II.  Obstacles against Which Judas Contended.  When Judas was called to champion the cause of the Jews, they were hated by the rest of the world.  It was a disorganized band of fugitives that rallied about him, without homes, resources, or arms.  Opposed to him were the large armies of a powerful empire.  The Greek mercenaries that fought in the Syrian ranks were armed with coats of mail and the best weapons known to the ancient world.  They were also thoroughly trained in the art of war and under the direction of experienced generals.  On every battle-field the Syrians outnumbered the Jews almost six to one.  Pitted against Judas and his followers were apostates of his own race, who knew the land, were able to spy out the movements of the Jews, and were inspired by the bitterest hatred.  The few advantages on the side of Judas were:  first, his followers were aroused to heroic deeds by the peril of the situation.  In the second place they were inspired by an intense religious zeal.  The one force throughout Semitic history that has bound together tribes and nations and made the Semite an almost invincible fighting power has been religion.  The familiar illustrations are the Mohammedan conquests that swept victoriously across the Bosporus and conquered Constantinople, also across northern Africa, and surged into southern Europe over the Straits of Gibraltar and threatened for a time completely to engulf the Western civilization.  Familiar modern illustrations are the Mahdist insurrections that have from time to time taxed the resources of the English in northern Africa.  In the third place the land of Judea, with its narrow western passes rapidly ascending to the heights above, enabled Judas to choose his battle-field at a point where only a few of the enemy could be brought into action and where a handful of valiant men could keep an army at bay.

III.  Defeat of Apollonius and Seron.  At first Judas wisely confined himself to guerilla warfare.  This enabled him in time to clothe and arm his followers with the garments and weapons taken from the enemy.  The most important of these smaller engagements took place north of Jerusalem.  As Apollonius, the Syrian governor of Samaria, was advancing into Judea, Judas suddenly fell upon the Syrians and slew their leader.  Henceforth the sword of the Syrian governor was effectively wielded by Judas in behalf of religious liberty.

News of the victory soon brought Seron, the governor of Coele-Syria, with a large army.  He advanced from the coast plain by the most direct road to Jerusalem over the famous pass of the Bethhorons.  Within a distance of two miles the road ascended nearly fifteen hundred feet.  At points it was merely a steep, rocky pass, so that an invading army was forced to march single file and to pull themselves up over the rocks.  Here on the heights that looked out toward his home at Modein Judas, appealing to the faith and patriotism of his men, swept down upon the enemy and won his first great victory.