THIRD DEGREE PERAMBULATION PRAYER

Brethren & All,

Here’s an excellent Masonic information/ Education for us all.

THIRD DEGREE PERAMBULATION PRAYER

Excerpted from Masonic Information for Stated Meetings,
compiled by
Jack R. Levitt, Past Grand Master of California

Why is the Holy Bible opened where it is for each degree?
In many jurisdictions it is opened to a specific passage for each degree.

The first degree stresses unity and harmony and hence the Bible is opened to
the 133rd Psalm which says, _Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity.._

The second degree teaches the uses and application of the more complicated
tools and implements and is opened to Amos 7:7-8 which says in part, _And
behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line with a plumb-line in
His hand._

The most widely accepted interpretation of the Scripture of the third degree
is that these verses are a picture of approaching old age and that the
various references are to parts of the body. Here is a combination of
several interpretations:

_Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,_
Emphasis is on NOW; remember him NOW, not tomorrow,
not next week, but NOW.

_while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them;_
This is a warning to youth of approaching old age.

_while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be nor darkened,_
Refers to failing eyesight, or that darkening of the heavenly bodies
forebodes evil or disaster.

_nor the clouds return after the rain:_
As soon as one storm ceases another follows; trouble follows trouble in old
age; or tears are dried only to be followed by more as sorrows and partings
increase.

_in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men
shall bow themselves_
Refers to the legs and, possibly, the backbone.

_and the grinders cease because they are few,_
can be interpreted as loss of teeth.

_and those that look out of the windows be darkened,_
Can be failing eyesight. The eyes look out below the eye lids that open and
shut like the casements of a window.

_and the doors shall be shut in the streets,_
means the lips or ears, or both. With teeth gone and the gums shrunken, the
lips are closed tightly to keep the food from dropping out; or the ears are
closed to sound - deafness.

_when the sound of the grinding is low,_
grinding of family flour was a noisy proceeding; loss of hearing in old age
would result in this being heard faintly; or, with the teeth gone and the
mouth tightly closed, the sound of mastication would
be scarcely heard.

_and he shall rise up at the sound of the bird,_
the fitful slumber of age that is disturbed by so slight a noise as the song
of a bird, or reference may have been to the crowing of the cock.

_and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;_
The vocal chords lose their timber and the ears are no longer attuned to
catch the strains of music.

_Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in
the way_,
means loss of courage to ascend high places, loss of courage to attempt to
overcome difficulties, fearful imagination, failing initiative.

_and the almond tree shall flourish,_
The white hair of age. The almond tree, first to bloom in the spring, blooms
on bare limbs; its pink blossoms soon turn to white and the tree has the
appearance of the head of an old man.

_and the grasshopper shall be a burden,_
So light a thing as a grasshopper becomes a burden; things lightly
considered
in youth become a burden in old age;

_and desire shall fail;_
The caper-berry, which was eaten before meals as a provocative of appetite,
shall fail to take effect
on a man whose powers are exhausted. The old no longer desire for the
pleasures of youth. The old no longer enjoy transitory pleasures.

_and all these things are about to happen because man is about to go to his
long home (the grave) and the (hired) mourners will go about the streets._
_Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken; or the
pitcher be broken at the fountain; or the wheel broken at the cistern._
One interpretation is that silver chord is either the spinal marrow or the
soul; the golden bowl is the head, or the brain; the pitcher is the heart,
or the great vein which carries the blood to the heart, the latter
represented by the fountain and the cistern.

_Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it._
After a doleful picture of old age, the allegory concludes with the
beautiful and cheering promise of life beyond the grave; with the promise
that death is not annihilation. It is fitting that a Masonic lesson thus be
concluded.

GRHernandez, Jr., P.·. M.·.
Burbank Lodge No. 406
Los Angeles, CA