parlance, he who is entrusted with the royal commission for any especial purposes, issues his commands in the name of the King; and that all representations which are addressed to him are couched in precisely the same terms as if directed to the King himself. (To be continued.) V.-CUSTOMS AND OBSERVANCES OF THE JEWS. ,חנוכה 66 THIS festival, which commemorates the preservation of the national existence, and the liberation of the Jews from oppression the most galling and inhuman, is celebrated during eight days, commencing on the twent-fifth day of the month Kislev. As the historical events, the memory of which this festival perpetuates, are most important to every Jew, we deem it our duty to present our readers with a short extract, from the annals of our ancestors, concerning this period of deep national calamity and suffering, from which a merciful God vouchsafed to deliver our fathers. The authorities we use are Josephus, (Antiq, book xii,) the apocryphal history of the Maccabees, and the Hebrew 101. (Book iii.) We have also thankfully and largely availed ourselves of the aid afforded to us by the History of the Jews by Professor Milman. The seventy years of exile and captivity which an offended Deity had denounced against Judah and Jerusalem, were terminated by the decree of Cyrus, as had been predicted by the Prophet of the Lord. The Jews returned to Jerusalem. The favour of the mighty monarch of Persia was extended to the worshippers of the true God. They rebuilt their temple and city, and lived peaceably in their native vallies. While all around them was war and devastation, while Xerxes undertook his rash expedition against the Greeks, and these in revenge ravaged the shores of Asia Minor, till the great king was forced to sue for peace, the tranquil Jews, under the directions of their High Priests, cultivated the arts of peace, and strove gradually to recover the opulence and national welfare which they had once enjoyed. No remarkable event, for many years, interrupted the noise less tenor of their annals. If the rancorous hatred of Haman threatened extermination to the Jewish name, the merciful interposition of Providence averted the danger, and the fate which a remorseless foe had prepared for Israel recoiled on his own head. Haman, his sons, and adherents, perished ignominiously; and in Judea, and throughout the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces which composed the mighty Persian empire, the Jews, in quiet and comfort, could, on each revolving year, renew their thanks to the All-merciful Being who had frustrated the murderous counsels of their fell enemy. But this state of quiet happiness was doomed to be most fearfully interrupted. Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, and leader of the Grecian hosts, attacked the last monarch of Persia. His irresistible might overcame and scattered the numerous hosts of Darius. Whereever he came he conquered. In his progress he besieged Tyre; thence he sent his messengers to Jerusalem, and commanded the High Priest to furnish him with the same aid and supplies which, till then, the Jews had furnished to Darius, King of Persia. The Jews, true to the monarch whose bounty they had experienced, loyal and faithful in their allegiance, refused to comply with Alexander's commands. Their High Priest, in the name of the assembled Council of Israel, replied, that they had sworn not to bear arms against Darius during their lives, and that they could not break their oath of allegiance. The haughty conqueror felt offended. He vowed vengeance against the petty tribe that had dared to disobey his mandate. Tyre was soon subdued; and Jerusalem was next threatened by his arins. The long-continued tranquillity and prosperity of the Jews had excited the envy of the neighbouring tribes. The opulence of Jerusalem and its temple tempted their cupidity. No sooner was it known that the victorious army of Alexander was marching against Jerusalem, than numerous reinforcements of Samaritans and Syrians, Phoenicians and Chaldeans swelled his ranks. Jaddua Jaddua the High Priest, and the Jewish people, were in the utmost consternation and dismay. Public sacrifices were offered for the national welfare; public prayers arose to implore the protection of the Deity. A nocturnal vision revealed to Jaddua how to appease the incensed Macedonians. Accordingly, he caused the city to be ornamented with garlands and flowers, and the gates to be thrown open, whilst himself, and the other Priests, dressed in their sacred vestments, and the people clothed in robes of white, prepared to meet the dreaded conqueror. The solemn procession marched forth to Sapha, an eminence from whence the whole city and temple might be seen. No sooner had Alexander beheld the High Priest in his hyacinthine robes embroidered with gold, wearing his mitre with the golden