y. Its position is one of vast strength. We shall have
numbers, and courage, though neither order nor discipline; and it
may be that, at the last, the Lord will defend his sanctuary, and
save it from destruction at the hands of the heathen. Should it not
be so, we can but die; and how could a Jew better die than in
defense of God's Temple?"

"It would have been better," Simon said, "had we not, by our evil
doings, have brought God's Temple into danger."

"He has suffered it," the rabbi said, "and his ways are not the
ways of man. It may be that He has suffered such madness to fall
upon, us in order that His name may, at last, be glorified."

"May it be so!" Simon said piously; "and now, let us to bed, for
the hour is growing late."

The following morning Simon, his wife, and the whole household
accompanied John to the shore; as Simon had arranged with one of
the boatmen to take the lad to Hippos. The distance was but short;
but Simon, when his wife had expressed surprise at his sending John
in a boat, said:

"It is not the distance, Martha. A half-hour's walk is naught to
the lad; but I had reasons, altogether apart from the question of
distance. John is going out to play a man's part. He is young but,
since my lord Josephus has chosen to place him among those who form
his bodyguard, he has a right to claim to be regarded as a man.
That being so, I would not accompany him to Hippos; for it would
seem like one leading a child, and it were best to let him go by
himself.

"Again, it were better to have but one parting. Here he will
receive my blessing, and say goodbye to us all. Doubtless he will
often be with us, for Tiberias lies within sight and, so long as
Josephus remains in Galilee, he will never be more than a long
day's journey from home. The lad loves us, and will come as often
as he can but, surrounded as Josephus is by dangers, the boy will
not be able to get away on his own business. He must take the
duties, as well as the honor of the office; and we must not blind
ourselves to the fact that, in one of these popular tumults, great
danger and even death may come upon him.

"This seems to you terrible," he went on, in answer to an
exclamation of alarm from Martha; "but it does not seem so terrible
to me. We go on planting, and gathering in, as if no danger
threatened us, and the evil day were far off; but it is not so. The
Roman hosts are gathering, and we are wasting our strength, in
party strife, and