Chapter XXVI
Degree of Patriarch Militant of the I. O. O. F.
“Patriarchal Proclamation calling a meeting:”
“Lot, my brother’s son, has been taken prisoner by Chedorhaomer, King of Elam, and carried away into captivity. Now, therefore, I do command all of my trained servants, born in my own house, to report without delay, at my tent beneath the Oak of Mamre, near Hebron, there to be enrolled and supplied with weapons of war, and march at once in pursuit of the enemy; recapture my brother’s son at all hazards, and bring him back to his home.
Abram,
Patriarch.”
The candidate has to take the usual solemn obligation—always to conceal and never to reveal, etc., and is instructed in the object of the Order, its signs, etc., and then the Commandant shall say:
Commandant: “Sir, you have now attained the highest and most exalted rank in Odd-Fellowship. Step by step you have been deservedly advanced to this high and honorable distinction, and I am gratified that you have been found worthy to be enrolled as one of our number. The true soldier, engaged in a just warfare, presses forward and strikes valiantly against the stronghold of the adversary, never yielding until that adversary capitulates. He is not easily turned aside; he fears no danger, he heeds no voice excepting that of his commander; and when the conflict is ended, he is equally ready to grant quarter and regard the rights of those who can no longer protect themselves.”
“So you, as a soldier in our cause, must always earnestly contend for those reforms best calculated to promote the moral welfare and advance the condition of mankind. Upon all questions affecting the good and well-being of the community in which you live, you must have an opinion of your own, which you should fearlessly express whenever occasion may require; yet at all times bearing in mind that others have an equal right to entertain honest opinions of their own.”
“On taking the obligation you were required to kneel, in token of obedience to those in authority, and of proper humility; you were required to place your right hand over your heart, to indicate the sincerity of your purpose to faithfully adhere to your sacred pledge of honor; and your left hand was made to grasp the naked blade of the sword, in order to teach you that justice will sooner or later overtake you, should you disregard your obligation. …”
Surely it is evident that Odd-Fellowship is a religious organization. The women branches of the Order have a similar ritual with an oath, etc.