frontal, than he fell prostrate and adored the Holy Name which was there inscribed in golden characters. His attendants were astonished; the enemies of the Jews who impatiently expected the signal of slaughter and pillage, were struck with amazement. At length Parmenio, one of Alexander's principal leaders, addressed him and said, "How comes it that thou, before whom every one prostrates himself, shouldest kneel before this Priest of the Jews?" Alexander replied, "I worship not this man, but his God." He further related how, previous to his entering on his expedition to Persia, he had, in a nocturnal vision, at Dion in Macedonia, seen the Jewish High Priest dressed as he was then before him; that the man who appeared to him in that vision had encouraged him, and promised him the conquest of all Asia; and he concluded by saying, "Now that I see him before me, my vision recurs to my mind, and, as I am thus convinced of the divine protection, I no longer doubt but I shall fully succeed in my undertakings." He entered Jerusalem as a friend, offered rich sacrifices, and granted the nation all those favours and immunities which they solicited from him. After a short sojourn, he departed to complete the final subjugation of the Persian monarchy, and thus to verify the prediction of the Prophet, that the empire of Cyrus should be subverted by a Greek. The imminent danger being overpast, Jerusalem could joyfully acknowledge the Divine protection. But the period of peace which ensued was not of long duration. Alexander died within a few years after his visit to Jerusalem. The principal leaders of his armies shared his conquests. Alike ambitious and grasping, each strove to raise his own power on the ruin of his compeers. Constant warfare devastated the eastern world; and, far as the conquests of Alexander had extended, rapine, oppression, and cruelty trampled down the unoffending inhabitants. Judea did not escape the dreadful anarchy which ensued during this destructive warfare, waged by the generals and successors of Alexander. Ptolemy, king of Egypt, assaulted Jerusalem on the Sabbath. The Jews did not presume to violate the sanctity of the day by entering on the work of slaughter, no resistance was offered, and Ptolemy abused his bloodless conquest by carrying away one hundred thousand captives, whom he settled chiefly at Alexandria in Egypt, and Cyrene. was he long left in undisturbed possession; twice was Judea conquered by Antigonus, another of the rival chieftains twice regained by Ptolemy, under whose dominion it finally remained. But Ptolemy had by this time learned to respect his new subjects. He found them still as observant of their plighted faith, as loyal in their allegiance, as Alexander had found them to be. therefore endeavoured to attach them to his cause, enrolled an army of thirty thousand Jews, and entrusted the chief garrisons of the country to their care. Under the mild govern Nor He But we anticipate the course of our narrative, to which we now return. ment of the three first Ptolemies, he inhabits. Antiochus, surnamed "Epiphanes the illustrious," had ascended the throne of Syria. The conflicting chiefs of Judea in turn appealed to his supremacy and implored his aid. Antiochus united the quick and versatile character of a Greek with the splendid voluptuousness and fierce despotism of an Asiatic. Amongst the discrepancies of this worthless character, must be reckoned a great degree of bigotry and religious intolerance. Few of the most fanatical persecutors of after-ages equalled the ruthless attempts of Antiochus to exterminate the religion of the Jews and substitute that of the Greeks. Yet the savage and tyrannical violence of Antiochus was, in fact, and surely we may say providentially, the safeguard of the Jewish nation from the greatest moral danger to which it had ever been exposed, the slow and secret, but certain and pernicious, encroachment of Grecian manners, Grecian arts, Grecian vices, and Grecian idolatry. It roused the dormant energy of thewhole people, and united again in indissoluble bonds the generous desire of national independence with zealous attachment to the religious worship of the Creator. It again identified the true patriot with the devout worshipper, and taught the Jew to know that he owes his allegiance, first to his God, and next to the land which Two contending High Priests of the Jews outbid each other in the royal favour. Joshua, who had assumed the Grecian name, Jason, was forced to yield to the richer presents of his brother Onias, who, secure in the venal protection of Antiochus, assumed the name of Menelaus, and oppressed his people. A formidable insurrection broke out in Jerusalem against his authority. Report magnified it into a deliberate revolt of the whole nation against Antiochus. He marched without delay to Jerusalem, put to death in three