to Palestine. There was the rugged path where Joshua had stood and
called out to the sun to stand still in Gibeon, and the moon in the
valley of Ajalon. Miracles were over, and Judas looked for no wonder to
help him; but when he came up the mountain road from Joppa, his heart
was full of the same trust as Joshua's, and he won another great
victory.

By this time King Antiochus began to think the rising of the Jews a
serious matter, but he could not come himself against them, because his
provinces in Armenia and Persia had refused their tribute, and he had to
go in person to reduce them. He appointed, however, a governor, named
Lysias, to chastise the Jews, giving him an army of 40,000 foot and 7000
horse. Half of these Lysias sent on before him, with two captains, named
Nicanor and Gorgias, thinking that these would be more than enough to
hunt down and crush the little handful that were lurking in the hills.
And with them came a great number of slave merchants, who had bargained
with Nicanor that they should have ninety Jews for one talent, to sell
to the Greeks and Romans, by whom Jewish slaves were much esteemed.

There was great terror in Palestine at these tidings, and many of the
weaker-minded fell away from Judas; but he called all the faithful
together at Mizpeh, the same place where, 1000 years before, Samuel had
collected the Israelites, and, after prayer and fasting, had sent them
forth to free their country from the Philistines. Shiloh, the sanctuary,
was then lying desolate, just as Jerusalem now lay in ruins; and yet
better times had come. But very mournful was that fast day at Mizpeh, as
the Jews looked along the hillside to their own holy mountain crowned by
no white marble and gold Temple flashing back the sunbeams, but only
with the tall castle of their enemies towering over the precipice. They
could not sacrifice, because a sacrifice could only be made at