Q. Your answer? A. From the West, and traveling to the East.
Q. Why do you leave the West and travel to the East? A. In search of light.
Q. How did the Right Worshipful Master dispose of you? A. He ordered me to be conducted back to the West, from whence I came, and put in the care of the Senior Warden, who taught me how to approach the East, the place of light, by advancing upon four upright regular steps to the fourth step, my feet forming a square, and my body erect at the altar before the Right Worshipful Master.
Q. What did the Right Worshipful Master do with you? A. He made a Mark Master Mason of me.
Q. What was that due form? A. Both knees bent, they forming a square, both my hands on the Holy Bible, Square, and Compass, my body being erect; in which posture I took upon me the solemn oath or obligation of a Mark Master Mason.
Q. Have you that oath or obligation? A. I have.
Q. Will you give it me? A. I will, with your assistance. [Here, as in the preceding degree, you repeat after the Right Worshipful Master, I, A. B., etc. See pages 67 and 68.]
Q. After your oath or obligation, what follows? A. Information was brought that the Temple was almost completed, but the craft was all in confusion for want of a certain keystone, which none of them had been instrumental to make.
Q. What followed? A. King Solomon believing in confidence, that our worthy Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, had completed this keystone agreeable to the original plan, ordered inquiry to be made among the Master Overseers, if a stone bearing a particular mark had been presented to them for inspection; and on inquiry being made, it was found that there had.
Q. What followed? A. King Solomon ordered search to be made for the stone, when it was found, and afterwards applied to its intended use.
Q. What did it allude to? A. To a passage in Scripture, where it says, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving him that receiveth."
Q. What was that new name? A. The letters on the stone and the initials of the words for which they stand, viz.: H. T. W. S. S. T. K. S.
Q. Of what use is this new name to you in Masonry? A. It was the original mark of our worthy Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, and is the general mark of this degree, and the letters form the circle, in the centre of which every brother of this degree places his particular mark, to which his obligation alludes.