or book of plans of the architect. By these he hewed and squared his
materials; by these he raised his walls; by these he constructed his
arches; and by these strength and durability, combined with grace and
beauty, were bestowed upon the edifice which he was constructing.

The trestle-board becomes, therefore, one of our elementary symbols. For
in the masonic ritual the speculative Mason is reminded that, as the
operative artist erects his temporal building, in accordance with the
rules and designs laid down on the trestle-board of the master-workman, so
should he erect that spiritual building, of which the material is a type,
in obedience to the rules and designs, the precepts and commands, laid
down by the grand Architect of the universe, in those great books of
nature and revelation, which constitute the spiritual trestle-board of
every Freemason.

The trestle-board is, then, the symbol of the natural and moral law. Like
every other symbol of the order, it is universal and tolerant in its
application; and while, as Christian Masons, we cling with unfaltering
integrity to that explanation which makes the Scriptures of both
dispensations our trestle-board, we permit our Jewish and Mohammedan
brethren to content themselves with the books of the Old Testament, or the
Koran. Masonry does not interfere with the peculiar form or development of
any one's religious faith. All that it asks is, that the interpretation
of the symbol shall be according to what each one supposes to be the
revealed will of his Creator. But so rigidly exacting is it that the
symbol shall be preserved, and, in some rational way, interpreted, that it
peremptorily excludes the Atheist from its communion, because, believing
in no Supreme Being, no divine Architect, he must necessarily be without a
spiritual trestle-board on which the designs of that Being may be
inscribed for his direction.