39. THE REVELATION ON MOUNT SINAI.

[EXOD. XIX. XX.]

The Israelites, leaving Rephidim, entered the desert of Sinai, and encamped in the plains which surround the mountain of that name.

We now approach the crowning point of the history of the Israelites in the desert. In the valley of Horeb they were to be raised from a mere horde of wandering shepherds to a nation ruled over by the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth, to a nation chosen among all others to receive the law of God.

Let us imagine this vast host spreading round the foot of the rugged mountain, awaiting in trembling awe the first accents of the voice of the Lord. That voice was heard at last addressing these solemn words to Moses: 'Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: You have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all nations; for all the earth is Mine, and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.' Moses faithfully delivered his great charge; and the people, awed and deeply moved, answered as if with one voice, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do.' Then they were commanded by Moses, on God's behest, to purify and hallow themselves, and to be ready to receive the Divine revelation on the third day. They carried out these injunctions with alacrity and pious obedience. Round the mountain on which a mysterious dread seemed to hang, boundaries were placed, which the people were forbidden to pass on penalty of death. And now followed a scene

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so grand and majestic, so wonderful and unfathomable, that it can only be told in the words of the Bible. And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a heavy cloud upon the mountain, and the voice of the trumpet exceedingly strong, so that all who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp towards God, and they placed themselves at the nether part of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was entirely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded louder and louder very much, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to see, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, who come near the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for Thou hast warned us, saying, Set bounds about the mountain, and sanctify it. And the Lord said to him, Go, descend and come up again, thou and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests and the people break through to Lord, lest He break forth upon them. down to the people and spoke to them.'

come up to the

So Moses went

And then the Lord proclaimed the Ten Commandments as follows: 1. I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me. 2. Thou shalt not make to thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor be induced to serve

them; for I the Lord thy God am a zealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation, to those who hate Me; and showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me, and keep My commandments. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God for falsehood; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name for falsehood. 4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor thy stranger who is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 5. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee. 6. Thou shalt not murder. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's.'

These Commandments, a conspicuous landmark in the dim ages of the past, have preserved their force undiminished until our time. They comprise indeed in their brief compass man's chief duties towards God and towards his fellow-creatures. They are calculated to make men pious, reverential, humble, obedient, able to restrain their passions, their desires, their very thoughts. They were revealed to the Hebrews, but they are binding upon all nations of the earth. They can be obeyed and acted upon in every country, by every race. They are written above the Ark of the Hebrew Temple, engraved on the altar

of the Christian Church, and taught by the Eastern sage.

They may be divided into two groups: the one relates to our duties towards God, the other to those towards our fellow-creatures; the former comprises the four first, the latter the five last commandments, while the fifth refers to our parents, who occupy a position between God and our fellow-men, and in some respects partake of the character of both.

The first commandment enjoins the belief in the existence of God, the Creator, the gracious Bestower of all things. The Israelites had been rescued from their cruel bondage by God, and by Him alone: could they doubt the power of Him to whom they owed their happiness and their freedom? Could they imagine any other Being equal to Him in greatness, or wisdom, or mercy? They were, therefore, not only to believe in His existence, but also in His unity.

The second commandment is meant as a support and safeguard of the first; God is not to be represented by any image or outward form whatever. This prohibition was indispensable for the Hebrews, who still required the severest training for a pure and spiritual faith, and were encompassed by nations of idolaters, who might easily induce them to portray God in images of wood or stone, of gold or silver, in the shape of man, beast, or monster, and to bow down before such an idol. And what was the punishment for the sin of idolatry? Long years of suffering, extending to the third and fourth generation, tainting the lives of unborn children.

The unity and incorporeality of God having thus been declared, His sanctity was enforced in the third commandment. The name of the Lord, so great and awful in import, was not to be profaned by taking a false oath. Perjury, thus criminally aggravated, would call

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down on the offender the most fearful retribution. oath sworn by the holy name of the Lord, can be justified only by the most perfect sincerity of him who swears it.

The injunctions bearing upon God and His worship reach their culminating point in the fourth commandment-the observance of the Sabbath as a sacred day of rest. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of this precept. The creation of the world in six days and the one day of rest that followed it, were to be emblems of man's busy six days of labour, relieved by the day consecrated to God. The Sabbath should bring perfect rest to man and beast. Human thoughts, ever turned to worldly things, should on that day soar upwards, and forgetting gain and barter and toil, dwell in holy contemplation on the mercies of God, give utterance to praise and thanksgiving, or learn to search for a nobler and higher welfare than is possible during the din and turmoil of daily life. The Sabbath, sanctified and hallowed, became the first of holy days. It was meant constantly to remind the Hebrews of their relation to God; it was designed as an aid for establishing His sovereignty among them. Therefore, so far from being spent in apathy or indifference, it was to be an ever-recurring feast for heart and mind and soul, a feast gladly welcomed by individuals, households, and the nation, including 'the stranger within the gates.'

Man owes to his parents a reverence second only to that which is due to God, and hence the place which the fifth commandment occupies in the decalogue. For parents exercise in some measure a Divine right over their children, they are to them the earthly types of their unseen heavenly Father. Filial piety is a supreme religious and Divine duty; and its faithful observance is certain to be a blessing to the children. In eastern countries, the out