in that day upon
the Mount of Olives_ (Zech. xiv. 3, 4). Hope and joy were kindled at
the thought. As surely as the hill itself should remain, so surely
should a Temple stand on Mount Zion, till the Messiah should appear
within it. _God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of
man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it?_
(Num. xxiii. 19).

"Oh, that the Messiah might come in my day!" exclaimed the Asmonean;
"that my eyes might behold the King in His beauty; that my voice might
join the united acclamations of Israel, when the Son of David shall be
seated on the throne of His fathers, and His enemies shall be made His
footstool! That I might see the whole world worshipping in the
presence of the Seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent's head!"
(Gen. iii. 15). The Hebrew grasped his javelin more firmly, and his
dark eye dilated with joy and triumph. "But the night is not yet past
for Israel," he added, more sadly; "the voice is not yet _heard in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord_ (Isa. xl. 8); we may have
yet much to do and to suffer ere the Sun of Righteousness arise."

Then a softened expression stole over the features of the Asmonean, as
he gazed in another direction, but still with his face turned towards
the east. He could not see a white dwelling nestling under the shadow
of a hill, but he knew well where it lay, and where she abode to whom
he had bidden on that night a long, perhaps a last, farewell. The
Asmonean stretched out his hand, and exclaimed, "Oh! Father of the
fatherless, guard and bless her! To Thy care I commit the treasure of
my soul!" And without trusting himself to linger longer, Judas turned
and went on his way.

It was the month of Shebet, answering to the latter part of our
January, and Palestine was already bright with the beauty of early
spring. The purple mandrake was in flower, the crocus, tulip, and
hyacinth enamelled the fields, with the blue lily contrasting with
thousands of scarlet anemones. The almond-tree and the peach were in
flower, and fragrant sighed the breeze over blossoms of lemon and
citron. The winter had this year been mild, and some figs left from
the last season still clung to the boughs yet bare of foliage. The
vine on the terraced hills was bursting into leaf, and already in the
fields the rising corn showed its young blades above the ground. But
Judas was too much absorbed with his own thoughts to pay