s his art, this
construction of a living temple is his labor.

"Labor," says Gadicke, the German masonic lexicographer, "is an important
word in Masonry; indeed, we might say the most important. For this, and
this alone, does a man become a Freemason. Every other object is secondary
or incidental. Labor is the accustomed design of every lodge meeting. But
does such meeting always furnish evidence of industry? The labor of an
operative mason will be visible, and he will receive his reward for it,
even though the building he has constructed may, in the next hour, be
overthrown by a tempest. He knows that he has done his labor. And so must
the Freemason labor. His labor must be visible to himself and to his
brethren, or, at least, it must conduce to his own internal satisfaction.
As we build neither a visible Solomonic temple nor an Egyptian pyramid,
our industry must become visible in works that are imperishable, so that
when we vanish from the eyes of mortals it may be said of us that our
labor was well done."

And remembering what the apostle has said, that we are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, we know that our labor is so to
build that temple that it shall become worthy of its divine Dweller.

And thus, too, at last, we can understand the saying of the old monks that
"labor is worship;" and as Masons we labor in our lodge, labor to make
ourselves a perfect building, without blemish, working hopefully for the
consummation, when the house of our earthly tabernacle shall be finished,
when the LOST WORD of divine truth shall at last be discovered, and when
we shall be found by our own efforts at perfection to have done God
service. For so truly is the meaning of those noble words--LABOR IS
WORSHIP.

XXX.

The Stone of Foundation.[216]

The Stone of Foundation constitutes one of the most important and abstruse
of all the symbols of Freemasonry. It is referred to in numerous legends
and traditions, not only of the Freemasons, but also of the Jewish
Rabbins, the Talmudic writers, and even the Mussulman doctors. Many of
these, it must be confessed, are apparently puerile and absurd; but some
of them, and especially the masonic ones, are deeply interesting in their
allegorical signification.

The Stone of Foundation is, properly speaking, a symbol of the higher
degrees. It makes its first appearance in the Royal Arch, and forms,
indeed, the most important symbol of that degree. B