Excerpt from The Master Library, Vol. 3: Heroes and Heroines Some Of the most fascinating personal narratives in the Bible, brief lives Of men and women who have meant much to the world because Of the lessons they taught, are also included in this volume. The loyalty Of Ruth, the mingled strength and weakness Of Samson, the unwilling service Of Jonah, are proverbial alike in literature and in everyday speech. The accomplishments and exploits Of those leaders who guided and steadied the Jewish people from the time of their exile, through their captivity, and from the return to Palestine on to the Roman period, are recorded here also. None Of these men, perhaps, was SO great as Abraham or David or Elijah, but the firm and faithful Nehemiah is a figure Of heroic stature. Judas Maccabeus, too, whose history is related in the First Book of the Maccabees, was the man for his time, and one Whom the Jewish race has never forgotten.