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 forth to battle, the victory was gained, and the victorious warrior returned to Mizpeh. The door of his house opened, and, "behold! his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances," and she was his only child. Jephthah, when he saw her, rent his clothes, and in the anguish of his heart, cried aloud, "Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." Adah replied, "My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of thy mouth." She asked that she might go among the mountains for two months, and there prepare her mind for the solemn surrender of her life to preserve her father's honor. When the two months had expired, she was seen, followed by her friends, winding her way down the mountain's side to the altar, where her father with an almost broken heart was prepared to fulfil his vow. She approached her father with a kiss of affection and bade him farewell. Taking hold of the veil she wore, he threw it over her face, and drew his sword. But she unveiled herself, and said she need not have her face covered for she was not afraid to die. Her father replied that he could not strike the blow while she looked upon him, and again cast it over her. She threw it off the second time, and said she would look upward, that his arm might not be unnerved by her gaze. A third time, however, he insisted, and a third time she as resolutely cast it off, this time holding the ends of it firmly in her hands and casting her eyes upward, invited the fatal blow. And a deed was consummated which has rendered the name of Jephthah's Daughter famous in the annals of Scripture. The sign of this degree is given by-- Repeat from secret work. (3.) The pass. (4.) The color appropriate to this degree is blue, which symbolizes fidelity, and teaches us to be faithful to all moral obligations.