Albert Pike's Address to the Brethren

My Brethren, there are many fields of Masonic labor, and every one must work in that wherein it seems to him that he can do the most good. But, whatever else we may be, we are all Master Masons, and we all owe to the Masonry of the Blue Degrees our first and paramount allegiance. No man is without offence, whom makes these Degrees mere stepping-stones by which to ascend to what he deems a higher level. If he does so, he is not worthy to wear the decorations of the Degrees to which he supposes himself to have ascended. These are higher than those of the Blue Lodge, in only the single sense, that they are built upon it, as the upper stories and attic of a house are built above the
Ground-floor, to which are in no sense superior to more honorable, unless they are intrinsically so by virtue of a higher instruction, a profounder philosophy taught by them, a purer morality inculcated, a truer and better illustration and explanation of the symbols. If really of a higher nature by virtue of these, they would be equally so, if the numeration of the Degrees began at the top, and that bearing the highest number were at the bottom..,.
If our labors and writings in other Degrees and Bodies tend to elevate the Symbolic Masonry, to illustrate its symbols and invest them with a higher significance and a more solemnly religious meaning, to apply and expound and comment upon and make more forcible the moral law of the Blue Degrees, ‘the principle tenets of Free-Masonry; ‘included between the two points of the compasses to communicate to the zealous Masonic student more exalted ideas of the God in whom Masons put their trust, and strengthen him with more convincing proofs of the existence of the soul after this life ends, then those who work and write there are the efficient Apostles of the Free-Masonry of the Blue Degrees, true fellow-workmen in the field of Masonic labor,,..
Let us, therefore, my dear Brethren, always remember, that first of all and above all, we are Master Masons; and wherever we work and labor, calling ourselves Masons, let us work and labor to elevate and dignify Blue Masonry; for we owe to it all that we are in the Order; and whatever we may be elsewhere, we are always amenable to its law and its tribunals, and always concerned to maintain and magnify its honor and glory.

Brother Albert Pike