banquet, and hid men
there. And when Simon and his sons had drunk freely, Ptolemy and his
men rose up, and took their arms, and came in upon Simon into the
banqueting place, and slew him, and his two sons, and certain of his
servants. And he committed a great iniquity, and recompensed evil for
good. And Ptolemy wrote these things, and sent to the king, that he
should send him forces to aid him, and should deliver him their
country and the cities. And he sent others to Gazara to make away with
John: and unto the captains of thousands he sent letters to come unto
him, that he might give them silver and gold and gifts. And others he
sent to take possession of Jerusalem, and the mount of the temple.

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And one ran before to Gazara, and told John that his father and
brethren were perished, "and he hath sent to slay thee also." And when
he heard, he was sore amazed; and he laid hands on the men that came
to destroy him, and slew them; for he perceived that they were seeking
to destroy him.

(This ends the story of a brave and successful attempt to win liberty
for a downtrodden nation. "More than thirty years had passed since
Mattathias openly resisted the religious persecution of his nation. In
the faithful and skillful hands of his sons the crusade inaugurated by
him had been singularly successful. One by one they had fallen in the
sacred cause which he had committed to them. But they had not shed
their blood in vain. The valor of the Maccabees had rehabilitated the
Jewish nation. Not only was the old spirit of independence thoroughly
aroused, but there was also developed a new consciousness of the worth
of their revealed religion. As the most thrilling epoch in Jewish
history, and that which shaped the last phase of Jewish belief prior
to the advent of our Lord, the age of the Maccabees has a peculiar
interest for the student of history."--_W. Fairweather in Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible_.

The dynasty of the Maccabees continued until the time of our Lord, but
the noble blood of the heroes degenerated until the brilliant but
cruel and evil-minded Herod the Great, by the murder of his own sons,
ended the famous line of the Maccabees.)

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[Illustration]
JERUSALEM: LOOKING ALONG THE NORTHERN WALL.

The large building on the right is the new hospice for Russian
pilgrims. Modern Jerusalem is growing rapidly in this direction to
north and west on the high land. The road seen is a new one wi