=Machærus Where John Was Beheaded.= The Synoptic Gospels, as well as the Fourth, imply that for a brief period Jesus took up the message and adopted the methods of John, preaching with great success among the country villages of Judah. His work appears to have been brought to a sudden end by the arrest of John, whose fearless denunciation of Herod's crime in putting away his own wife, the daughter of Aretas, had aroused the resentful hatred of Herod and of Herodias, the partner in his guilt. In keeping with the methods of the age, John was seized and imprisoned at Herod's most distant fortress, Machærus,^{(38)} which lay three thousand and seventy feet above the sea, on the top of a long flat ridge running for more than a mile from east to west. According to Pliny, it was, next to Jerusalem, the strongest fortress in the land. It had been reared by Herod the Great in the place of the old Maccabean stronghold. In the centre of it was an impregnable citadel. The encircling wall, one hundred yards in diameter, can still be traced. The interior is singularly bare, but a very deep well and two dark dungeons remain. Apparently Herod the Great also built a strong Roman city at the head of this valley. It rested like a swallow's nest on the lofty edge of the Moabite plateau. Acres of hewn stone with crumbling walls testify to its size and strength. In the centre are the ruins of a huge palace or castle about two hundred feet long and a hundred and fifty feet wide, with traces of rounded towers. Several passages lead to underground cisterns and dungeons, suggesting that this may have been the castle of Herod Antipas, beneath which John the Baptist was confined. Either here or in the citadel farther down the valley the intrepid prophet spent his last days. In this sinister spot, associated as it was with Alexander Janneus, Herod the Great, and his son Antipas, John the Baptist was beheaded. =Effect of John's Imprisonment Upon Jesus.= The news of John's imprisonment evidently made a deep impression upon Jesus. It led him to change the scene and method of his work. He left Judea, with its harsh scenery and narrow life, and returned to the simpler and more joyous scenes in Galilee. He still continued in part to preach, but more and more he devoted himself to the task of the teacher and sought to draw from the multitudes that gathered about him certain disciples who would stand in closest personal touch with him and embody in their lives and teachings the message which he wished to impart to his race.