Apron Lecture

Apron Lecture. The symbolism of the apron has inspired many additions to, or substitutes for, the apron lecture given in the Preston-Webb work which, itself, is by no means trite or unworthy. Various specimens of these lectures are used in jurisdictions which do not insist on inflexible adherence to a standard ritual. One of the best known of these additional lectures is that used in the New Kentucky Monitor arranged by Henry Pirtle in 1918 for the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. After the short lecture in the Webb Monitor, the following is added:

”It may be that, in the years to come, upon your head shall rest the laurel wreath of victory; pendant from your breast may hang jewels fit to grace the diadem of an eastern potentate; yea, more than these; for with the coming light your ambitious feet may tread round after round the ladder that leads to fame in our mystic circle, and even the purple of our Fraternity may rest upon your honored shoulders; but never again by mortal hands, never again until your enfranchised spirit shall have passed upward and inward through the gates of pearl, shall any honor so distinguished, so emblematic of purity and all perfection, be bestowed upon you as this, which I now confer. It is yours; yours to wear through an honorable life, and at your d*ath to be placed upon the coffin which contains your earthly remains, and with them laid beneath the silent clods of the valley.

”Let its pure and spotless surface be to you an ever-present reminder of ’purity of life, of rectitude of conduct,’ a never-ending argument for higher thoughts, for nobler deeds, for greater achievements; and when at last your weary feet shall have reached the end of their toilsome journey, and from your nerveless grasp forever drop the working tools of a busy life, may the record of your life and conduct be as pure and spotless as this fair emblem which I place within your hands tonight; and when your trembling soul shall stand naked and alone before the great white throne, there to receive judgment for the deeds done while here in the body, may it be your portion to hear from Him who sitteth as Judge Supreme these welcome words: ’Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’

”I charge you--take it, wear it with pleasure to yourself and honor to the Fraternity.”

The following is from the Shaver Monitor by William M. Shaver, Past Grand Master, and Albert K. Wilson, Grand Secretary, of Kansas, with the final quotation from Bryant’s Thanatopsis:

”This emblem is now yours; to wear, we hope, with equal pleasure to yourself, and honor to the Fraternity. If you disgrace it, the disgrace will be augmented by the consciousness that you have been taught, in this Lodge, the principles of a correct and manly life. It is yours to wear as a Mason, so long as the vital spark shall animate your mortal frame, and at last, whether in youth, manhood or age, your spirit having winged its flight to that ’House not made with hands,’ when amid the tears and sorrows of surviving relatives and friends, and by the hands of sympathizing Brother Masons, your body shall be lowered to the confines of that narrow house appointed for all living, it will still be yours, yours to be placed with the evergreen upon the coffin that shall enclose your remains, and to be b*ried with them.”

”My Brother, may you so wear this emblem of spotless white that no act of yours shall ever stain its purity, or cast a reflection upon this ancient and honorable institution that has outlived the fortunes of Kings and the mutations of Empires. May you so wear it and”

”’So live, that when your summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To the pale realm of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of d*ath,
Thou go not, like the quarry-sl*ve at night
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”’