44
Order of the Eastern Star.
"Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace."
Cand. Sister Adah.
Adah rises and takes her position at the right of her chair; after each lecture the Star Officer will remain in her position, standing until the Conductress and candidate have passed her, then be seated.
Adah. Sister Conductress.
Cond. I present this Sister who, having assumed our Obligation, will receive from you such lessons respecting fidelity to convictions of right and duty as may properly be drawn from the history of Jephthah's Daughter.
Adah. Jephthah was the ninth judge and one of the mightiest men in Israel. Being called upon, in the extremity of his country's trials to go at the head of its armies, he prepared his household for a campaign that would perhaps cost him his life; and then "Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said: 'If Thou shalt deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace shall surely be the Lord's and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.' " Jephthah went