Without Disclosing My True Identity
and developed to a high degree. He has developed stability and a sure footing. His mental faculties
have sharpened and his horizons have been expanded. The candidate is now ready to approach the
portal of the Sublime Degree of Master Mason.
“The above would be the ideal scenario, but is rarely carried out so seriously. However,
regardless of the candidate’s pace through the Degrees, he should always review his personal progress
and take action to improve himself in Masonry. He should not be satisfied with taking the Degrees
halfheartedly and then consider himself a Master Mason. Very few of us are truly Masters of our Craft,
and we should maintain a healthy deference for this exalted status. For the designation Master Mason
should always be before us in our journey toward the Light as the ideal of our Fraternity.
“Being ‘Raised to the Sublime Degree’ is the appropriate terminology. Sublime is defined as
being exalted or elevated so as to inspire awe and wonder. And it also means to undergo sublimation
that, like distillation, requires a volatilization of a substance that rises and reforms at a higher level.
The significance of this Degree is the portrayal of the removal of everything that keeps us from rising
to that state where the soul communes with the Supernal Light.”
(^3) DHC, 4:552–3.
(^4) DHC, 5:1–2 and note (*).
(^5) DHC, 5:12, 18, 22, 32, 49, 75–6. Later, on 20 August 1842, Bennett “was declared unworthy to
hold the office of chancellor of the University, and was discharged.” (DHC, 5:120.)
(^6) DHC, 4:287–92.
(^7) “Rockwell’s,” Pony Express Home Station, Mar. 1993, Tom Crews, 15 Jul. 2011
http://www.xphomestation.com/utsta.html.
One of its most popular beverages was Valley Tan Whiskey, which Rockwell colloquially
characterized as “liquid strychnine.” Others observed: “It was the exclusive Mormon refresher.
...Valley tan...is a kind of whisky, or first cousin to it; is of Mormon invention and manufactured
only in Utah. Tradition says it is made of [imported] fire and brimstone. If I remember rightly, no
public drinking saloons were allowed in the kingdom by Brigham Young, and no private
drinking permitted among the faithful, except they confined themselves to ‘valley tan’.” –Mark
Twain (Hal Schindler, “Humorist Mined Mother Lode In Mormons and Their Foibles,” The Salt
Lake Tribune, 17 Sept. 1995: J1, found on “Utah History to Go,” State of Utah, 3 Aug. 2011
http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/091795.html.)
It is also worthy of note that Hotel Utah (now known as the Joseph Smith Memorial Building
[JSMB]) once contained “[T]he largest and finest bar in the West in the basement of the Hotel,” which
also doubled as “a regular whore-house.” (See Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, 798 and
Boyd Jay Petersen, Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life-The Authorized Biography of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake
City: Greg Kofford Books, 2002) 12–13: “[Grandfather Charles Nibley] raised the funds necessary to
construct the Church Administration Building at 47 East South Temple and the Hotel Utah just west
of it. Finishing the Hotel Utah, however, required a loan of $2 million. Charles successfully
negotiated the loan with a New York bank, which pleased President Smith until he heard the terms:
The money would have to be paid back in two years. “Charley, what have you done?” he exclaimed.
‘How in the world will we ever pay it back on time?’ Charles had already thought through the
problem. ‘I’m going to build the largest and finest bar in the West in the basement of the Hotel,
and we’ll see that we will pay off every penny of that debt,’ he assured President Smith. Charles got
the bar, and the Church repaid its loan on time.”
(^8) History repeats:
“9 Dec. [1869], ZCMI Drug Store advertises that it has just opened on Main Street with
‘Liquors, Draught and by the Case.’”
“15 Jan. [1897], Apostle Brigham Young, Jr. temporarily resigns as vice-president of Brigham
Young Trust Co. because first counselor George Q. Cannon allows its property to become ‘a first
class’ brothel on Commercial Street (now Regent Street), Salt Lake City. Apostle Heber J. Grant is
invited to its opening reception and is stunned to discover himself inside ‘a regular whore-house.’