CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES 123 



by the heroism of Isaiah, Humanly speaking, it is safe 

 to say that the whole religious history of Europe would 

 have been completely changed, had Sennacherib 

 succeeded. We should never have had our Old Testa- 

 ment, and therefore we should never have had our New, 



But Assyria was already showing signs of decadence 

 and Pharaoh-Necho, King of Egypt, taking advantage 

 of the weakening power of Assyria, marched northward 

 with an enormous army along this great military road 

 to attack Egypt^s ancient enemy. And now there 

 happened the greatest tragedy in the history of the 

 Jews, Josiah, with a heroism closely akin to madness, 

 led the little army of Israel against this great Egyptian 

 host, Josiah, '' the King after God's own heart,'' was 

 slain on the field of Megiddo, and the army of Israel 

 was annihilated. Recently we have heard a great deal 

 about '* Armageddon," Now the word Armageddon is 

 a corruption of the word Mediddo, and the idea of an 

 Armageddon is derived from the fact of this great tragedy, 



Pharaoh was afterwards defeated by the Babylonians 

 at the battle of Carchemish, but this was only the prelude 

 to Babylonian invasions, Babylonian armies began to 

 march along this old military road until the whole 

 population of the Southern Kingdom of Judah was 

 carried captive to Babylon, / 



Then came Cyrus the Persian along the great military 

 road ; but he came as a deliverer, and allowed the Jews 

 to return to their own land. Then follows the heroic 

 story of the reforms of Ezra, and the rebuilding of the 

 walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah, when the Jews 

 wrought with a trowel in one hand, and a sword in the 

 other ! A truly inspiring story of heroism. 



Now it is important that we should remember that 

 it was at this heroic time of Jewish history that the ideals 

 of the Pharisees first took definite shape. We shall 

 remember that the most essential part of the reforms 



