I became an Entered Apprentice
And learned that I had lost
The things of God that make up life,
And had to pay the cost;
And knew until I had regained
The things in life worthwhile,
That I must seek until
I learned To go the second mile.

To aid me in my searching,
I, a Fellow-craft became,
And laboured in the quarries,
Perfection was my aim;
To know just what it means to work
And toil with my fellow man,
To become a portion of the whole,
A unit in God's plan.

To help me in my questing
I took the third degree,
I had to know the truths of life,
And what it held for me;
I found that life was incomplete
Unless a mortal knew
That Death is part and parcel
Of the things God has in view.

I saw the wreck and ruin
Of things that had been built,
I also saw the chaos
' Mid the rubbish and the silt;
I learned to build, not for myself,
That in life's onward march,
Each one must learn to live
Within the Holy Royal Arch.

I also knew that I must know
And walk the perfect way,
I knew I once had known it,
But lost it on the day
I turned aside from truth and right,
And thought of naught but self,
The appeasing of the appetites,
And seeking power and pelf.

I knew that I must follow
In the paths of God' s own Son,
The Captain of Salvation,
Until my goal I'd won;
That I must know the reason,
The substance of this life,
To watch and pray and come what may,
To overcome all strife.

I sought new consecration
For the task that lay ahead,
I prayed for grace to guide me,
To give me daily bread;
The bread of life from heaven,
The water from on high,
To feed my soul and spirit
And keep me ever nigh.

The Creator and the Giver
Of the essence of all light,
The Sun,
the Moon,
Planets,
Stars,
All glowing by His might.

I knew that I had found the word
I thought forever lost,
That I had found the secret-
"Before I was Thou west";
I sought to do, to work with God,
If there be gain or loss,
And this would be my Trestle board.
The glory and the cross.

Rt.Wor.Bro.Charles Fotheringham.