Brothers, tell them who have the rule forgot, how time is measured dot by dot; how the master from the east must rise and in splendor sit upon the noonday skies.
How at high twelve upon that arch divine he sits, and the quarters of the world doth there survey each noon.
And upon that [29]trestle-board, which is watched and guarded by the four regents, he the orders writes, for the masters to transcribe.
Then that mystic line he crosses and hastens to his fall, and thus are the days all reached, in which he and all his fellow-craft repose must seek.
None can here deny that this forms not a perfect day, for it has been tried and proved by that unerring line.
No yesterday, no tomorrow, all is endless day enwrapped in endless night, in which all sleep, in which all wake, both here and there.
[29] These Jewels of Masonic Lore must appeal to all true readers of the trestle-board. May they hear the fraternal voice of the past, which is now speaking through the lips of the present, and seek that reward which alone can come when the earthly lodge is closed and the heavenly is declared open for the work to all who have been found worthy and qualified.
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Thus in the hands of mortals are placed the builder's tools, the plumb, the guiding line 'twixt heaven and the tomb.