Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-06-03
MOUNT SINAI.
From Incidents of Travel in Egyp

MOUNT SINAI.
From Incidents of Travel in Egypt.
Arabia, &c. By an An,erican.
*** n At eight o'clock l was break
fasting the superior was again offering
all that the convent could give, and ur-
ging me to stay month, a fortnight, a
week, at least to spend that day with
him, and repose myself after the fatigues
Of my journey but from the door Of the
little room in which sat saw the ho-
ly mountain, and ! longed to stand on its
lofty mmit.--Though feeble and far
from well, l felt the blood of health again
coursing through my veins. and congrat-
ulated myselftha ! was not so hackneyed
in feeling as had once supposed. l.
found, and was happy to find, for the
prospective enjoyment of my farther
Journey, that the first tangible monu- (
ment in the history of the bible, the first
spot that could be called holy ground,
raised in me feeling that had not been
awakened by the most classic ground Of
italy and Greece, or the proudest mon
uments ofthe arts in Egypt.
## ~ n *& *
Continuing our ascent, the old monk
still leading the way, in about quarter
of an hour we came to table of rock
standing boldly out,and running down al
most perpendicular an immense distance
to the valley. was expecting another
monkish legend, and my very heart thrill
led when the monk told me it was the
Top of the hill on which Moses had sat
during the battle of the Israelites and
1.-The Amlekites while Aaron and Hur sup
ported his uplifted hands, until the sun
went down upon the victorious arms Of
his people. From the height I could see,
tclearly and distinctly, every part Of the
battle-ground, and the whole vale Of Re-
phidim and the mountains beyond; and
Moses while on this spot, must have
been visible to the contending from ev-
cry part of the field on which they were
engaged. n n
I stand upon the peak of Sinai-where
Moses stood when he talked with the AL
mighty. can it be-. or is it m ere dream?
Can this naked rock have been the wit
ness of that great interviewbetween man
and his Maker I? where amid thunder and
lightning, and fearful quaking Of The
mountain, the Almighty gave to his cho-
sen people the precious tables ofhis law
those rules of infinite wisdom and good,
ness, which to this day, best teach man
his duty towards his God, his neighbor,
and himself!
The scenes Of many ofthe incidents re-
corded in the Bible are extremely uncer-
tain. Historians and geographers place
the Garden of Eden, the paradise Of our
first parents, in different parts of Asia;
and they do not agree upon the site OF the
Tower of Babel, the mountain of Ararat,
and many of the most interesting places
in the Holy Land and among all the
stupendous works of Nature, not place
can be selected more fitted for the ex-
hibition of Almighty power. Ihave stood
upon the summit Of the giant Etna, and
looked over. the floating clouds beneath
it, upon the bold scenery of Sicily, and
the distant mountains of Calabria ;upon
the top of Vesuyius, and looked down up
81, the waves ottawa, and the ruined and
half recovered citiesat itsfoot; but they
are nothing compared with the terrific
solitudes and bleak msjestyof Sinai. An
observing traveller has well ealled it ga
perfect sea Of desolation." Not tree,
or shrub, or blade of grass is seen upon
the bare and rugged sides Of finphmerable
mountains, heaving their naked submits
to the skies, while the crumbling masses
of granite all around, and distant vieg Of
the Syrian desert, with its boundloes
waste Of sands from the widest and MOI
dreary, the most terrific and desola}e
picture that Imagination can conceive
The level surface of the very top, or
pinnacle is about sixty feet square,. Al
one end is single rock about twenty feet
high, onewhich, as said the monk, the
spirit Of God descended. while in lhs
crevice beneath his servant reeolFed
the tables ofthe law. There, on Inc same
spot where they were given, Iopened The
sacred book in which those laws are re-
corded, and read them with deeper ID.
terest of devotion, as if were standing
nearer and receiveing them moro direct
ly from the Daifv himself