General Ahiman Rezon, by Daniel Sickels, [1868], at sacred-texts.com

THE NORTH-EAST CORNER.

IN the important ceremony which refers to the north-east corner of the Lodge, the candidate becomes as one who is to all outward appearance a perfect and upright man and Mason, the representative of a spiritual corner-stone on which he is to erect his future moral and Masonic edifice.

This symbolic reference of the corner-stone of a material edifice to a Mason when, at his first initiation, he commences the moral and intellectual task of erecting a spiritual temple in his heart, is beautifully sustained when we look at all the qualities that aye required to constitute a "well-tried, true, and trusty" corner-stone. The squareness of its surface, emblematic of morality—its cubical form, emblematic of firmness and stability of character—and the peculiar finish and fineness of the material, emblematic of virtue and holiness—show that the ceremony of the north-east corner of the Lodge was undoubtedly intended to portray, in the consecrated language of symbolism, the necessity of integrity and stability of conduct, of truthfulness and uprightness of character, and of purity and holiness of life, which just at that time and in that place the candidate is most impressively charged to maintain.