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sanctuary and them that were holy; that they should build altars, and temples, and shrines for idols, and should sacrifice swine's flesh and unclean beasts: and that they should make their souls abominable with all manner of uncleanness and profanation; so that they might forget the law, and change all the ordinances. And whosoever shall not do according to the word of the king, he shall die.

According to all these words wrote he to his whole kingdom; and he appointed overseers over all the people, and he commanded the cities of Judah to sacrifice, city by city. And from the people were gathered together unto them many, every one that had forsaken the law; and they did evil things in the land; and they made Israel to hide themselves in every place of refuge which they had.

And on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the hundred and forty and fifth year, they builded an abomination of desolation upon the altar, and in the cities of Judah on every side they builded idol altars. And at the doors of the houses and in the streets they burnt incense.

And they rent in pieces the books of the law which they found, and set them on fire. And wheresoever was found with any a book of the covenant, and if any consented to the law, the king's sentence delivered him to death. Thus did they in their might unto Israel, to those that were found month by month in the cities.

And on the five and twentieth day of the month they sacrificed upon the idol altar, which was upon the altar of God.

And many in Israel were fully resolved and confirmed in themselves not to eat unclean things. And they chose to die, that they might not be defiled with the meats, and that they might not profane the holy covenant: and they died. And there came exceeding great wrath upon Israel.

Thus a systematic persecution was organized. The Jews were compelled to sacrifice at heathen altars, or to eat forbidden meat as a mark of obedience and a sign of apostasy. Under these circumstances it was reasonable enough that the smallest ritual law should acquire a peculiar and symbolic power. To-day we put little value on the old laws about food; but if we asked to eat a lobster as a sign that we renounced Judaism, it would be right and not quixotic to refuse at all earthly hazard. The abomination of desolation' was an altar of Zeus Olympius,

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for which the altar of Jehovah in the Temple served as a pedestal. We shall hear of it again in the Book of Daniel.

§ 15. The story of Eleazar the scribe.-Thus began that awful period (December, 168 B.C.) during which some of those agonized Psalms, such as xliv or lxxix, may probably have been composed. Let the reader turn back to them now, and he will realize how aptly they fit in with the historical situation. And the uppermost feeling was 'For thy sake, for thy sake, are we slain all the day long.'

It was an age of martyrdoms, the first great historic instance of that long roll of religious persecutions and martyrdoms which have stained and glorified so many different religions. For the creed which has produced the martyrs of one age has produced the persecutors of another. Nay, the very same people, the men of the very same faith, could slay and be slain with equal fervour and equal certainty of right.

The Second Book of the Maccabees tells two grim tales of these martyrdoms which in their details are certainly not historical. But as types of the worst that went on in Judæa in the year of blood, 167 B.C., they are probably not far from the truth. This is the first.

Eleazar, one of the principal scribes, a man already well stricken in years, and of a noble countenance, was compelled to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh. But he, welcoming death with renown rather than life with pollution, advanced of his own accord to the instrument of torture, but first spat forth the flesh, coming forward as men ought to come that are resolute to repel such things as not even for the natural love of life is it lawful to taste.

But they that had the charge of that forbidden sacrificial feast took the man aside, for the acquaintance which of old times they had with him, and privately besought him to bring flesh of his own providing, such as was befitting for him to use, and to make as if he did eat of the flesh from the sacrifice, as had been commanded by the king; that by so doing he might be delivered from death, and for his ancient friendship with them might be treated kindly.

But he, having formed a high resolve, and one that became his years, and the dignity of old age, and the gray hairs which he had reached with honour, and his excellent education from a child, or rather that became the holy laws of God's ordaining, declared his mind accordingly, bidding

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them quickly send him unto Hades. For it becometh not our years to dissemble,' said he, that through this many of the young should suppose that Eleazar, the man of fourscore years and ten, had gone over unto an alien religion; and so they, by reason of my dissimulation, and for the sake of this brief and momentary life, should be led astray because of me, and thus I get to myself a pollution and a stain of mine. old age. For even if for the present time I shall remove from me the punishment of men, yet shall I not escape the hands of the Almighty, either living or dead. Wherefore, by manfully parting with my life now, I will shew myself worthy of mine old age, and leave behind a noble ensample to the young to die willingly and nobly a glorious death for the reverend and holy laws. And when he had said these words, he went straightway to the instrument of torture.

