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.)
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 winding around the city and over the Mount of Olives to Jericho.
