asting my time
in idle dreams of earthly enjoyment; I have been rudely awakened. O
Lord of hosts, strengthen Thy servant to arise and gird up his spirit
to perform fearlessly and faithfully the duties of the day!"

Then, with slower step and calmer aspect, Judas Maccabeus returned to
his camp.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

FANATICISM.

We will now glance at the encampment of the Hebrew warriors, upon a
wild expanse of undulating ground, in view of the towers of Bethsura, a
strong fortress rebuilt by the Edomite settlers on the site of that
raised in former times by Rehoboam. Bethsura is now garrisoned by the
Syrians, and its environs occupied by the countless tents of their
mighty host.

On a small rising ground near the centre of the Hebrew camp stands, as
on a rostrum, an old Jew clad in a camel-hair garment, with long gray
unkempt hair hanging over his shoulders. His manner is excited, his
gestures vehement, and the shrill accents of his voice are so raised as
to be heard to a considerable distance. A gradually increasing circle
of listeners gathers around him--stern, weather-beaten men, who have
toiled and suffered much for their faith. What marvel if with some of
these warriors religion have darkened into fanaticism, courage
degenerated into savage fierceness? It is the tendency of war,
especially if it be of a guerrilla character, to inflame the passions
and harden the heart. Only terrible necessity can justify the
unnatural strife which arms man against his brother man. Even the most
noble struggle in which patriot can engage in defence of his country's
freedom, draws along with it terrible evils, of which a vast amount of
human suffering is not perhaps the greatest.

"Yea, I do charge you, Joab, I do charge you, O son of Ahijah, with
having brought a spy, a traitor, into our camp!" almost shrieked the
wild orator Jasher, as he pointed with his shrivelled finger at the
sturdy muleteer, who stood in the innermost rank of the circle. "Was
not this Greek, by your own showing, present at the martyrdom of the
blessed saint Solomona?--was he not tried for his life at her grave,
where he was discovered coiling like a serpent in the darkness?--is he
not one of a race of idolaters, worshippers of images made by man's
hand?"

"All that I can say," replied Joab, doggedly, "is, that whatever
Lycidas may have been, he is not an idolater now."

"Who are you that you should judge, you Nabal, you son of folly?"
exc