Date: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 5:40 AM

The Badge of a Mason
By Bro. JOHN RODGERS MAGILL

The Master Mason - October 1926

"TO him who in the love of Nature holds communion with her 
visible forms," sang William Cullen Bryant in Thanatopsis, "she 
speaks a various language." Paraphrasing, we might say: To him 
who in the love of Masonry holds communion with her mystic lore 
she speaks a various language."

The language of Masonry is symbolism. It at once preserves her 
mysteries inviolate from the profane and indelibly stamps them 
upon the minds and hearts of those members of the Craft who are 
earnestly seeking f or light. The very word badge is full of mystic 
meaning. The dictionary says that a badge is a mark, sign, token or 
symbol to denote the occupation, allegiance, association or 
achievements of the person by whom it is worn.

What, then, is the Badge of a Mason?

The uninitiated will doubtless reply that it is the square and 
compasses. As illustrative of the extent to which these instruments 
are known as symbols of Masonry, it will be recalled that in 1873 
the Commissioner of Patents denied the application of a flour 
manufacturer for permission to use them as a trade-mark. He gave 
as his reason the fact that "there can be no doubt that this device, 
so commonly worn and employed by Masons, has an established 
mystic significance, universally recognized as existing. Whether 
comprehended or not, is not material to the issue." And we know 
that this device is appropriately so worn and employed by 
members of this great Fraternity, for it is the proper Masonic 
emblem of their profession.

But we know that the Badge of a Mason is not some device 
wrought in precious metals, set perhaps with costly jewels. To us 
the simple Lamb Skin, or White Leather Apron, the emblem of 
innocence, is the distinguished Badge of a Mason.

THE apron is the oldest article of apparel of which we have any 
record. We are told that our first parents made for themselves 
aprons of fig leaves when they were in the Garden of Eden. Some 
of us believe in the story literally, while in this day of modernism 
some may perhaps regard it as merely a beautiful allegory. But 
however we may accept it, we should not fail to grasp one great 
truth that it teaches - that the obligation to work accompanies the 
wearing of the apron.

Aside from the Scriptural story of the Garden of Eden, there are 
evidences without number as to the antiquity of the apron. 
Archeologists delve back into the remote periods of time before the 
written history of man began and bring to light from far beneath 
the soil crude carvings and engravings showing man clad in aprons 
of various materials and patterns. Later, when records begin to 
assume al more systematic form, we find history replete with 
references to the apron. From this information we learn that this 
humble garment of the working man has been used as a mystic 
symbol or vesture by' practically all the peoples of the earth from 
the earliest times. It appears in various forms - sometimes very 
similar to its lowly prototype, in some cases transformed into a 
girdle, and again we find it elaborated into a robe.

A girdle formed a part of the investure of the Israelitish priesthood. 
The Jewish sect of the Essenes clothed its novices with white 
robes. In Persia the candidate for admission into the Mysteries of 
Mithras was invested with a white apron. A girdle, called the 
"Sacred Zennar," was substituted for the apron in the initiations 
practiced in Hindustan.  I certain rites of initiation practiced by the 
Japanese, the candidate is invested with a white apron. In the 
Scandinavian Rites a white shield was used instead of an apron, 
prompted, it has been suggested, by the martial spirit of the people, 
but it was accompanied by a charge similar to that of the Masonic 
apron.

Throughout the ages the apron has been an honorary badge of 
distinction, and by its variations the wearer's degree of preferment 
has been made known to the world. In the Jewish priesthood the 
superior orders wore elaborately decorated and richly ornamented 
girdles, while the inferior priests wore plain white. The Indian, 
Jewish, Egyptian, Persian and Ethiopian aprons are said to have 
been equally superb, though each was dissimilar in design from the 
others.

WHILE in primitive times the apron was used as an ecclesiastical 
rather than a civil decoration, yet it sometimes served as a national 
emblem. The royal standard of Persia, for instance, was originally 
an apron. However, the more common use of the apron was in 
connection with the worship of a supreme being, it having been 
used in this manner by practically every people of the ancient 
world.

The Masonic apron as we have it today was handed down to us 
from the builders of the Pyramids of Egypt, to whom we are 
indebted for much of our symbolism. It is not mere empty verbiage 
when we are told that geometry, the first and noblest of the 
sciences, is the basis on which the superstructure of Masonry is 
erected. Through this science we are enabled to interpret the 
symbolism of the ancients and to discern that the mysteries upon 
which this great superstructure was erected were hoary with age 
when Hiram Abiff began his apprenticeship. By its aid we find that 
the knowledge of these mysteries existed not only in the old world, 
but on the American continents as well. The museums of this 
country are full of geometrical evidence connecting the aborigines 
of the American continents with the ancient old-world worshipers 
of Jehovah, the Great Architect. Many of the American 
cliff-dweller pictures in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute 
are of a Masonic nature, and much of a Masonic significance is to 
be found in the Peruvian collection of the American Museum of 
Natural History in New York City.

