American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-07-21
from the New York Observer.1
He SACRED MOUNTAINS; MOUNT
ARAFAT,

BY THE REV. ]. T. HEADLEY.
There are some mountains standing on this
here of ours that seem almost conscious be-
gs, and if they qUould but speak, and tell what
ey have seen and felt, the traveller who pau
Is at their base would trembe with awe and
arm.
For some good reason, the Deity has usual
chosen mountain SUBMITS, and those which
Re isolated, as the theatre where he made the
randest exhibitions of himself. 1t may he be-
ause those grand and striking features in ma
IRE fix the locality of events SO that they new
+ can fade from the memory of man. The
living of the law needs no lofty column of
bone to commemorate it. Mount Ararat lifts
rs awful form towards the clouds, perpetual,
zlnwasting monument. Gods exhibition of
himself to the awe-struck prophet, as he pass
ID by him heralded by the storm, the earth
uake and the flame, needs no pyramid, to fix
he locality in history. Mount Horeb tells
where the Almighty dmmed his glory and CO.
ered the human face with his fearful hand, SO
hat his brightness might not destroy the being
hat would gaze on him. The TRANSPORTATION
bfthe Goldman requires no pillar of brass to
arrest the eye and aid the senses as man con-
templates the spot where the wondrous scene
ranspired, Mount Tabor is its everlasting me-
mortal. Thus do mountain SUBMITS stand the
5ent, yet.most eloquent historians of heaven
Ehnd earth.
) Another reason why mountains have been
chosen by the Deity for his most solemn reve-
cations, may be that their solitude and far re-
tmoval from human interruption and the sounds
| of busy life, render them better fitted for such
communications than the plain and the city.
The first in the list of sacred mountains is
Mount Ararat The first named summit in
human history, it emerges from the flood and
/ lifts its head over the water to look down on
| all coming generations TO the end of time
Whether it was changed in that mighty con-
vulsion which drowned the world, or whether
It's lofty peak which saw the swelling waters
and marked their steady rise remained the
same, we know not. At all events, the noun.
tain looked down on the swaying world at its
feet, as cities foated from their foundations,
and came dashing against its sides, and beheld
a wilder scene than ever covered battlefield,
as ii heard and saw sir generations shrek and
sink together. But whatever may have been
its former history, it now stands the only me-
mortal of the flood. Rising like a sugar LOAF
from the plain, its top is covered with ,perpetu-
oil snow, and has seldom been profaned by hui
man feet But there was a time when the sea
rolled over it, and mightier waves than ever
yet swept the sea, Numbered high above its
crown.
Though the immediate appearance of flood
that should submeIge the world was an event
that staggered human belief yet Noah, obedi-
ent to the voice of heaven, began his ark Of
safety. There is no one who does not lament
that there is not fuller antedeluvian history
We merely catch the SUBMITS of events, and
tol of balF do hat ban
pened, while all the rest is wrapped in impene.
trable mystery. We are told that tho worlt
was drowned, but the particulars of that ter
rife scene are left entirely to the Imagination
1t is only by the declaration of the apostle, tha
men were busy at their usual occupations
seating and drinking, and marrying and giver
in marriage, till the flood came and swept then
all away" that we get any data by which We
can form any true conception of the catastrophe
Yet this statement is worth every thing, ane
with it before me, have sometimes thought
could almost paint the scene. Noah, whose
head was whtened by the frosts of six centu
ries, laid the foundation of his huge vessel on 8
pleasant day, when all was serene and tranquil
The fields were smiling in verdure before hi
eyes; the perfumed breezes hoated by, and the
music of birds and sounds of busy life wert
about him, when he, by faith alone, laid the
first beam OF that structure that was to sal
over buried planet. When men, on enquir
ing the design of that huge edifce, were tolt
its purpose, they could hardly credit their sen
ses, and Noah, though accounted by all yer,
upright and respectable man, became jest fo
children. AS the farmer returned at evening
from the fields, and the gay citizen of the towl
drove past, they cbrstened it "Noah's folly
Those more aged and sober shook their head