ENTERED APPRENTICE EXAMINATION
Q. Whence came you?
A. From a Lodge of the Holy Saints John of
Jerusalem.
Q. What came you here to do?
A. To learn to subdue my passions and improve
myself in Masonry.
Q. Then you are a Mason, I presume?
A. I am so taken and accepted among Brethren and
Fellows.
Q. What makes you a Mason?
A. My Obligation.
Q. Where were you made a Mason?
A. Within the body of a just and duly constituted
Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, assembled
in a place representing the Ground Floor of King
Solomon’s Temple.
Q. How do you know yourself to be a Mason?
A. By having been tried, never denied, and ready to
be tried again.
Q. How may I know you to be a Mason?
A. By certain signs, a token, a word, and the perfect
points of my entrance.
Q. What are signs?
A. Right angles, horizontals, and perpendiculars.
Q. Advance a sign. Has that an allusion?
A. It has; to the position of my hands while taking
the Obligation.
Q. Have you a further sign?
A. I have.
Q. Has that an allusion?
A. It has; to the penalty of the Obligation.
Q. What is a token?
A. A certain friendly or brotherly grip whereby one
Mason may know another in the dark as in the
light.
Q. Advance and give me a token. What is that?
A. A grip.
Q. Of what?
A. Of an Entered Apprentice.
Q. Has it a name?
A. It has.
Q. Will you give it to me?
A. I did not so receive it, neither will I so impart it.
Q. How will you dispose of it?
A. Letter or halve it.
Q. Letter it and begin.
A. You Begin.
Q. Begin you.
A. A;
Q. B;
A. O;
Q. Z.
A. Boaz.
Q. Where were you first prepared to be made a
Mason.
A. In my heart.
Q. Where next?
A. In a room adjoining the body of a just and duly
constituted Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.
Q. How were your prepared?
A. By being divested of all metallic substances,
neither naked nor clothed, barefoot nor shod, left
knee and breast bare, hood-winked, and with a
cable-tow about my neck, in which condition I
was conducted to a door of the Lodge and caused
to give three distinct knocks which were answered
by three within.
Q. What was said to you from within?
A. Who comes here?
Q. Your answer?
A. A poor, blind candidate, who is desirous of having
and receiving a part in the rights, lights, and
benefits of this Worshipful Lodge of Free and
Accepted Masons, erected to God and dedicated
to the memory of the Holy Saints John, as all
Brethren and Fellows have done who have gone
this way before me.
Q. What were you then asked?
A. If this was an act of my own free will and accord,
if I was worthy and well qualified, duly and truly
prepared, all of which being answered in the
affirmative, I was then asked by what further right
I expected to obtain this important privilege.
Q. Your answer?
A. Being a man, free-born, of lawful age, and well
recommended.
Q. What were you then told?
A. Since I was in possession of all these necessary
qualifications, I should wait until the Worshipful
Master could be informed of my request and his
answer returned.
Q. What was his answer when returned?
A. Let him enter this Worshipful Lodge, in the name
of God, and be received in due and ancient form.
Q. How were you received?
A. On the point of a sharp instrument, piercing my
naked left breast.
Q. How were you then disposed of.
A. Conducted to the center of the Lodge and caused
to kneel for the benefit of prayer.
Q. After prayer, what were you asked?
A. In whom I put my trust.
Q. Your answer.
A. In God.
Q. What were you then told?
A. My trust being in God, my faith was well founded.
I was taken by the right hand, ordered to rise,
follow my conductor, and fear no danger.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. Conducted once regularly around the Lodge, and
to the Junior Warden in the South, where the same
questions were asked and answers returned as
at the door.
Q. How did the Junior Warden dispose of you?
A. Directed me conducted to the Senior Warden in
the West, where the same questions were asked
and answers returned as before.
Q. How did the Senior Warden dispose of you?
A. Directed me conducted to the Worshipful Master
in the East, where the same questions were
asked and answers returned as before, who also
demanded of me whence I came and whither
traveling.
Q. Your answer.
A. From the West, traveling East.
Q. Why did you leave the West and travel East?
A. In search of Light in Masonry.
Q. How did the Worshipful Master dispose of you?
A. Ordered me re-conducted to the Senior Warden
in the West, who taught me how to approach the
East in due and ancient form.
Q. What is that due and ancient form?
A. Advancing on my left foot, bringing the heel of my
right into the hollow of my left, thereby forming
the angle of a square, body erect, facing East.
Q. What did the Worshipful Master then do with you?
A. Made me a Mason.
Q. How?
A. In due form.
Q. What is that due form?
.A. Kneeling on my naked left knee, my right forming
the angle of a square, my left hand supporting,
my right resting on the Holy Bible, Square, and
Compasses, in which due form I took the solemn
Obligation of an Entered Apprentice.
