Here ends the first three degrees of Masonry, which constitutes a Master Mason's Lodge. A Master Mason's Lodge and a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons are two distinct bodies, wholly independent of each other. The members of a Chapter are privileged to visit all Master Mason's Lodges when they please; and may be, and often are, members of both at the same time; and all the members of a Master Mason's Lodge who are Royal Arch Masons, though not members of any Chapter, may visit any Chapter. I wish the reader to understand that neither all Royal Arch Masons nor Master Masons are members of either Lodge or Chapter; there are tens of thousands who are not members, and scarcely ever attend, although privileged to do so.
A very small proportion of Masons, comparatively speaking, ever advance any further than the third degree, and consequently never get the great word which was lost by Hiram's untimely death. Solomon, King of Israel, Hiram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff, the widow's son, having sworn that they, nor either of them, would ever give the word, except they three were present (and it is generally believed that there was not another person in the world, at that time, that had it), consequently the word was lost, and supposed to be forever; but the sequel will show it was found, after a lapse of four hundred and seventy years; notwithstanding, the word MAH-HAH-BONE, which was substituted by Solomon, still continues to be used by Master Masons, and no doubt will, as long as Masonry attracts the attention of men; and the word which was lost is used in the Royal Arch Degree. What was the word of the Royal Arch Degree before they found the Master's word, which was lost at the death of Hiram Abiff, and was not found for four hundred and seventy years? Were there any Royal Arch Masons before the Master's word was found? I wish some masonic gentleman would solve these two questions.
The ceremonies, histories, and the Lecture, in the preceding degree are so similar that perhaps some one of the three might have been dispensed with, and the subject well understood by most readers, notwithstanding there is a small difference between the work and history, and between the history and the Lecture.