The Wages of the Craft.

There is a mine of wealth in the verbiage of Masonry. To ordinary observers the surface indications may be slight, but to the thoughtful Mason every word contains a nugget of ore. Often the Senior Warden of a lodge is regarded as a greatly inferior office, with little authority, and merely a sort of deputy Master, a lay figure, unless the Master be absent. Not so; he tells us so, and what he tells is true, and indicates a deeper truth than he tells. The Senior Warden is the paymaster of the Craft, now nominally, once really. He is a sort of stranded Masonic official on the shores of time. His vocation is largely gone. But what he now asserts of himself gives us a hint of what he once really was. It proves that he was an historic character, that time, the great page 7 lever, has lessened his authority; that his office was not created in the present or in the last century, but originated with Freemasonry itself, in the remote past. The language used by the Senior Warden proves that he is a kind of fossil. When does he ever pay the Craft wages now? But he did once—aye, and as long as three thousand years ago, if there is anything in Masonic tradition, or in Masonic philology. This carries us back to the building of King Solomon's Temple.

According to the traditions of the lodge, which are fortified in certain respects by the facts and traditions of Mark Masonry as well, there were two classes of stone-hewers and squarers, or Fellow-crafts, at the building of Solomon's Temple—first, a superior class, of skilled workmen, who were each in possession of an individual "Mark," and who always designated their work by this mark; and second, an inferior class, of probably younger and less experienced workmen, who had no mark, and probably performed only the rough work of the quarries. The former received their pay in silver, the latter in corn, wine, and oil. It was the duty of the Senior Warden of the lodge to pay these wages, and he did it on the sixth day of the week (Friday) at the sixth hour (High Twelve), when the Craft was called off from labour to refreshment. Now that the Mark Degree has been severed from the Fellow-Craft Degree, and made a special degree, the Senior Warden's vocation in the Fellow-Craft or Master Mason's lodge is gone. He has no wages to bestow, and no craftsmen to pay. Nevertheless he retains the old language, which indicates what his duty once was, and thereby testifies to the antiquity of his station, and the dignity with which he was once clothed.

But let it not be inferred that Freemasons no longer receive wages. Far from it. There is no man who receives better wages than a Freemason. He is a member of that ancient and honoured fraternity which has no rival, whose wealth—intellectual, moral, social, and material—is untold, and which dispenses its wealth with a liberal hand. Let us see what the wages of the Craft now are, and to whom they are paid.

The non-affiliate gets nothing, and merits nothing. He is a backslider, out of all sympathy with his fellows. He comes not near the lodge, and of course can receive no wages. Neither does the habitual absentee from the lodge who is in good standing receive any wages. Seeing is receiving, and he never sees. Hearing is receiving, and he never hears. No one receives wages but the brother who is dutiful to his lodge. But what does he receive? Most liberal wages. He is enriched in mind, in body, and in spirit. The sublime truths taught in the Craft, by sign and symbol, by word and act, are impressed again and again on his memory, so that he cannot forget them. Every devoted Freemason should be a noble man. He has no excuse for turpitude. He unfailingly knows what is right, and cannot err through ignorance. Besides this he is enriched in spirit, by communion and fellowship with his brethren. He has their sympathy. He sits with them both at labour and refreshment. The convivial joys of the banquet room are his. He is enriched also in body. Often the wages are material in form. He partakes of the viands which upbuild the body page 8 and rejoice the heart—the corn, the wine, and the oil of the Craft. His wages often include all these payments. Can any brother under these circumstances go away dissatisfied? Can he be aught than happy, yea, delighted? Is the fraternity a useless one which can offer such rewards to its initiates—truth for the mind, nourishment for the body, encouragement and inspiration for the spirit, the emotional nature? Aye, and its wages are larger still. Does fortune fail, do friends fall away, does penury follow sharply on the heels of misfortune, then heaven-born charity is dispensed by the Craft. Then the wages are in shekels, as well as in the corn of nourishment, the wine of refreshment and the oil of joy. The unfortunate brother is paid the wages of both classes of Fellow-Crafts, those with Marks and those without; he is paid in specie and he is paid in kind.

Were Freemasons ever better paid than now? Were their wages ever larger. We would rather be a Freemason to-day than to have been one in the days of King Solomon. We would rather enjoy the labour and refreshment of the lodge now, than that which our primitive brethren enjoyed. The best times are these times, all that is said about the "good old times" to the contrary notwithstanding. All Freemasons are entitled to receive their wages, and if they do not, it is owing to the wilful neglect of their duties; it is their fault, and not the fault of the craft.—Ex.