Masonic ritual, as we know it, dates from the early eighteenth century and makes statements that were taken for granted in those days – but are they still true today?
    The one that immediately springs to mind is the mention of `the posture of my daily supplications’. This statement makes two questionable assumptions: first, that every candidate is in the habit of saying prayers every day, and secondly, that he kneels down to say them – of what else could a `knee’ remind him than the act of kneeling?
    Kneeling has always been a demonstration of humility, and many a potentate has demanded that his subjects should only approach him on their knees. Kneeling for prayer to God, however, has not been a general rule down the ages: Abraham’s prayer on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah was apparently delivered while he `stood yet before the Lord’; Nehemiah’s people `stood and confessed their sins’, and in the parable both the Pharisee and the Publican are described as standing to pray.
    On the other hand, Solomon made his great prayer of consecration in the attitude of humility, for at the end of it, we are told (1 Kings 8, 54) that `When Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven’. Daniel, in defiance of the Emperor Darius, `went into his house, and his windows in his chamber being open towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed’, and of course it is recorded that Jesus knelt to pray in the garden of Gethsemane.
    So the first thing a candidate for Freemasonry does is to kneel while the blessing of heaven is invoked, and so it continues. But wait: in Jewish Lodges this is not the custom; instead of kneeling for prayer, their candidates remain standing and `covered’, that is, wearing a hat or some head covering. Different customs for different groups, but in eighteenth century England most candidates would have been `C of E’ or members of recognised Christian denominations where kneeling was the accustomed attitude for prayer.
    It was about that time that churches became furnished with hassocks in various degrees of hardness or softness for the knees of the congregation to rest on. Nineteenth century worshippers used them regularly, but by the twentieth century hassocks had become ornaments rather than furniture, with tapestry or embroidery tops often commemorating some well-known person or event. As by that time hassocks had also unfortunately become something to rest the feet on during sermons, rather than for kneeling, this led in many places to the removal of hassocks to a place of safety – or, at least, to a printed admonition, `Please do not put feet on hassocks’, though these notices have often been treated with the same disregard as the similar requests in railway trains to `keep feet off the seats’.
    At this point I cannot resist quoting the only funny story I know about hassocks. You may remember that many of the older kneelers were finished off with a stud or button in the middle of the top, presumably to hold the stuffing together securely. It is traditionally reported that a certain Vicar, when giving out the notices one Sunday included the following request: `We would be grateful if those of you who are good enough to contribute buttons to the collection plate could kindly bring your own in future, instead of taking them off the hassocks as hitherto’. True? Well, I hope not.
    In most churches some form of kneeler is still provided, but very seldom used, the modern `attitude for prayer’ being a sort of crouch, still sitting but leaning forward with bowed head. I suppose that is better than nothing, but it is hardly `meekly kneeling upon your knees’.
    All this so far has been about public prayer in places of worship; but what about private prayer? Can we assume that people, masons and non-masons alike, still kneel at their bedsides every day? Can we even assume that they pray every day, irrespective of posture? Oddly enough, I believe the answer will be ‘Yes’ in a larger number of cases than any statistics would show. We all know how much reliability can be placed on statistics, and whereas it is possible to count the number of individuals present at a church service, it is quite impossible to count the number saying their prayers at home.
    Returning to the ritual: the posture of a mason’s daily supplication should be a reminder of the needs of others and prompt the mason to supply those needs. No doubt the act of kneeling would assist in engendering the sort of humility to make that possible, but at the same time it should not be necessary to have a reminder at all; the principles and tenets of the Craft should become so much a part of every Brother’s character that he automatically supplies the needs of others and contributes to charitable causes without prompting. This is what `Relief’ means as one of the Grand Principles on which Freemasonry is founded. And this, together with Brotherly Love and Truth, sums up the whole ethos of the Order. This, at least, we can `take for granted’.