we in reading of it. He is not likely to hav reflected, as we do, on the mischiefs of a sacred code, which none may criticize and improve.

Much as we must honor the self-devotion of those Jews, it is clear that Reverence paralyzed their intellect. Men's good sense will struggle upwards against a misplaced reverence. Sacredness of the letter therefore generates a perverse logic, just as in lawyers whose problem it is to reconcile a barbarous code with maturer judgments. Fanciful analogies, arbitrary presumptions, subtle distinctions ar invoked and approved, in aid of justice or mercy. In the Mosaic books religion, law, medicin, agriculture were interfused. Gentile beliefs were superadded: out of this mass the Rabbi had to hammer results that satisfy utility and wisdom; and every bigot had advantage over a larger-hearted expounder. From this system proceeded much heroism and fanatical energy, also much crooked subtlety of the moderate and comparativly wise.

Pompey from curiosity entered the Holy of Holies, but refused to plunder the gold of the temple, and restrained his soldiers from violence. From rudeness and insult to Jewish scruples, to restrain them was impossible. Moreover the eagles on his standard, being worshipped as idols, were a dire abomination. Their very entrance into the Holy City was an affliction to Jewish sentiment.

This new conquest by an idolatrous foe was a painful wound, after a century of belief that under Jehovah's protection Jehovah's people were safe. Severe doubts. awoke as to the lawfulness of professing allegiance. The book of Deuteronomy seemed expressly to forbid; for (xvii. 11) in allowing them to choose a king it imposes. two conditions, first, the king must be the man whom Jehovah shall choose-(therefore could not be an idolater);,

next, he must be "one of thy brethren; but a stranger "thou mayest not set over thee, who is not thy brother." This prohibition was to many decisiv. Besides, a fine Psalm (cxxv.) givs a powerful moral reason. The sceptre of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth his hand to injustice. From every province the Roman rule tore away the young men to fight in aggressiv wars against distant peoples. Jehovah seemed to affirm that he rested "like "the mountains around his people," to shield them from this base subservience. Tender consciences were pierced by this liability. Brave and ardent souls must hav braced themselves, like our Quakers, to refuse it, and to deny the rightfulness of allegiance and loyalty. Not many of the wisest would see how to reconcile the command of the law with the dictates of prudence; nor how in sincerity to make professions which the conqueror would not interpret to mean, "We shall rebel as soon as we "dare,"—if nothing but inability to resist justified submission. That the religion was an intense explosiv, was soon manifest, and the Romans felt towards it, in vehement combination, Fear, Disgust and Hatred. How else feel Britons toward Islam in India?

After so difficult a conquest, no one will wonder that heavier tribute was laid on the Jews than on the Syrian towns. Romans indeed could justify this by a very peculiar reason. Because of suspension of culture in the sabbatical year, it was impossible to collect taxes. Therefore if in six years they collected seven years' revenu, they did nothing unfair to this eccentric people. At the same time it gave a new stone to fling at the Jews, as lovers of idleness.

Pompey, with his uniform humanity, tried to conciliate good will, and to arrange all things by healing measures. After his departure, first a son of Aristobulus, next the

father himself, escaping from Roman captivity, renewed civil war, with nothing but distress to the Jews. Presently, the Roman consul Crassus plundered all the treasures which Pompey had spared, and perished with the chief part of his army in an expedition against the Parthians. Tranquillity was chiefly restored through the energy and sagacity of an Edomite prince, Antipater, son-in-law to a powerful Arabian chieftain. Apparently he belonged to the part of Idumea which had accepted with circumcision the whole Mosaic ceremonial; so that he and his family passed as Jews. He had been a vehement and serviceable partizan of Hyrcanus and Pompey; but after civil war had divided the Romans and Pompey was murdered in Egypt, he quickly espoused the side of Cæsar, and rendered him signal service in a dangerous crisis. For this he was made prefect of Judæa, and conducted affairs cautiously through the terrible struggle which still convulsed the empire. His son is known to us as Herod the Great.

