Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1843-10-14
We extract The following passages from a
letter Of the learned and pions President Dur.
bin to Bishop Waugh, dated, ...s-..f

Summit OF MouaT Sinai
Feb. 9Th, 1919 rs
But The shades Of evening are drawing On,
and The dark shadows Of the lofty mountains
ire already projected far into The sandy plain.
OH If yot glorious sun, fast descending
westward behind the distant 9lnotnY noun
tains, and Just nov with bis orient beams tint
ing tha dawn in Vo1r heavens, under which
dwell all thai ! hold most dear on earth . if
his mild beams, which nsw fall almost level
on me, could but convey to Won what / feel
this moment, il would be an epistls indeed
But | must hasten down from lie mount of
God, nnd rest mo in The monastery, built, as
tradition saVs. where Moses behela The burn
ing bush. Thsfe | hope to finish this letter,
and say how | have spent the day Ut the Lord
in His holy mountain, in a cleft OF which |
was so fortunate 10 find a young, vigorous
shrub, planted by The hand Of the Almighty in
Ills own holy hill, which | have cut, aud pur-
pose. If God spare rs 10 meet again, and
spend an hour Of teizure together, to present
10 YOU. and TO explain At length why | have
adopted The new route (tfia sontttsfn) for Is
rael from Egypt to the Red sea--a route
nVsr which no one, | believe, has passed
heretnfore, who has written expressly on the
subject, but which has often been suggested
by eminent travellers, who have felt pressed
with The difficulties Of the northern route by
suez, among whom are Buckhardt and La
borde. s
| wish | could sit here in the deep solitude
for an hour longer but my companions and
one guide arc gone, and the other, a young.
active Arab. IL eouehed Mt my feet in astonish-
meut Mt my writing and apparent eafnestness;
and seems 10 say. as he casts a glance at the
setting sun The uay do,on Is long aud DIM
gerous. So | must say FarsaeeN to ttses 81
mi have stood upon the Alps, in the
middle Of .Itly, md locked around upon the
snowy empire | have stood upon the Appe-
mines, and looked around upon the plains Of
beautiful. %eventfnI Italy f; ! have stood upon
the Albanian mount and behsld The scene Of
tho Htnstah from the Cifcean pretnsftary,
over the Campaigns, to The eternal city and
the mountains Of Tiyoli; | have sat down
upon The pyramids Of Egypt, and cast my
eyes over the saerad city Of Hsliopolis, the
land of Goshen, the fields Of Jewish bondage,
and The ancient Memphis, where Moses and
Aaron, on The part Of God and his people, con.
tended with Pharaoh and his servants, the
death Of whose - frat born Of man and beast
in one night filled the land with walling :
but / have never set my foot on any spot,
from whence was visible so much stern, gioo-
my grandeur, ~heightend by The silence and
that reign around but infinitely
more heightened by the awful and sacred as-
soeiatipns Of tho first great re yslation In form
from God TO man, | feel oppressed with the
spirit that breathes around me, and seems to
inhabit this holy place. ] shall never sit down
upon the summit Of Sinai again, and look
upon the silent and empty plains at its feet ;
but | shall 60 down a better man, and aim so
to live as TO escape the terrible thunders at
the last day, which once reverberated through
these mountains, but have long since given
way to The gospel Of peace. ! can scarcely
tear myself away from the hallowed summit /;
and ! wish loo could linger here forty days
In converse with the Lord. .aEss. i