Q. Have you that Obligation?
A. I have.
Q. Repeat it.
A. I, ____ __ ____,of my own free will and accord,
in the presence of Almighty God and this
Worshipful Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons,
erected to God and dedicated to the memory of
the Holy Saints of Jerusalem, do hereby and
hereon, solemnly and sincerely promise and
swear, that I will always hele, forever conceal, and
never reveal any of the secret arts, parts, or points
of the hidden mysteries of Freemasonry, which I
have received, am about to receive, or may be
hereafter instructed in, to any person unless it
shall be to a worthy Brother Entered Apprentice,
or within the body of a just and duly constituted
Lodge of such; and not unto him or them whom I
shall hear so to be, but unto him or them only
whom I shall find so to be after due trial, strict
examination, or lawful Masonic information.
Furthermore: I do promise and swear that I will
not write, indite, print, paint, stamp, stain, hue,
cut, carve, mark or engrave the same upon
anything movable or immovable, whereby or
whereon the least word, syllable, letter, or
character may become legible or intelligible to
myself or another, whereby the secrets of
Freemasonry may be unlawfully obtained through
my unworthiness.
To all of which I do solemnly and sincerely promise
and swear, without any hesitation, mental
reservation, or secret evasion of mind in my
whatsoever; binding myself under no less a penalty
than that of having my throat cut across, my
tongue torn out, and with my body buried in the
sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours,
should I ever knowingly or willfully violate this,
my solemn Obligation of an Entered Apprentice.
So help me God and make me steadfast to keep
and perform the same.
Q. After the Obligation, what were you asked?
A. What I most desired.
Q. Your answer?
A. Light in Masonry.
Q. Did you receive it?
A. I did, by order of the Worshipful Master with the
assistance of the Brethren.
Q. On being brought to Light in Freemasonry, what
did you first behold?
A. The Three Great Lights in Masonry, by aid of the
representatives of the Three Lesser.
Q. What are the Three Great Lights in Masonry?
A. The Holy Bible, Square and Compasses.
Q. How are they explained?
A. The Holy Bible is given us a the rule and guide for
our faith and practice, the Square to square our
actions and the Compasses to circumscribe our
desires and keep our passions in due bounds with
all mankind, especially the Brethren.
Q. What are the Three Lesser Lights?
A. The Sun, Moon, and Master of the Lodge.
Q. How are they explained?
A. As the Sun rules the day and the Moon governs
the night, so should the Worshipful Master, with
equal regularity, rule and govern the Lodge.
Q. What are the representatives of the Three Lesser
Lights?
A. They are three burning tapirs placed in a triangular
form within the Lodge.
Q. What did you next behold?
A. The Worshipful Master approaching me from the
East upon the step, under the due-guard and
sign of an Entered Apprentice, who presented his
right hand in token of friendship and brotherly love,
and invested me with the grip and word, ordered
me to rise, salute the Junior and Senior Wardens
and satisfy them that I was in possession of the
step, due-guard, sign, grip and word of an Entered
Apprentice.
Q. What did you next behold?
.A. The Worshipful Master approaching me from the
East a second time, who presented me a
lambskin or white leather apron, told me it was
an emblem of innocence and the badge of a
Mason, ordered me to carry it to the Senior
Warden in the West, who taught me how to wear
it as an Entered Apprentice.
Q. How should an Entered Apprentice wear his
apron?
A. With the flap turned up, to prevent soiling the
clothing; Masonically, to prevent daubing with un-tempered
mortar.
Q. What demand was then made of you?
A. Some metallic substance, not so much on account
of its intrinsic value as that it might be deposited
in the archives of the Lodge as a memorial that I
was at that time and place made a Mason, but
upon strict search found myself entirely destitute.
Q. With what were you then presented?
A. The working tools of an Entered Apprentice.
Q. What are they?
A. The Twenty-four Inch Gauge and the Common
Gavel.
Q. How are they explained?
A. The Twenty-four Inch Gauge is an instrument used
by operative Masons to measure and lay out their
work; but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are
taught to use it for the more noble and glorious
purpose of dividing our time. It being divided into
twenty-four equal parts is emblematical of the
twenty-four hours of the day, which we are taught
to divide into three equal parts, whereby are found
eight hours for the service of God and a distressed
worthy Brother, eight for our usual vocations, and
eight for refreshment and sleep.
The Common Gavel is an instrument used by
operative masons to break off the corners of rough
stones, the better to fit them for the builder’s use;
but we, as Free and Accepted Masons are taught
to use it for the more noble and glorious purpose
of divesting our hearts and consciences of all the
vices and superfluities of life, thereby fitting our
minds as living stones, for that spiritual building -that
house not made with hands - eternal in the
Heavens.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. Conducted to the Northeast corner of the Lodge
and informed by the Worshipful Master that there
I stood an upright man and Mason, and he gave it
me strictly in charge, ever to walk and act as
such before God and man.
Q. With what were you then presented?
A. A new name, which is Caution. It is to teach me
to be cautious over all my words and actions,
especially on the subject of Freemasonry, when
in the midst of its enemies.
Q. How were you then disposed of?
A. Re-conducted to the place whence I came,
invested with that of which I had been divested,
and returned to the Lodge for further instruction.