And when they changed the good will they bare him a little before into ill will, because these words of his were, as they thought, sheer madness, and when he was at the point to die with the stripes, he groaned aloud and said, 'To the Lord, that hath the holy knowledge, it is manifest that, whereas I might have been delivered from death, I endure sore pains in my body by being scourged; but in soul I gladly suffer these things for my fear of him.'

So this man also died after this manner, leaving his death for an ensample of nobleness and a memorial of virtue, not only to the young but also to the great body of his nation.

§ 16. The seven brothers and their mother.—The second tale is longer, more ghastly and more famous.

And it came to pass that seven brethren also with their mother were at the king's command taken and shamefully handled with scourges and cords, to compel them to taste of the abominable swine's flesh. But one of them made himself the spokesman and said, 'What wouldest thou ask and learn of us? for we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers.'

And the king fell into a rage, and commanded to heat pans and caldrons: and when these forthwith were heated, he commanded to cut out the tongue of him that had been their spokesman, and to scalp him, and to cut off his extremities, the rest of his brethren and his mother looking

on.

And when he was utterly maimed, the king com

manded to bring him to the fire, being yet alive, and to fry him in the pan. And as the vapour of the pan spread far, they and their mother also exhorted one another to die nobly, saying thus: The Lord God beholdeth, and in truth is intreated for us, as Moses declared in his song, which witnesseth against the people to their faces, saying, And he shall be intreated for his servants.'

And when the first had died after this manner, they brought the second to the mocking; and they pulled off the skin of his head with the hair and asked him, Wilt thou eat, before thy body be punished in every limb?' But he answered in the language of his fathers and said to them, 'No.' Wherefore he also underwent the next torture in succession, as the first had done. And when he was at the last gasp, he said, 'Thou, miscreant, dost release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, unto an eternal renewal of life.'

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And after him was the third made a mocking-stock. And when he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched forth his hands courageously, and nobly said, From heaven I possess these; and for his laws' sake I contemn these; and from him I hope to receive these back again :' insomuch that the king himself and they that were with him were astonished at the young man's soul, for that he nothing regarded the pains.

And when he too was dead, they shamefully handled and tortured the fourth in like manner. And being come near unto death he said thus: "It is good to die at the hands of men and look for the hopes which are given by God, that we shall be raised up again by him; for as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life.'

And next after him they brought the fifth, and shamefully handled him. But he looked toward the king and said, 'Because thou hast authority among men, though thou art thyself corruptible, thou doest what thou wilt; yet think not that our race hath been forsaken of God; but hold thou on thy way, and behold his sovereign majesty, how it will torture thee and thy seed.'

And after him they brought the sixth. And when he was at the point to die he said, 'Be not vainly deceived, for we suffer these things for our own doings, as sinning against our own God: marvellous things are come to pass; but

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think not thou that thou shalt be unpunished, having assayed to fight against God.'

But above all was the mother marvellous and worthy of honourable memory; for when she looked on seven sons perishing within the space of one day, she bare the sight with a good courage for the hopes that she had set on the Lord. And she exhorted each one of them in the language of their fathers, filled with a noble temper and stirring up her womanish thought with manly passion, saying unto them, 'It was not I that bestowed on you your spirit and your life, and it was not I that brought into order the first elements of each one of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who fashioned the generation of man and devised the generation of all things, in mercy giveth back to you again both your spirit and your life, as ye now contemn your own selves for his laws' sake.'

But Antiochus, thinking himself to be despised, and suspecting the reproachful voice, whilst the youngest was yet alive did not only make his appeal to him by words, but also at the same time promised with oaths that he would enrich him and raise him to high estate, if he would turn from the customs of his fathers, and that he would take him for his Friend and intrust him with affairs. But when the young man would in no wise give heed, the king called unto him his mother, and exhorted her that she would counsel the lad to save himself. And when he had exhorted her with many words, she undertook to persuade her son. But bending toward him, laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, she spake thus in the language of her fathers: "My son, have pity upon me that nourished and brought thee up unto this age, and sustained thee. I beseech thee, my child, to lift thine eyes unto the heaven and the earth, and to see all things that are therein, and thus to recognise that God made them not of things that were, and that the race of men in this wise cometh into being. Fear not this butcher, but, proving thyself worthy of thy brethren, accept thy death, that in the mercy of God I may receive thee again with thy

brethren.'

But before she had yet ended speaking, the young man said, 'Whom wait ye for? I obey not the commandment of the king, but I hearken to the commandment of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses. But thou, that