Muskoka Lodge No. 360 Bracebridge, ON

Masonic Working Tools Storage Box:

 

In each of the Degrees of Freemasonry, certain implements of the Operative Art are consecrated to the Speculative Science, and adopted to teach as symbols lessons of morality. With these the Speculative Freemason is taught to erect his spiritual Temple, as his Operative predecessors with the same implements so constructed their material Temples. Thus they are known as Working Tools of the Degree. They vary but very slightly in the various Rites, but the same symbolism is preserved. The principal Working-Tools of the Operative Art that have been adopted as symbols in the Speculative Science, confined, however, to Ancient Craft Masonry, and not used in the higher Degrees, are the Twenty-four-inch Gage, Common Gavel, Square, Level, Plumb, Skirret, Compasses, Pencil, Trowel, Mallet, Pickax, Crow, and Shovel.

 

The following poem, written by Mary Brooks Picken, entitled, "Thimblefuls of Friendliness" was written in 1924, and, perhaps says it, best.

 

"Thimblefuls of Friendliness"

 

"Isn't it strange that Princes and Kings

And clowns that caper in sawdust rings,

And just plain folks like you and me,

Are builders for Eternity?

 

To each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass and a book of rules,

And each must make ere life is flown,

A stumbling block, or a stepping stone.

 

So,...it's up to you. What will YOU decide to build with YOUR working tools?

Done