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the battle waxed sore, and many on both parts fell wounded to death. And Judas fell, and the rest fled.

And Jonathan and Simon took Judas their brother, and buried him in the sepulchre of his fathers at Modin. And they bewailed him, and all Israel made great lamentation for him, and mourned many days, and said, 'How is the mighty fallen, the saviour of Israel!' And the rest of the acts of Judas, and his wars, and the valiant deeds which he did, and his greatness, they are not written; for they were exceeding many.

'And he waxed faint': rather and he despaired.' His resolution to dare all with his handful of men was the outcome not of faintness, but of the courage of despair.

'But we are few': i. e. we here are now but few.

'A cause of reproach.' The rendering of the Authorized Version is less literal, but in the spirit truer: and let us not stain our honour.'

'The host removed': apparently the Jews are meant. 'The horse was parted': i.e. the Syrian horse.

The death of Judas was worthy of his life. His time was come, and he died manfully, a hero's death, as a hero would wish to die. But he did not die in vain; his work lived after him. The great warrior had deserved well of Judaism. He was no mere hero of battles, but a knight of religion. And in those days Judaism needed warlike knights as well as saintly martyrs. And thus the story of Judas well merits a place in our Bible for Home Reading.

§ 8. The virtue of courage.-Courage, let me repeat, is still the fourth part of all virtue, even if it be not more. Let us not think the less of it because we cannot attribute it to God. For there is a glory of man, and there is a glory of God, and the two have points of connexion, but are yet distinct. A soldier's courage in a noble cause, the courage of Judas Maccabæus, the courage of John Nicholson-this courage is assuredly part and parcel of the glory of man. Courage can be so purified and exalted that it implies and involves a number of other virtues as well. The truly courageous man is rarely mean or false, for, as Aristotle says, the source and end of his courage are the noble, the beautiful, the good; and this source and end are present with him in all his deeds. They are the light which beckons him forward; they strengthen and ennoble. His courage prevents them being forgotten in any crisis or emergency. Courage is both the boy's virtue and the man's.

'THE HAPPY WARRIOR

755

Not limited to the field of battle, courage can show itself in every sphere and in a myriad forms. People speak sometimes of physical courage deprecatingly or with depreciation; they say moral courage is higher. But in truth they go together. The boy who rides fearlessly and will not shrink in the dentist's chair is in all probability the boy who will scorn to tell a lie in words or act a lie by silence. All honour, then, to this grand virtue of courage, without which the man is never a man. There are virtues which must supplement it; there are virtues which rise above it. But courage comes first: the man virtuous in other respects but without courage is like a man who can run a hundred yards but cannot walk a mile. Courage comes first. Without it the other virtues lack their foundation. It gives them dignity and cohesion.

On the whole, the Jews have never been lacking in courage. They have gone to their death, without flinching, for their religion's sake, and borne in noble bravery obloquy and insult, torture and death. They have resisted the temptation to purchase ease and honour by apostasy and falsehood.

And should not among the bravest Jews of to-day be those who are adopted sons of the great Anglo-Saxon race, the race which has enriched the world's hero-record by so long and glorious a string of names, famous by land and by sea, at home and abroad, in peace and in war? Yes, we who have this double history behind us, who look back with pride both to Judas and to Alfred, we surely should seek to be brave, to be worthy, even in smallest and unremembered things, of those mighty names in the musterroll of Judaism and of England. And in some respects Judas, no less than Alfred, recalls to us the picture of the Happy Warrior so superbly described by Wordsworth-the warrior

Who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
Is happy as a Lover; and attired

...

With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness inade, and sees what he foresaw :
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name-
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is He
That every Man in arms should wish to be.

CHAPTER V

JONATHAN AND SIMON

§ 1. The evil time after the death of Judas.-It is a great fall from Judas to his successor. Judas had fought and died for his country and his faith. His brother Jonathan, who now led the party, fought for his own hand, we might almost say for his own dynasty.

At first the cause seemed hopeless. The Hellenists-both the Jews and their Syrian overlords-were masters of the land and of the capital. Our historian speaks of a gloomy time.

And it came to pass after the death of Judas, that the lawless put forth their heads in all the coasts of Israel, and all they that wrought iniquity rose up (in those days was there an exceeding great famine), and the country went over with them. And Bacchides chose out the ungodly men, and made them lords of the country. And they sought out and searched for the friends of Judas, and brought them unto Bacchides, and he took vengeance on them, and used them despitefully. And there was great tribulation in Israel, such as was not since the time that no prophet appeared unto them.

