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treasurer, to demand them in his name (year of the world 3828). The high-priest, not suspecting his errand, received him with all the respect due to his office. But how great was his astonishment, when Heliodorus opened his commission, by acquainting him that his master had been informed of the treasure which was in the temple, and that he was come to demand it. The high-priest told him that their temple was revered for its holiness throughout the world, and that the treasure it contained was the property of widows and orphans, who had put it there as a place of security. Heliodorus, perceiving Onias would not give it up, led his guards into the temple, with a determination to take it by force. Upon this, the priests, levites, and people assembled, and besought God to preserve their sacred deposit.

Heliodorus, on attempting to proceed, was struck by the divine power, and seized with such terror as deprived him of the use of his faculties; so that be who came into the temple in defiance of the Jews, was obliged to be carried out in a litter, apparently dead. The people turned their supplications into praises and thanksgiving to God, who thus wonderfully appeared for them. Some of Heliodorus's friends came and besought Onias to intercede with God in his behalf. This good man besought the Lord, and he heard him, and restored Heliodorus, who returned thanks to Onias, and went his way declaring to every one the wonderful work of the Almighty.

The king, dissatisfied at not receiving the treasures, asked Heliodorus if any other person might be sent. He answered, that if the king had an enemy he wished to get rid of, he might send him; declaring that He who dwelleth in the heavens was present in that place, to guard and protect it, and that He

would strike those mortally who went thither to injure it. Seleucus himself was afterwards punished for this sacrilegious act by the very man whom he had ordered to perpetrate it; for Heliodorus poisoned his master and usurped the throne; but was prevented from enjoying it long, by Antiochus, brother of Seleucus, who recovered the kingdom and expelled the traitor. Antiochus assumed the title Epiphanes, or the Illustrious, which was never worse applied; he was scarcely seated on the throne before he deposed Onias from the high-priesthood, to the great grief of the true Jews; and appointed Jason his successor, who subverted the religion of his ancestors, and brought great calamities on the Jews. This wicked Jason was brother to Onias and by a bribe of 360 talents (about £90,000), the king was influenced to dethrone him; he also was banished to Antioch by advice of the same cruel brother.

But this usurpation of the sacred office was soon overthrown in the very same manner as Jason had obtained it; he sent the king's tribute by the hands of his brother Menelaus, who, following the example of Jason, obtained his office by offering the king three hundred talents more than his brother had done. He supported his claim by force, and Jason was put to flight; thus he had to suffer as he had dealt to others: but, shortly after, not having paid the tribute agreeable to his promise, he was summoned to appear before Antiochus to answer for the neglect. On his arrival he found that Antiochus had just been obliged to leave the city in order to quell an insurrection, committing the government during the interval to Andronicus, one of his prime ministers. Menelaus soon perceived that nothing would satisfy the court but the payment of the stipulated sum, and, being

unable to meet it, he sent private instructions to his brother at Jerusalem to furnish him with some of the golden vessels of the temple, which, being sold, supplied him with money sufficient not only to pay the tribute, but even to bribe the courtiers in his favour. Being severely rebuked for this sacrilege by Onias, who was still living, he was so exasperated that he shortly after prevailed upon Andronicus to put him to death. Antiochus lamented this rash deed and had Andronicus executed for the murder. In the meantime great disturbances arose in Jerusalem, on account of the alienation of the sacred vessels, and Lysimachus, the perpetrator of this sacrilege, fell a victim to the fury of the people. About this time a war broke out between Antiochus and Ptolemy Philometer, and a battle was fought, in which the latter was completely defeated. After the victory Antiochus returned to Tyre with his army for winter quarters.

Antiochus, in the spring, invaded Egypt, both by sea and land, and succeeded in gaining possession of the country, compelling Ptolemy, his nephew, to submit to him; he plundered all the places he came to, and enriched himself, as well as his soldiers, with the spoil of the Egyptians.

While the king was in Egypt, a false report of his death spread through Palestine. Jason, taking advantage of this circumstance, exerted himself to recover the office he had lost, to effect which he marched, with about a thousand men, to Jerusalem, where, with the assistance of his partisans, he drove out Menelaus, exercising every species of cruelty upon those whom he suspected to be of the opposite party.

When advice of this was brought to Antiochus in Egypt, he, concluding that the Jews had made a

general revolt, set forward without delay to reduce them to obedience. He was extremely exasperated to hear the rejoicings which the inhabitants of Jerusalem were said to have made upon the report of his death. Jason left Jerusalem, fearing the effects of the king's displeasure, being universally hated and despised, he wandered from place to place, and at length died miserably.

Antiochus took the city and abandoned it, for three days, to the fury of his soldiers, who inhumanly slew forty thousand of the inhabitants, and sold as many more for slaves (year of the world 3834). This impious monarch entered by force into the temple, and even the Holy of holies, polluting by his presence that sacred place, whither he was conducted by the traitor Menelaus. He then took away the vessels of gold and returned to Antioch. But to complete the miseries of the Jews, he set over them two cruel governors, and established the more abandoned Menelaus in the office of high-priest.

Antiochus two years after renewed hostilities at Egypt, and in marching to Alexandria with design to besiege that city, the possession of which would make him master of all Egypt, was stopped by the arrival of an embassy from Rome. The king seeing Popilius, with whom he had formed a friendship when at Rome, opened his arms to embrace him. The Roman, who on this occasion did not consider himself as a private man but a servant of the public, desired to know, before he received his compliments, whether he spoke to a friend or an enemy of Rome. He then gave him the decree of the senate, and bid him read it over and return him an immediate answer. Antiochus, after perusing it, said that he would examine the contents with his friends, and give his answer in a

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short time. Popilius, enraged at the king for talking of delays, drew, with the wand he held in his hand, a circle round Antiochus, and, raising his voice," Answer the senate," says he, "before you stir out of that circle." The king, quite confounded at this haughty mandate, after a moment's reflection, replied he would act according to the desire of the senate. Popilius then received his civilities, and treated him in all respects as an old friend.

Thus was Antiochus, who had seduced many by his flatteries, obliged by this blunt speech and determined conduct of Popilius at once to relinquish a kingdom which he considered already his own. Being obliged to leave Egypt in this disgraceful manner, he vented his rage against the Jews, who had done nothing to offend him, and made them feel the whole weight of his wrath, as you will see (D.V.) in our next chapter.

(To be continued.)

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SPRING'S SMILES AND CARESSES.
I KNOW by the notes that the song-birds sing,
I know by the streamlet's voice,

That the rose-wreathed forms of the velvet Spring
O'er the uplands now rejoice;

I know by the scent of the primrose pale,

By the violet's azure eye,

That the sprite of the Spring has been in the vale,
While the Winter said, "Good-bye."

I know by the hum of the bee that flies
To the sweet-leafed maple there

That the buds have opened their drowsy eyes
At the kiss of the warm south air;

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