General Ahiman Rezon, by Daniel Sickels, [1868], at sacred-texts.com
THE three VIRTUES—symbolically designated "the three Precious Jewels of a Fellow-Craft"—are, if considered from the true point of view, of no mean importance, and are well worthy to be styled "Jewels."
Silence, Secrecy, and Fidelity—rightly understood—are supreme virtues. In silence, the Divine Thought moves through the Eternities, creating and adorning; filling the material world with forms of beauty and glory, and communicating to the moral and spiritual the elements of ever-expanding perfection.
In silence and secrecy, Nature also performs her mysterious labors, and creates that inspiring grandeur and blooming loveliness which ever attracts the attention and charms the vision of man-
The human mind, too, withdrawn into silence and secrecy, by attention and meditation, elaborates those grand thoughts—clothed with creative energies—by which man, through Philosophy, Science, and Art, becomes the sovereign of the material world, and demonstrates his close relationship to the unseen and immortal Powers.
Let, then, the Fellow-Craft wear these precious jewels proudly; for they are worthy of his love. Let the attentive ear gather up all those lessons of wisdom which Nature, History, and the World are perpetually proclaiming; and, retiring into the Divine Silence, let the adept study them with solemn earnestness. Let Fidelity—loyalty to Truth and Virtue—having its root in the deep recesses of the faithful heart, bind him eternally to the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, which will crown him with joy on earth, and make him illustrious when he shall be admitted to the "Inner Chamber" of the Temple on high.