lodge by three distinct knocks; they allude to an ancient and venerable exhortation, ‘Seek and ye shall find; ask and ye shall have; knock and it shall be opened unto you. Having sought in your mind, you asked of your friend; he knocked and the door of Freemasonry became open to

you.