The Tupelo journal., 1906-08-17


NOW therefore," Moses contin-
ued, eff We will obey my voice in
deed, and keep my covenant, then ye
shall be a peculiar treasure unto me
above all people: for all the earth is
NINE"
A great stiffness rested upon the
people as Moses ended the words Of
the Lord, and then as though moved
by one spirit, that vast concourse OF
people lifted their voices and shouted
until the very mountains on every side
fairly rang and shook with the volume
thereof:
"All that the Lord hath spoken we
will do"
And with this promise upon their
lips. if indeed it had not sunk to the
depths of their hearts-it is so much
easier to utter the pledge with the
mouth than it is to seal and burn
it into the tablets Of memory Of the
heart-the people were dismissed and
with the b~enedictiop of the place rest
ing upon them they returned to their
tents, while Moses went back to keep
vigil with God.
The next three days the people were
in a culver Of excitement, for Moses
had returned saying that upon the
third day the Lord would come down
upon the mountain in the sight of all
the people.
"We have seen God in the Cloud
by day and the Pillar of fire by night.
What will this new manifestation be-"
And zealously they prepared them
selves for this solemn occasion.
God hath called us to be priests"
they said n to another, repeating
the words of Moses, and with a
beautiful spirit of submission they
fulfilled all the instructions which
Moses had given them.
The third day broke as others had
done and the people were early astir
prepared to go forth as was their daily
custom and gather the mama, when
from the mountain side about which
had settled a thick cloud there burst
thunderings and l~ightnings. In ter
ror the people threw themselves on
their faces to the ground, and while
thus Frustrated there came a voice
from the mountain side as the sound
of a trumpet, exceeding loud so that
all the people in the camp heard and
trembled.
Thus Moses found them as he came
through the camp and summoned them
to follow him. Never before had the
sense of the majesty and the power
of God so filled them, and without
daring to ask why or whittier they
went, they obeyed Moses voice and
arose and went after him. And they
came to the foot of the mountain, at
the point where they had stood three
days before when they had promised
that all that the Lord had spoken
they would do, for now they were to
learn something of the great God
whom they had so solemnly promised
to obey.
And is it not ever so? In the fervor
Of the souls better impulses, promises
are made of loyalty and obedience, and
then God leads that SOU out to a
larger and fuller realization of what
is involved in that promise, which
if the soul had known at first, it would
have trembled and drawn back from
uttering the pledge. Thus it is that
God seeks eve to urge the soul on
and on upward toward him.
What a sight that was which burst
upon the startled vision of the Israel
ties. They had seen the religious fes-
t%ivities in Egypt and had looked upon
the gods which the Egyptians wor-
shipped, but surely here was a living
God, for the mount was altogether
on a smoke. And fire and smoke
assembled as from a furnance, and the
whole mount did quake, while the
voice like a trumpet again sounded
forth as it had on the previous occa-
sion.
But now it waxed louder and loud
e-, until Moses lifted up his voice
and spake, and God did answer him,
so that all the people heard. And God
called Moses up to him in the mount,
and Moses went up.
And all the people saw the thunder
ings and the lightpings, and the noise
of the trumpet, and the mountain
smoking, and they feared greatly.
They saw Moses disappear into the
midst of the smoking, trembling
mountain, they knew that he was
talking with one who had given them
great and blessed promises and
planned only good for them, and yet
the thought of their God and his
law was to them a thing not to be
loved but feared, eve as the concep-
ton of many souls to-day gives them
not a God of love but a God of dis
cipline and judgment, as though his
law and his judgments had been or
dered for their destruction instead of
their instruction and their salvation.
And the people then, as do people to-
day when God manifests himself in
some mighty way, removed from the
foot of the mountain and stood afar
of. And as Moses came again into
their midst they cried:
"Speak thou with US and We will
hear; but let not God speak with us
lest we die"
And Moses said unto the people:
"Fear not, for the Lord is come to
prove you, and that his fear may be
before your faces that We sin not"
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