a man of vile character, by bribery, got possession of the office of high priest, and initiated the Jewish youth in all the games and vices of the heathen. A rival soon supplanted him in the favour of Antiochus, at whose court gold was all-powerful. Menelaus, a Benjamite, dispossessed Jason, and seized the sacred vessels of the temple, in order to turn them into money. Onias reprimanding him, the usurper caused him to be assassinated, while he was himself shortly after supplanted again by his own brother, Lysimachus, though bribery again restored him to his unlawful power.

An

In the mean time the Jewish state fell into every disorder; the services of religion were neglected, murders and licentiousness reigned uncontrolled, while fearful signs in the heavens, and visions of men and armies in conflict, portended the vengeance which Almighty God was about to take for the sins of His people. A rumour also being spread that Antiochus was dead in Egypt, Jason, the expelled high priest, gathered together an armed band, and put to death many in Jerusalem. tiochus, however, was still alive, and speedily marched against Jerusalem, entered the city, torn as it was with intestine quarrels, and gave it up to pillage and massacre. For three days the most awful scenes were acted. Eighty thousand men, women, and children were massacred, and an immense number were made slaves. Menelaus himself led the way for the conquerors into the temple, where the ferocious_king plundered the treasury and carried off the sacred vessels. He then left the city to be ruled by one Philip, a Phrygian, a man even more barbarous than his master.

Two years afterwards, Antiochus renewed his persecutions, and resolved to extirpate the whole Jewish race. He sent Apollonius to slay all the adult men, and to make slaves of the women and children. Another of his officers was commissioned to force the people to abjure the true God and the law of Moses. Under this man's frantic command the temple was defiled and converted into a temple of Jupiter Olympius, women were murdered for having their children circumcised,

and all who refused to join in the idolatrous rites were put to death. While the great multitude, scared by these horrors, dared not profess their religion, many were found faithful, and received the crown of martyrdom. Among the rest, Eleazar, one of the chief scribes, was led to death for refusing to eat swine's flesh, which was one of the unclean meats, the use of which was forbidden by the law of Moses. On the way to the place of execution, the bystanders, touched with pity for the venerable man, besought him at least to suffer some of the lawful meats to be brought to him, that he might eat them, and so appear to yield to the tyrants, while he saved his conscience, and touched nothing really unclean. Eleazar scorned the deception, knowing well that the scandal he would cause would be more grievous than all the sufferings he was called to endure; and he died nobly testifying to the faith of the one true God.

A still more terrible martyrdom succeeded that of Eleazar. Seven brothers, the Machabees, with their mother, laid down their lives for the faith. Refusing to eat swine's flesh, Antiochus condemned them to the most horrible torments, calling them forth one by one, that the sight of their brother's agonies might terrify those who yet remained. The six eldest thus expired, dreadfully mutilated, and burnt with slow fires, but retaining their constancy to the last, glorifying God, and scorning alike the insults and blandishments of the king. When the turn of the youngest came, the tyrant called his mother to witness his pangs, and bade her influence her son to recant. But all was vain. The mother strengthened her child to suffer, and after he was dead, was herself added to the band of martyrs.

CHAP. XII. Judas Machabeus.

WHILE these horrible scenes where being enacted in Jerusalem, Mathathias, a man of rare piety and valour, of the priestly race, fled with his family to Modin, a town in the hilly country of Judea. There he mourned over

the backslidings of his countrymen, and rejected all the bribes which were offered him by the emissaries of Antiochus, if he would apostatise from his faith and worship the idols. At length matters grew to a crisis, and he organised a band of faithful men, to resist the tyranny of the conqueror. Standing by one day when an apostate Jew came up to offer sacrifice to an idol, the zeal of Mathathias could not restrain itself, and he slew both the Jew and the king's officer who was forcing him to the idolatry on the spot. Then fleeing into the mountains with his five sons, he was joined by crowds of the Jews, and speedily found himself in a condition to take the field against the king's troops. Success now crowned his arms. He scoured the whole country with extraordinary rapidity, and it was not long before he had driven the armies of Antiochus from the country. He had scarcely began to overturn the idolatry which had been every where set up, when death carried him away from his country and people. Before he died, he exhorted his five sons to complete the work he had commenced, urging them to remember the glorious examples of Divine protection which the annals of their race recorded for their encouragement. He chose Judas, surnamed Machabeus, from the rest, to command the Jewish armies, and named another of his sons, Simon, as their chief adviser.

