The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-10-02
Moses at MOWNt Sinai,

From a Discourse by Rev. Stuart Rob
! inson, D. d., delivered at Louisville
KY, and reported expressly for the
| COurier-Journal, we make the following
| extract:
From what has been shown in the last
sublimity of Mt. Sinai, the theater upon
which the transactions here recorded
took place, and from the majestic des-
cription here given of the scenes and
events upon that thcatcr, II would
think that our literary and scientific
critics, however skeptical, must be COM
PEELED to admit either that Moses is des-
crlblng it truly as an eyewitness, with
superhuman skill, or that, us painting
from imagination, he eXcels SO far all
the most brilliant poets of ancient OF
modern times that he must be reckOned
a miracle of genius. 1t has been admit
ted by all the great critics that the most
difficult of all the feats of epic or tragic
poetry is properly to introduce a God
upon the stage and to sustain the char
acter with due dignity and sublimity.
But how perfect is the harmony here
between the great natural stage, as des-
cribed- by travellers Of every faith in
modern times, and the scenes which
Moses represents as transacted upon it
We may we'll challenge all skeptical
critics oftlie Colenso order to account for
the description itself, without a miracle.
All the ancient masters in the realms
Of imaginati0n-HOmer, Euripides, So
phocles, Eschylus-"pale their ~ineffect-
ual fires - before this poet Moses, if only
a poet. All the ancient masters of crit
ioScn, Nr;c+n+In Hnrano Jrurp,c
must before this great poet Moses, if
only a poet, IT, ---
"Confounded fall, --- d.
And stretch and swell themselves to bursting
nigh, -:.th . : :
To utter,bulky words of admiration vast"
For in this description OF Moses how
do the heavens, the earth, all the ele-
ments Of nature, cOnspire to signalize
the advent of the Creator to this sublime
stage which nature has erected amid the
solitary grandeur of the DESERT Not an
element Of grandeur has Moses omitted.
The thunder, the lightning, the tempest,
the fire, the earthquake, the trump of
God demanding audience, all mingle
their powers Of grandeur to do fit hon.
age at the advent of God. Nay, all the
most stable and enduringlaws of nature
seem to dissolve in terror; and nature,
herself, as affrighted, flies from her
throne, as if in agony of adoring reyer-
ence to cast herself at the feet of her
OmnipOtent Lord! {
And amid these scenes of grandeur
how fifty, how naturally and beautifully,
does he introduce the trembling millions
of his subject-creatures to receive direct
ly from the mouth of the Redeemer King
the words of His eternal law Two or
three millions of bondmen, whose shack
les He has broken-children whom He
has delivered in the hour of terrible dis
tress, whom He has fed with the dew of
heaven, and whose tllirstis now quenched
with water gushing from the smitten
rock in Horeb! Verify no true critic
will deny that any theory of the origin
of this masterpiece of snblimity which
ignoresits divine inspiration, involves
a greater miracle than any recorded in
the book.
But a far higher harmony still than
its literary harmony and beauty will be
discovered i'll the story of these wonder
full Sinai transactions, once we get some
adequate vfew,of the great purpose and
end of giving thus His law to thechurch
of God.