The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-12-08

=
the camp of Israel, so as to give to every
soul of them unobstructed sight of the
glory of God
The account in Exodus is, that con
the third day in the morning, there were
thunders and lightnings and thick
cloud upon the mount doubtless the same
that had led them and the voice of the
trumphet exceeding loud; so that all the
people In the camp trembled And
Moses brought forth the people out of
the camp to meet with God and they
stood at the neither part of the mount.
And Mount Sinai was altogether on
smoke, because the Lord descended upon
1t In fire, and the smoke thereof assembled
as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole
mount quaked greatly. And the Lord
came down upon Mount Sinai, upon the
top Of the mount. All the people
saw the thunderings and the lightnings,
and the noise of the trumpet and noun
tain smoking; and when the people saw
it, they removed and stood afar off.
And the glory Of the Lord abode upon
Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it six
days; and the seventh day, he called
unto Moses out of the midst of the
cloud. And the sight of the glory of
the Lord was like devouring fire on the
top of the mount in the eyes of the chill
dren of Israel"
Such was the spectacle when Jehovah
rising up from Mount SER in the East
and shining from Mount Paran, descend
ed with ten thousands of angels upon
Mount Sinai. The towering apparition
glowed In the distance and then filled
the heavens as it came near, Sinai mean
while cloud-enveloped, yet smoking like
furnace and quaking. Surely such
would have been All awful scene, if there
had been silence But thunder shook
the earth and out of the depth of dark
ness there came the voice Of the trumpet
sounding long and waxing louder and
louder. We can almost believe that this
was the salutation to Jehovah as he
passed the shining line of his angel hosts
So terrible was the sight, the earth
quake, the tempest, the blackness of
darkness, in the midst of which was con
Stunning fire, that Moses said, 81 exceed
ing fear and quake" And the voice was
so awful, that they who heard it en-
treated that the word should not be
spoken to them any more, lest they die.
God was upon his great cloud throne,
and his marshalled ministers of fire were
there within the pavilion, to do his bid
ding. What specific services they per
formed, we are not distinctly informed.
We know we'll enough that it was
not their voices which uttered the
law of the ten commandments in the
hearing of all the people; for Moses
nearly forty years afterwards in the sight
of the promised land and in the presence
of many who as children had heard the
voice at Sinai, said, the Lord spoke
unto you out of the midst of the fre-ye
heard the voice of the words, but We saw
no similitude, only we heard the voice.
God honored his great moral law, by
speaking 1T with his own voice, directly
to the people. Neither Moses or angels
were Intermediates in that. Other parts
of the law were spoken to Moses, who
was the intermediary between God and
man, while angels may have been the in
termediaries between Jehovah and Moses
Can | not with truth repeat that no
such scene as [ have described was ever
before or since witnessed on earth and
will not be again, until the Son of man
shall come in his glory and that of his
Father and his holy angels to Judge the
"Ollu' LIEU US IeNleW III IOr q moment. |
Two millions and half of people are adj |
vanced from their camp to the foot of the
mountain then enveloped with the cloud
whose centre palpitates with restless fire.
In the distance towering fiery spectacle
rises from Mount SER far away in the
east, and touching Paran, shines there
with ineffable glory the angels forming
conspicuous constituent of the divine ap-
partition. 1t descends upon Mount Sinai
amidst thunderings and earthquakes
while all around is circumference of the
blackness Of darkness, from the midst of
which shoots the fiery column that pierces
the heart of heaven. Like unto Vesu-
vius in clear conAagration at its summit,
with its base and sides in thick darkness
only far grander. Without contradiction
or paradox, it was darkness on fire at its
core-not with the impure fire of earth.
fed by corruptible things, but the fire of
heaven, the fire of the Shekinah, the fire
that burned in Horeb BUSH the fire that
burst from the staff of the angel of Jeho-
yah when it touched Gideon's sacrifice
the fire in whose chariot Elijah rode
through the opened gates of the heavenly
city, the fire which while consuming to
the enemies Of God, is as harmless as soft