As soon as his father was dead, Judas prepared for a renewed contest with the armies of Antiochus. His heroism was conspicuous amidst that of a family of heroes, and his faith and devotion towards God crowned his struggles with victory. He formed his troops from those Jews who had remained faithful in the time of persecution, and sought by prayer and fasting to fight ever under the special protection of the God of armies. Thus prepared, he routed Apollonius, the Syriancommander who marched against him from Samaria, and who fell by the hand of Judas himself. Seron, who succeeded to the command, was also defeated; and Lysias, the Persian viceroy, despatched three officersPtolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias-to attack the Jewish

hero with an overwhelming force. Preparing themselves with prayer and fasting, the Jews rushed upon their invaders, defeated them with great slaughter, and on the renewal of the campaign the following year, again routed the Syrian force at Antioch.

Judas, then, now the undisputed master of his country, turned all his energies to the purification of the land from its idols. He cleansed the temple, where the sacred court was overgrown with weeds and wild trees, and restored the worship of God with all the splendour in his power. When the neighbouring tribes, jealous of the renewed greatness of the Jews, molested them, Judas stormed their cities, and crushed their armies with almost incredible rapidity. On one occasion, in fighting with Gorgias, the governor of Idumea, some of his own troops were unexpectedly slain, and on examining their bodies, it was found that they had possessed themselves of certain votive offerings from the idol temples, a thing forbidden by the law of Moses, and which God thus instantly had punished. Hoping, nevertheless, that they had sinned either in partial ignorance, or had repented before their deaths, Judas sent a large amount of silver to the temple, that prayers and sacrifices might be offered for their souls.

Antiochus now marched in person against the irresistible Jewish leader; but a mortal disease smote him on his progress. Still, mad with rage, he persisted in his advance, till loathsome and agonising symptoms compelled him to stay his march. Racked with anguish of mind as well as body, his conscience smote him for his cruelties to the Jews; and before he died, he gave directions for a cessation of the persecutions, even protesting that he would himself become a Jew. His son, Antiochus Eupator, succeeded, and continued the war against Judas. Victory was still with the Jews, and Lysias, still viceroy of Persia, concluded a peace with Judas. Traitors in Jerusalem, however, again invited Antiochus to renew the war, and he marched into Judea with 120,000 men and 32 elephants armed for battle. Judas met the king undaunted, and his youngest

brother, Eleazar, devoted himself to death in the hope of destroying the persecutor of his country. Perceiving that one of the elephants was conspicuous for the splendour of its trappings, and imagining that Antiochus himself might be riding on its back, Eleazar threw himself beneath the monstrous beast, and thrusting the sword into its body, brought it down to the ground, crushed to death himself by the elephant's fall. The king was not there, but he was so little successful, that he soon concluded a peace, and returned to Syria.

CHAP. XIII. Deaths of Judas Machabeus, Jonathan and Simon High Priests.

SHORTLY after the conclusion of peace with the Jews, Antiochus Eupator died. His cousin Demetrius plotted against him, put him to death, and seized his throne. Alcimus, a traitorous Jew, persuaded the new king to nominate him high priest of the Jews, and to send him with an army against Judas. After doing great mischief, Alcimus was driven out of the country by Judas, and he persuaded Demetrius to despatch a second expedition against the Jews under Nicanor. Nicanor was defeated by Judas, and afterwards made a treaty with him. This treaty Nicanor observed faithfully till the machinations of Alcimus, who accused him of treachery to the king, induced him to break his faith with Judas, and he planned a scheme for making Judas his prisoner. His plot was discovered; war ensued; Nicanor attacked the Jews with an immense army; Judas, strengthened by a heavenly vision, in which he beheld the prophet Jeremias and the high priest Onias encouraging him in his great work, met the invaders, slew five and thirty thousand men, and among the rest Nicanor himself.

But the hour of Judas was now at hand. He had accomplished the work that was given him to do; and the people whom he had hitherto led to unfailing victories were growing weary of the struggle against the overwhelming force of the Syrian monarchy. A large