Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason / together with the Ceremony of Installation, Laying Corner Stones, Dedications, Masonic Burial, Etc.

by George Thornburgh

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Offensive or Defensive.

At the building of King Solomon's Temple there was not heard the sound of axe, hammer or any tool of iron. The question naturally arises, How could so stupendous an edifice be erected without the aid of those implements? The stones were hewn, squared and numbered in the quarries where they were raised; the timbers were felled and prepared in the forests of Lebanon, conveyed in floats by sea to Joppa, and thence by land to Jerusalem, where they were set up by the aid of wooden implements prepared for that purpose; so that every part of the building, when completed, fitted with such exact nicety that it resembled the handiwork of the Supreme Architect of the Universe more than that of human hands.