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W. M.--The common gavel is an instrument made use of by operative masons to break off the superfluous corners of rough stones, the better to fit them

for the builder's use; but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our minds and consciences of all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby fitting us, as living stones, for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.