For instance, in the design of the ancient ceremonial cloaks, or 
ponchos, of the Peruvians, we find the Pythagorean Triangle, the 
basis of the Forty-seventh problem of Euclid. This was the sacred 
triangle of the Egyptians, the symbol of their "Sun-God," who was 
known as the "Eye of Heaven." This figure is the original of the 
Egyptian amulet, the "Eye of Horus," known to us Masons as the 
"All-Seeing Eye" whom the sun, moon, and stars obey. Two of 
these triangles, placed back to back, form the flap of our Masonic 
apron.

Perhaps the greatest surprise that comes to us as we investigate 
these prehistoric peoples of our own hemisphere lies in the fact 
that the stone statues of the Sun-God of the ancient American 
Mayas, found on the sites of the ruined cities of Yucatan, always 
show that deity clothed in an apron very similar to that used by this 
great Fraternity.

TWO things are necessary to the preservation of the symbolic 
character of the Badge of a Mason - its color and its material.

A Mason's apron should be white, pure and spotless, which color 
has always been a symbol of purity to all peoples.

It must be White Lamb Skin. The lamb has always been 
recognized as an emblem of innocence, and we are told in the first 
degree that by the lamb skin the Mason is reminded of that purity 
of life and rectitude of conduct which is so essentially necessary to 
his gaining admission to the Celestial Lodge above, where the 
Supreme Architect of the Universe forever presides.

The apron is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, 
of a Mason's connection with the terrestrial lodge, being presented 
to him upon his entrance into the Fraternity and deposited in his 
grave when he takes his dimit to the Celestial Lodge above.

This emblem of innocence and purity, is the Badge of a Mason - 
more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle; and, when 
worthily worn, more honorable than the Star and Garter, or any 
other order that could be conferred upon you at this or any future 
period.

The Operative Mason wears his apron to protect his clothing from 
soil or damage incident to his calling; but we, as Speculative 
Masons, are taught to wear it for a more noble and glorious 
purpose: that its pure and spotless surface may be to us an ever 
present reminder of a purity of life and conduct, a never ending 
argument for nobler deeds, for higher thoughts, for greater 
achievements.

"The Lamb Skin is an emblem of innocence and the Badge of a 
Mason." When we received it we were charged to wear it with 
pleasure to ourselves and honor to the Fraternity. What a precious 
privilege; what a great responsibility! Yet the two are inseparable, 
for we can wear the apron with pleasure to ourselves only when we 
wear it with honor to the Fraternity. And the pleasure of wearing 
the apron lies not in idle display, but in wearing it as an emblem of 
the pure and spotless heart which should be the goal of every 
Mason, bearing ever in mind that we have in our keeping the honor 
and reputation of this great Fraternity. We make our profession 
openly and the world is watching us; let us then preserve this 
badge unspotted and unsullied, thus wearing it with honor to the 
Fraternity.

Wear worthily this thy Masonic badge,
While still thy body toils to build thy soul
A mansion bright, beyond the gates of death,
No edifice that crumbles back to clay,
But a glorious house eternal in the skies.

TO every true member of the Craft the apron should be a constant 
reminder of his duty and privilege to worship according to the 
dictates of his conscience that God in whom he professed belief 
before he was admitted to this Order. Of a truth, Masonry is 
religious, but it does not seek to displace religion. On the contrary, 
it admonishes its members to pay their devotions to their Creator. 
The flesh is weak and temptations are many. Without belief in 
prayer and faith in God no Mason could hope to live a life even 
approximating that typified by his Badge.

BUT the apron is something more than an emblem of innocence 
and purity - it has yet another meaning, one more obvious, yet 
often lost sight of. We have seen that it was worn by the Operative 
Mason while engaged in his occupation. The apron is, therefore, a 
symbol of service. When we donned the Masonic apron we thereby 
assumed an obligation to work. Then we became Master Masons 
that we might receive Master's wages, not the wages of a beginner 
or apprentice; and to receive the wages of a Master we must do the 
work of a Master, otherwise we shall receive little when we appear 
before the Senior Warden in the Grand Lodge above and ask for 
our wages, if any be due.

We very appropriately wear the apron when we attend the funeral 
of a brother, for we are thus reminded that there shall come a time 
when our own weary feet shall come to the end of their toilsome; 
journey, and from our grasp shalt drop the working tools of life. 
And on these sad occasions we look upon the snow-white surface 
of the Lamb Skin and feel renewed within us the hope that when 
our spiritual bodies shall stand naked and alone before the Great 
White Throne, it shall be our portion to hear from Him who sitteth 
as the Judge Supreme, the welcome words: "Well done, good and 
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."