In my experience as Grand Lecturer I have been impressed with the wide variety of interest shown by Brethren in things Masonic. In three directions I have observed them to be particularly interested:

Masons are interested in one another. They never weary of being told about the conditions under which the other fellow labors or lives. In other words, the human side of Masonry appeals to them.

Second. Masons are interested in the Grand Lodge Constitutions. I shall never forget the interest my own Lodge took in the Constitutions when I read the volume to them while I was Master. When I became District Deputy Grand Master I discovered again that the Lodges in my District were especially interested in our laws. And finally, in my Conventions as Grand Lecturer I have been struck with the interest shown by the Brethren whenever any matter pertaining to our Constitutions comes up for discussion.

Third. A lively interest is shown in the allegories of our Scripture readings, and particularly that impressive picture of old age given in Ecclesiastes 12: 1-7, our Scripture lesson in the Third Degree. Responding to many demands for an explanation of this allegory, I venture the following suggestions, based for the greater part on Cooke's "Commentary on Ecclesiastes." The writer of that bit of Scripture sought to offer the reader advice on the active life, lived in the fear of God. A thought that is "farther enforced on the young by the consideration of the circumstances which accompany old age," when activity, mental and physical, gradually declines.

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. . ."

This verse is actually a part of the preceding chapter, and unfortunate interruption by our system of chapter and verse division breaks into the writer's thought. The man who knocks at our inner door in the Third Degree, so far as his Masonic life is concerned' is hilt a youth, and we remind him of the importance of remembering his Creator, that his old age may not be a season of dreariness, and that thus he may show his gratitude to God. Briefly there is brought directly to our attention the wisdom of acquiring while we are young, the habit of the godly life before the evil days, the season of old age, shall come upon us.

"While the sun, or the stars, or she moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. . . ."

If we will read the word "while" as "before," and the words "or" and "nor" as "and," the meaning of this passage becomes suddenly apparent. The darkening of the lights of Heaven points to a time of affliction and sadness, and we hear an address to a youth who should be made vividly aware of old age. In other words, the writer alludes to a heaviness of spirit that so frequently the accompanies age.

"In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and a strong man shown no themselves, and the grinders cease because there are few, and those that look out of windows darkened..."

It is by no means unusual to hear the body describe as a tent, or a house, in which dwells the spirit of man. The keepers of the house are the knees and the hand which, through weakness, tremble in old age. The strong men are the vertebrae of the backbone, and in old age the back becomes bent, because the strong mc bow themselves. The grinders are the teeth, in their advanced years people lose their teeth - hence "the grinders cease because they are few." "Those that look out of the window be darkened" here is an allusion to the eyes. Cooke says that the window was the frequent resource of the women in the Oriental house, and here the windows represent the eyes, dim in old age.

"And the doors shall be shut him street name is some of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voices of the birds, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. . . "

Here we look at the house from the outside. The doors speak to us of deafness. The sounds of grinding show that there is no sound coming out of the house to tell of life within. Old people because they live so much to themselves, have less in common with the rising generation than have the young. If in the body we seek a counterpart to the doors in the sound of the grinding, we may take them as figure's of speech, alluding to the lips and the ears, because the door to the house is at times taken as the lips. "The sound of the grinding is low" - an allusion to deafness.

"He shall rise up at the voice of the bird" - here the allegory of the house comes to an end, and we may interpret the statement in this manner: it alludes to the master of a house as an old man awakening early at the first sound of morning, based on the fact that frequently elderly people do not sleep well.

"The daughters of music shall be brought low" - again an allusion to deafness, because the music sounds faintly in the ears of old age. And then, too, in the day of death the work of the household is hushed, the sounds of Ordinary occupations unheard.

"Also when they shill be afraid of that which is kind in two years so the in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, in the grasshopper snow be a burden, and desires shall fail; because man goeth to use long home and the mourners go about the streets. . ."

Old age is inclined to timidity, and "high" is used here as elsewhere in scriptures to denote proud, powerful people from whom an old person with timidity of age might shrink. The almond tree alludes to the hair; in bloom the almond tree is whit; the blossoms completely covering the tree. Again we have a beautiful allusion to an outstanding characteristic of age. Old people are easily troubled; their means of defense, physical and intellectual, has declined in power. Accordingly grasshoppers are used your to characterize the little troubles that fret and worry the aged, and that younger people are able easily to trust aside. The locust is an extremely active insect, and the aged, burdened with stiffness of joints and heaviness, often resent the physical and mental agility of the young.

The phrase, "and desire shall fail," alludes to the caperberry, which, in oriental countries was eaten as stimulus to the appetite, but which fails of effect on one whose powers, are exhausted.

The "long home" has reference to man's "eternal house," as the passage would be literally translated, and to his place in the next world.

"Mourners go about the streets" - it was the custom for a bereaved family to employ singing women, who went about the streets mourning the loss of one who had died, whence the phrase alludes to the day of death.

"Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at cistern. . ."

Death is here represented by the breaking of a lamp, because the silver cord was that by which the household lamp was suspended from the ceiling. The lamp represents life, and when the silver cord is broken the lamp is dashed in pieces and the light extinguished. The golden bowl alludes to the reservoir of oil used in the lamp, which also is broken in the fall.

The pitcher in ancient times was used in bringing water from the spring. No longer in the day of death is the substance of water needed, and the pitcher is broken. The wheel, let down into the cistern, brings water from the depths, but with the day of death it is no longer needed, and therefore is broken.

I myself like to put a rather different interpretation up on this passage. I like to think of the silver cord as the spinal cord, which after death disintegrates. To me the golden bowl represents the skull, the broken pitcher the heart, which no longer functions, and the broken wheel those who are engaged in the ordinary occupations of daily life, but who cease in the day of death.

"Then shill the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

The figure of the dust returning to the earth alludes, of course, to the complete disintegration and darkness of this, our earthly tabernacle. Here is the last touch, a consummate bit of description - rather depressing, but none the less true. And its glory and comfort is that dramatic finale, that shout of triumph, that comes like a great "Amen" - "The spirit shall return unto God who gave it!"

Back to Our Stations and Places  Previous Next