ntered Jerusalem during the night;
almost as soon as he, with the assistance of Joab and Isaac, two of his
companions, had filled up with earth the grave of the martyrs, he had
skirted the city from the east to the west, and turned his face towards
Modin.

It would scarcely have been deemed by any one who might have seen the
princely Hebrew ascending the western hill with his quick, firm tread,
that the greater part of the preceding night had been spent by him in
severe toil, and none in sleep. His soul, filled with a lofty purpose,
so mastered the infirmities of the flesh, that the Asmonean seemed to
himself scarcely capable of feeling fatigue, and set out, without
hesitation, on a journey which would have severely taxed the powers of
a strong pedestrian after long uninterrupted repose.

As he reached the highest point of one of these hills which stand round
Jerusalem, like guardians of the holy and beautiful city, Judas paused
and turned round to take what he felt might be a last look of Zion,
over which the sun was about to rise. He gazed on the fair towers, the
girdling walls, the sepulchres in the valleys, the temple crowning the
height, with that intense love which glows in the bosom of every Hebrew
deserving the name, a love in which piety mingles with patriotism,
glorious memories with still more glorious hopes. From the Asmonean's
lips burst the words in which the Psalmist has embalmed that love for
all generations,--_Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,
is Mount Zion, the city of the great King. Mark ye well her bulwarks,
consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. If I
forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do
not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth_.

Faith was to the Asmonean as the rosy glow preceding the sunrise, which
then flushed the eastern sky. His eye rested on the Temple; now
desecrated, defiled, abandoned to the Gentile, and he remembered the
promise regarding it: _The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come, to
His Temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in_
(Mal. iii. 8). Then the Hebrew's gaze wandered beyond to a fair hill,
clothed with verdure, and his faith grasped the promise of God: _Then
shall the Lord go forth ... and His feet shall stand