days forty thousand of the inhabitants, and seized as many more to be sold as slaves He next entered the temple; and, having stripped it of its consecrated utensils and other treasures, he caused unclean animals to be sacrificed, and every part of the temple to be desecrated with the most odious defilement. Nor was this sufficient to satisfy his cruelty and fanaticism: He determined to exterminate the whole Hebrew race; and the dreadful edict was entrusted to Apollonius, by whom it was executed with as cruel dispatch as the most sanguinary tyrant could desire. Apollonius waited till the Sabbath, when the whole people were occupied in their peaceful religious duties. He then let loose his soldiers against the unresisting multitude, slew the men and seized all the women as captives. He proceeded to pillage, and then to dismantle, the city, which he set on fire in many places: He threw down the walls, and built a strong fortress on the highest part of Mount Zion, which commanded the temple and all the rest of the city. From this garrison he harassed all the people of the country, who stole in with fond attachment to visit the ruins, or to offer a hasty and interrupted worship in the place, of the sanctuary: For all the public services had ceased, and no voice of adoration was heard in the holy city, unless that of the profane heathen calling on their idols. The persecution did not end here: Antiochus issued an edict for uniformity of worship throughout his dominions; and dispatched officers into all parts to enforce rigid compliance with the decree. Jerusalem, conspicuous above all other places, was exposed to the utmost fury of the royal bigot. The statue of Jupiter Olympius, to whom the temple had been dedicated, was erected on the altar of burnt-offerings. Every rite of the Mosaic law and worship was strictly prohibited under pain of death, a penalty which many willing victims incurred. The Book of Maccabees records the sufferings and the fortitude of an oppressed people. We refer to its pages, and to those of Josephus, for a detail of cruelties which we shudder to insert in our own. The licentious orgies of the Bacchanalia were substituted for the national festival of the tabernacles. The reluctant Jews were forced to join in these disgraceful riots. Whoever resisted met with instant death; and total extermination or abandonment of their holy law was the alternative offered to every Hebrew. Thus on the verge of apostasy, ruin, and extermination, nothing could avert the fate which threatened our ancestors, when it pleased the Divine Providence to interpose and to save the remnant of his people: Not indeed by a direct and miraculous intervention as in days of old; but by pouring forth the spirit of zeal and patriotism; awakening in the minds of virtuous men that noble daring which leads them to conquer or to die, and that generous and true valour which considers life of no value unless devoted to the cause of God and of their fatherland. Such were the sentiments which induced the aged Mattathias to raise the sword against the fell oppressors of his people; which prompted his five sons nobly to stake their lives in defence of their faith, and to free their injured brethren from the ruthless tyranny of their cruel persecutor. One by one they fell willing sacrifices to their most sacred cause; but their noble blood was not poured forth in vain. Civil and religious freedom, peace, and the undisturbed worship of the one true God, were the glorious rewards of their toils, their dangers, and their death. And if Scotland justly glories in her Wallace; if Gustavus Vasa in Sweden, William Tell in Switzerland, have merited the gratitude of their people and the admiration of posterity: If the glorious names of these great men, their noble struggles and heroic devotion, command the sympathies, and share the veneration of every true friend of humanity; that sym pathy and veneration is in a much higher degree due to Judas Maccabæus and his worthy brethren, the glorious prototypes to all who, in after-ages, merited the blessings of their oppressed and injured fellowmen. In Modin, a village of Judea, on an eminence, commanding a view of the sea, lived Mattathias, an aged man of the sacerdotal line, with his five sons Joannan, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan,—all in the prime of life. He often lamented before his sons the wretched state of their people, and was accustomed to say that it was far more noble to sacrifice their lives in defence of their religion, their laws, and their country, than to live as apostates and slaves. The opportunity of vindicating his principles, and of proving that they were those of his soul, not merely of his lips, was soon afforded to him. Apelles, a royal officer, arrived at Modin, to enforce the edict for abolishing the religion and laws of the Jews. He first