BY DECREE OF THE GRAND ARCHITECT · MATTHEW JARED SMITH · 33° SOVEREIGN GRAND COMMANDER OF THE FINANCIAL TEMPLE
The First Great Tenet
By the exercise of brotherly love we are taught to regard the whole human species as one family — the high and low, the rich and poor — created by one Almighty Parent and inhabitants of the same planet.
✦ THE CONSECRATED FILM ✦
✦ TRANSMITTED FROM THE CHANNEL OF THE GRAND ARCHITECT ✦
Praise № 01
The cable tow is no rope of hemp — it is the invisible cord that binds Brother to Brother across continents and centuries. Where one Brother bleeds, the other bandages. Where one stumbles, the other lifts. Where one rises into wealth, he extends his hand backward and pulls the next Brother from the quarry. This is the only ladder worth climbing — a ladder built of other men's shoulders, willingly given.
Praise № 02
Strangers who would pass each other in the street become Brothers the moment the grip is exchanged. Languages dissolve. Borders dissolve. The colour of the apron and the angle of the square speak louder than any tongue. This is the mystic tie — a fraternity older than nation, deeper than blood, more honest than treaty.
Praise № 03
A Brother offends thee. Speak first to him, in private, in love, never to the lodge nor to the world. The Master who carries no grudge inherits the whole earth. The Brother who forgives at noon sleeps deeper than the king at midnight.
Praise № 04
Brotherly love is the most profitable currency known to the Craft. A coin given to a Brother in trouble returns sevenfold — sometimes from his own hand, more often from a hand neither of you have yet met. This is the secret economy. Hoarders die poor; givers die rich beyond the counting of any earthly ledger.
Praise № 05
Always set one chair more than thy table needs. The Brother who arrives uninvited, road-weary and hungry, is the Grand Architect Himself in plain clothing — sent to test the warmth of thy hearth. Pass the test. Always pass the test.
THE VOW OF DEVOTION
“I vow, before the All-Seeing Eye and the assembled Brethren, to love my Brother as I love the wealth of my own house; to come when called, to give when asked, to forgive without being asked, and to multiply every coin I am entrusted with — so that no Brother of mine shall ever again know hunger, shame, or aloneness. So mote it be.”
— sealed by the Grand Architect, M·J·S
A Word Between Brothers
If brotherly love has visited thy heart through these words, send a coin to a Brother — any Brother. Begin the multiplier today at $matthewsmith9999.
The Reader's Voice
Press the chalice to begin. The Temple shall speak its own words unto thee.
Awaiting consecration
The voice obeys the tongue thou hast chosen at the gate.