Iowa news. [volume] (Dubuque, Upper Mississippi Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1837-1841, 1837-07-08
MfIrNT SINAI.
rspas f.scsasses Of Travels. "a AEssaa, kssR, xs.
20 an ArasEfcaa-

Ings the superior was gain a. III s1oSs
again Offering all that the convent
could give. and urging me to stay
month. fortnight. a week, or at least
10 spend that day with him. and re-
pose myself after the fatigues OF my
Journey. but from the door OF the
little room in which / sat, saw the
holy mountain, and longed to stand
on lis lofty summit Though feeble
and tar from being we'll, ! felt the
blood Of health again coursing IN my
veins. / found. and was happy to
find, for the prospective enjoyment OF
my farther journey, that first tangible
monument in the history Of the Bible:
the first spot that could be called holy
ground. raised in me feelings that had
not been awakened by the most classic
ground in Italy and Greece, or the
proudest monuments of the arts In
Egypt.
aContinuing 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 run
ming down almost perpendicularly an
immense distance TO the valley. I
was expecting another monkish legend,
and my very heart thrilled when the
monk told me that this was the top OF
the hill on which Moses had sat during
the battle Of the Israelites and the
Amalekites. and while Aaron sup
ported his uplilted hands, until the
sun went down upon the victorious
arms of his people. From the height
| could see clearly and distinctly, eve.
ry part of the battle ground, and the
whole vale of Rephidim and the noun
tains beyond; and Moses, while on
this spot. must have been visible to
the contcnding armies from every
part of the field on which they were
engaged.
81 stand upon the very peak of Si-
nai-where Moses stood when he
talked with the Almighty. Can it be,
or is it a mere dream? Can this
naked rock have been the witness Of
that great interview between man and
his maker? where, amid thunder and
lightning, and fearful quaking of the
mountain, the Almighty gave to his
chosen people the precious tables Of
his law, those rules Of infinite wisdom
and goodness which, to this day, best
teach man his duty towards his God,
his neighbor, and himself?
'The scenes many Of the incidents
i recorded in the Bible are extremely
uncertain. 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 Arrarat, and many of the
most interesting places in the Holy
Land; but of Sinai, there is no doubt.
This is the holy mountain; and a.
mong all the stnpendous works of Ma
ture, not place can be selected more
| fitted for the exhibition of Almighty
power. l have stood upon the sum-
nit of the giant Etna, and looked over
the clouds floating beneath it; upon
the bold scenery of Scicily, and the
distant mountains Of Calabria; upon
the top Of Vesuvius, and looked down
upon the waves of lava, and the ruined
and half-recovered cities at its foot;
but they are nothing compared with
the terrific solitudes and bleak majes-
ty of Sinai. An observing traveller
has well called it ga perfect sea of des-
olation." Not a tree, or shrub, or
blade Of grass, is to be seen upon the
rugged sides Of innumerable noun
tains, heaying their naked SUBMITS to
the skies, while the crumbling masses
of granite all around, and the distant
view of the Syrian desert, with its
boundless waste OF sands, form the
widest and most dreary, the most ter
rifle and desolatc picture that magma
ton can conceive.
ssThe level surface Of the very top or
pinnacle, is about sixteen feet square.
At one end is single rock, about
twenty feet high, on which as said the
monk, the spirit Of God descended,
while in the crevice beneath, his ia
yored servant received the tables Of
the law. There, on the same spot
where they were given, ! opened the
sacred book, in which those laws are
recorded, and read them with deeper
feeling Of devotion, as if were stand
ing nearer, and receiving them more
directly from the Deity himself"
I~The1e is repor, that Kendall has bought
the Sun. We presume as he is flush, he will /