receives,--the first symbol in which he is instructed,--has been called
the "badge of a mason." And most appropriately has it been so called; for,
whatever may be the future advancement of the candidate in the "Royal
Art," into whatever deeper arcana his devotion to the mystic institution
or his thirst for knowledge may carry him, with the apron--his first
investiture--he never parts. Changing, perhaps, its form and its
decorations, and conveying at each step some new and beautiful allusion,
its substance is still there, and it continues to claim the honorable
title by which it was first made known to him on the night of his
initiation.

The apron derives its significance, as the symbol of purity, from two
sources--from its color and from its material. In each of these points of
view it is, then, to be considered, before its symbolism can be properly
appreciated.

And, first, the color of the apron must be an unspotted white. This color
has, in all ages, been esteemed an emblem of innocence and purity. It was
with reference to this symbolism that a portion of the vestments of the
Jewish priesthood was directed to be made white. And hence Aaron was
commanded, when he entered into the holy of holies to make an expiation
for the sins of the people, to appear clothed in white linen, with his
linen apron, or girdle, about his loins. It is worthy of remark that the
Hebrew word LABAN, which signifies _to make white_, denotes also _to
purify_; and hence we find, throughout the Scriptures, many allusions to
that color as an emblem of purity. "Though thy sins be as scarlet," says
Isaiah, "they shall be _white_ as snow;" and Jeremiah, in describing the
once innocent condition of Zion, says, "Her Nazarites were purer than
snow; they were _whiter_ than milk."