We must now say something of the unhappy state of the province of Judæa at this time, of which the Bible gives no account. A Roman named Felix had been made governor of Judæa A.D. 51, whilst St. Paul was at Corinth: Felix treated the Jews cruelly, and ill-used them to such a degree, as to drive them into open rebellion; and this, of course, led to severe punishments and fresh cruelties. The whole country was in a sadly disturbed state: robbers infested every part of it; men came forward pretending to be the Messiah, for the Jews, who disbelieved in Jesus Christ, still expected the coming of the promised Messiah; murders and executions took place constantly: the High Priest was murdered at the very altar, and many persons were killed in the temple. In short, as Josephus writes, "God seemed to have abandoned Jerusalem as a detested city, and to have sent the Romans, to punish the Jews for their sin in rejecting and crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ." During this dreadful time of trouble, a Jew from Egypt came to Jerusalem, and having persuaded many of the unhappy inhabitants of Judæa to believe the lies he told them, he led an immense number of them to the top of the Mount of Olives, promising that the Lord would there work a great miracle, and deliver them and their country from the hands of the Romans. Of course nothing of the kind took place. Many of these wretched dupes were slain by the Roman soldiers, and the rest fled away, in order to save their lives. The land of Judæa was indeed in a sad state; the sufferings of the Jews were terrible; but they had deserved them. Often and often had they been entreated to repent and believe in Jesus, but they would not; and now the mercy of God was forced to give place to His just anger. Let this be a warning to us Christians, never to force the Lord to take away His mercy from us. If, by our obstinate impenitence and continuance in sin, we force Him to punish us _as we deserve_, we must perish miserably for ever. But God sees our hearts, and if we are really sorry for our sins, and are earnestly trying to conquer ourselves and resist our evil passions and desires, He will have mercy upon us, and not be extreme to mark what is done amiss. We have seen that St. Paul remained for two years in Ephesus, converting many by his preaching and his miracles. His success as usual raised the envy and anger of the unbelieving Jews, who were anxious to draw the people away from the Apostle, by making them believe that they could work miracles as well as St. Paul. The means they took we shall shortly hear.