applied to Mattathias, the man whose priestly birth and high moral character gave him the first rank in the place, and the influence of whose example would insure willing obedience to the decree of Antiochus. Threats and promises were alike resorted to by Apelles, but in vain. Mattathias nobly replied, that, though every other person submitted, he would rather die than forsake the laws of the great God of Israel, and exhorted his five sons to follow his example. The altercation which ensued became aggravated by an apostate, who, in the presence of his indignant countrymen, sacrificed to the idols whose worship the royal decree commanded. He fell by the hand of Mattathias; Apelles himself and his attendants were attacked and slain, and the men of Modin re tired to the mountains. Many true and zealous Jews joined them, and rallied round the standard of freedom which Mattathias and his sons erected. Success attended their undertakings, which were conducted with equal enterprise and discretion. For a time Mattathias and his followers lay hidden in the mountain fastnesses; and, as opportunity offered, attacked the towns, destroyed the heathen altars, enforced circumcision, reestablished synagogues for public worship, and drove off such of the king's officers as were appointed to enforce idolatry. The venerable Mattathias did not long survive these first successes. Dying, he entrusted the command to the most valiant of his sons, Judas surnamed 0, "Maccabæus." It is supposed this name was given from the inscription of his banner, the initials of the words, "Who is like unto thee anong the Gods, O Lord?" (Exodus xv. 11.) The new leader proved himself well worthy of the paternal confidence, and fully equal to the exigencies of those stirring times. Having tried his soldiers by many gallant adventures, surprising many cities which he garrisoned and fortified, as places of refuge to his oppressed brethren, Judas at length determined to meet the enemy in the field. Apollonius, Governor of Samaria, who marched against him, was totally defeated. He himself fell in single combat with Judas, who took his sword as a trophy, which ever after he used in battle. Seron, Governor of Colo-Syria, was next defeated by Judas with great slaughter. Antiochus, informed that the pcople whom he had so long oppressed with impunity had at length been goaded into resistance, sent forth a formidable army of forty thousand foot and seven thousand horse. In their train came numerous slavemerchants; for the royal will of Antiochus had decided that the conquered Jews should be sold, in order to replenish his exhausted treasuries. To meet this formidable host, Judas could number but six thousand followers. In strict conformity with the commands of the law, he proclaimed that whosoever had married built wives, planted vineyards, houses, or was fearful, should retire.* Half his forces availed themselves of the permission. With those few who remained, the consummate generalship of Judas, under providence, obtained. a decisive victory. The rich booty of the camp fell into the hands of the Jews, who, with just retribution, sold for slaves as many of the slavemerchants as they could find. Numerous other battles were fought with similar good success. The next year the king's lieutenant, Lysias, appeared in person at the head of sixty thousand foot and five thousand horse. Judas marched forth to meet him at the head of ten thousand Jews, defeated him, and forced him to retreat Thus triumphant, victors in every well-contested field, Judas and his gallant followers entered Jerusalem. Freedom of conscience, and the undisturbed worship of their God, had been the potent motives which made them draw the sword against their haughty and bigotted oppressors. Crowned with success, they now prepared to restore that worship to its ancient purity and splendour. They found the gates of the temple burnt, and the sanctuary abandoned; shrubs and weeds covered the courts, and desolation had spread its ruthless hand over every part of the splendid pile. With tearful eyes, but heartfelt gratitude, Judas and his men commenced the task of repairing, cleansing, and consecrating the sacred buildings. The holy utensils, the table of shew-bread, the candlesticks, and the altar of incense, all pure gold, were made anew, and replaced in the sanctuary; and the temple was again inaugurated, on the twenty-fifth day of the third month, precisely three years after its profanation and pillage by Antiochus. The Talmud (treatise, Sabbath, chap. ii) relates, that when every preparation for the inauguration was completed, no consecrated oil could be found for the sacred lights; and the scrupulous Judas justly feared to contaminate the purity of the temple by using oil which had been deIn this strait, a filed by idolaters. small jar of oil, with the seal of a * Deut. xx. 5-8. |