The ascent of Herod to power was singularly rapid. His father made him governor of Galilee when he was twenty-five years old. Sextus Cæsar, being temporarily in command, added to him the rule over Hollow Syria, B.C. 43. Driven out by the Parthians, who invaded Syria after their success against Crassus, he escaped to Rome. By large bribes he had previously won favor with Mark Antony, whose influence now gained for him the title, King of Judæa. But to turn the name into a fact, a new war was needed, and a new capture of unhappy Jerusalem. His actual reign is dated B.C. 37. Twenty years later he began to rebuild the temple magnificently. His reign was energetic but violent; to his wife and kinsfolk murderous. He rebuilt the town called the Tower of Straton and named the new city Cæsarea, in honor of Augustus Cæsar. It had a temple in Greek

fashion; but in his later years he cast off all pretence of Judaism, and brought in Roman customs. His death is computed to hav fallen in March, B.C. 4.

It will be

observed that, according to historians, the current reckoning of the Christian era is wrong by three years.* *

CHAPTER V.

JEWISH SECTS AND JUDAS GAULANITIS.

THE prophet Isaiah looked forward with joy to the time, when, under the righteous rule of a king from the root of Jesse, Ephraim would not envy Judah and Judah would not vex Ephraim. The head of Ephraim was Samaria, and the head of Judah was Jerusalem. But alas! in five hundred years the enmity of these rivals did not come to an end. After the captivity of the ten tribes, miscellaneous Eastern colonists were planted in all the towns of Samaria, who never wholly accepted the religious law of Jerusalem. They ar mentioned in a contemptuous tone (2 Kings xvii. 32-41) as "fearing "Jehovah and serving graven images unto this day," probably full as late as Ezra. Even now no Samaritan can obtain a Jewess as his wife! They hav the Pentateuch in a character older than the square Chaldee type, and, it is believed, they do not accept any other writing as sacred. Circumcision did not suffice to unite them cordially with Jerusalem. Which was earlier to blame,

* As we admit no year of zero, the common chronology supposes Jesus to hav been born in B.C. 1, and to hav been one year old in A.D. 1. From B.C. x to A.D. y is not (x+y) years, but (x+y−1).

is unknown; but Samaria ill-endured subjection to Maccabean rule: we may conjecture that sufficient local freedom was denied to her. This system of centralization made other towns disaffected. She is said to hav preferred a Syrian master. Josephus narrates that (perhaps about B.C. 120) while two brothers, the VIIIth and IXth called Antiochus, were in long contest for the throne of Syria, a Jewish High Priest called Hyrcanus took the opportunity of revenge against Samaria for being the ally of Syria against Jerusalem. After a year's siege he not only captured the city (Antiq. xiii. 10, 3), but by diverting mountain torrents against the walls swept away all appearance that it had been fortified. Hereby the Samaritans were made more and more hostile, though the weaker party. Their town being in the high road from Upper Galilee to Jerusalem, they had opportunity to insult, vex and sometimes to murder; a crime which was imputed. Later, on the sacred day of Jerusalem, when the Holy Place was accessible to the multitude, Samaritans tumultuously rushed in and defiled it by throwing in dead men's bones. For this offence all Samaritans were excluded from the temple, and the Jews sought to avoid all needless dealings with them. When, through insurgency against Rome, banditti abounded in the land whom it was hard to distinguish from patriots, new opportunities arose to Samaritans for outbursts of vengeance and spite. Thus against the Romans the real force of Pan-Judæa was never united.

Among the Jews at large three religious sects were at this time reckoned: Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes. The Sadducees adhered to the old law and refused to accept the imported doctrins of future life and retribution, heaven and hell, genii or demons enthroned in the air and reigning over special nations, angels personally united to individuals (the Roman or Etruscan idea of