En:The House of the Temple

The House of the Temple

With ceremonies solemn and impressive, yet simple in spirit and eloquent in form, the new House of the Temple was dedicated in Washington city, October 18th, the home of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in its Southern Jurisdiction. It was a lovely day, and more than five thousand people, including distinguished Masons from all over the country, witnessed the consecration of one of the most unique and imposing buildings on this continent - at once a monument to the founders of the Order and an emblem of the influence and power of the Rite. As the Grand Prior sprinkled the oil, consecrating the Temple to "Mutual Concession, Charitable Judgment, and Toleration," a White Dove flew from across the street, entered the building, then returned to the bright sunlight amid the acclaim of the assembly who interpreted it as a token in accord with the Spirit of Masonry and the eternal fitness of things.

Our Frontispiece shows the House of the Temple from the outside, and the accompanying illustrations disclose two of its stately chambers; but to describe such a building in a few words is too daring a thing to attempt. Truly, it is Freemasonry carved in stone; a great Symbol in itself, epitomizing by virtue of its Simplicity in Magnificence, its Grandeur and Beauty of conception, the Faith, the Philosophy, the Genius and the Prophecy of the Order - cemented here, once for all, in a noble emblem destined to withstand the storms of time and the mutations of human torture. In design it is a Square crowned by a Triangle, approached by Three, Five, Seven and Nine steps, its gate guarded by a Sphinx on either side, bespeaking the Wisdom and Power of God; and so it will stand as one generation cometh and another generation goeth, a mute but eloquent witness of the truth that, if Man would build for Eternity, he must imitate on earth the House not made with hands. With right was it dedicated -

"To Purity, Innocence of Act, Word, and Thought; to Mutual Concession, Charitable Judgment, and Toleration; to Charity, Compassion, and Sympathy; to Justice, Night, and Truth; to Universal Benevolence and Good Will Towards Men; to Wise Legislation, Good Faith, Stainless Loyalty, and Honor; a Symbol of Gratitude, Veneration, and Love of God, and a pledge of Future Fidelity and Performance of Duty.

Masons of every land, of every Rite, will join in the words of the Sovereign Grand Commander - grave words fitly spoken - in which Prayer is blended with Prophecy, and Aspiration with Resolution, when he said: "May guile and deceit, false pretense and hypocrisy never intrude within these doors; but let there always stand as vigilent tilers, sincerity and frankness, plaindealing and earnestness to forbid the approach of any unclean visitor. For the increase of loving kindness, which is the soul of all religion, to be the shrine of honor and duty, inseparable as the Dioscuri; for the glorifying and magnifying of truth, which, sown in whatever barren and rocky soil, springs up and yields a hundredfold for use and blessing; for the conquest everywhere of the hydra of tolerance, hatred and persecution; for toleration to which Masonry erects its altars, garlanded with flowers; and to aid in establishing everywhere the dominion of God and faith in human nature, of hope, the chief blessing bestowed by Providence on man, and of charity, divinest of all the virtues, this House of the Temple has been consecrated."

-Source: The Builder December 1915