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HE first degree, or that of the Entered Apprentice, is intended in its symbolic signification to furnish a representation of youth just entering on the struggles, the trials, and duties of an earthly and responsible existence. On his first admission into the Lodge, the candidate is reminded of the weak and helpless state of man on his entrance into the world—unprepared for the exigencies of the present, ignorant of the vicissitudes of the future, and dependent for his safety and very existence on that God in whom alone, in all trials and difficulties, is there any sure and abiding trust.

And as the youth is prepared by a useful and virtuous education for his journey through life, so the Apprentice obtains in his degree those first instructions whereon to erect his future moral and Masonic edifice. He now receives the elementary details of that universal language in which hereafter he is to converse with his brethren of all nations, so as to understand and be understood by Masons of every tongue and dialect under the sun. He is directed to take, as a staff and scrip for his journey, a knowledge of all the virtues that expand the heart and dignify the soul. Secrecy, obedience, humility, trust in God, purity of conscience, economy of time, are all inculcated by symbolic ceremonies too impressive in their character ever to be forgotten. And, lastly, as charity forms the chief corner-stone of all the Masonic virtues, the beauty and holiness of this attribute are depicted in