And all the friends of Judas were gathered together, and they said unto Jonathan, 'Since thy brother Judas hath died, we have no man like him to go forth against our enemies and Bacchides, and among them of our nation that hate us. Now therefore we have chosen thee this day to be our prince and leader in his stead, that thou mayest fight our battles.' And Jonathan took the governance upon him at that time, and rose up in the stead of his brother Judas.

JONATHAN AT MICHMASH

757

For a time Jonathan and his band lived a wild, wandering and freebooter sort of life like David of old. The cities of Judæa were fortified against them with hostile garrisons. 'Sons of the chief men of the country' were taken as hostages and were 'put in ward in the citadel at Jerusalem.'

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2. Bacchides leaves Palestine.-In 160 B. C. Alcimus, the Hellenist high priest, died, and Bacchides returned to Antioch. The office of high priest was left vacant. The Maccabean party now gradually recovered their strength, but for the next seven years we hear very little about them. In 158 B. C. the Jewish Hellenist or Syrian party again besought the armed aid of Bacchides. He came, but did not conquer. Most of the Maccabean forces had entrenched themselves under Simon at Bethbasi which is in the wilderness,' and Bacchides besieged them in vain. Jonathan, with the remainder of his band, made marauding expeditions into the country around. At last, weary of his ill-success, Bacchides made peace with Jonathan, and, leaving thus the two opposed Jewish parties to fight it out among themselves, returned to Syria. Jonathan, we are told, dwelt at Michmash; and Jonathan began to judge the people; and he destroyed the ungodly out of Israel.' The ungodly': in other words, his political opponents and those who disagreed with him in matters of religious observance. So utterly remote was the great modern idea of toleration from the minds of religious Jews at that period. Not even the persecutions of Antiochus had suggested it. The later Rabbinical religion expressed the higher truth: 'Be ye of the persecuted, and not of the persecutors.'

§ 3. Jonathan becomes high priest.-For five years this anomalous state of things continued; the power of Jonathan was on the rise, the power of his enemies declined. For the mass of the people had no sympathy with the Hellenists; they sided with the Maccabeans both for national and religious reasons, and when, as Professor Schürer says, the Syrian pressure slackened or ceased, they could express their feelings in deed. But the Maccabean cause was led to final triumph by the dissensions and civil wars within the Syrian kingdom itself.

First came the rebellion of Alexander Balas, who pretended to be a son of Antiochus Epiphanes. Demetrius in his extremity sought the help of Jonathan, and made him advantageous offers. He gave him authority to gather together forces, and commanded that they should deliver up to him the hostages that were in the citadel.'

Jonathan accordingly marched to Jerusalem, occupied the city and fortified anew the temple hill. The hostages were delivered up to him, and the Syrian garrisons were withdrawn except from Bethsura and the citadel of Jerusalem.

The Maccabean leader was now possessed of sufficient power to justify counter-offers from Alexander Balas. Alexander offered him the office of high priest, and 'sent unto him a purple robe and a crown of gold.' Jonathan, on his part, was not slow to take advantage of this strange offer. At the Feast of Tabernacles in the year 153 B. C., the new high priest of Alexander's making put on his robes of office!

The next move was from Demetrius, who made offers grander and wider still, but Jonathan from one reason or another refused them. He was wise. In 150 B.C. Demetrius fell in battle against Alexander and his allies. Jonathan was rewarded for his fidelity with special favour. At the marriage of Alexander with the daughter of Ptolemy Philometor at Ptolemais, Alexander wrote to Jonathan that he should come to meet him.

And he went with pomp to Ptolemais, and met the two kings, and gave them and their Friends silver and gold, and many gifts, and found favour in their sight. And there were gathered together against him certain pestilent fellows out of Israel, men that were transgressors of the law, to complain against him: and the king gave no heed to them. And the king commanded, and they took off Jonathan's garments, and clothed him in purple: and thus they did. And the king made him sit with him, and said unto his princes, Go forth with him into the midst of the city, and make proclamation, that no man complain against him of any matter, and let no man trouble him for any manner of cause.' And it came to pass, when they that complained against him saw his glory according as the herald made proclamation, and saw him clothed in purple, they all fled away. And the king gave him honour, and wrote him among his Chief Friends, and made him a captain, and governor of a province. And Jonathan returned to Jerusalem with peace and gladness.

§ 4. The fall of Jonathan.-When Demetrius II, son of Demetrius I, raised a revolt against Alexander (147 B. C.), Jonathan remained faithful to his benefactor. He fought successfully against Apollonius, the governor of Coele-Syria, who had fallen away to Demetrius, and he was rewarded by Alexander with the

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