DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0289
274
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
under the walls. Since that time they had never
been molested by the Arabs, " and there is no
doubt," continued the old monk, " that the woman
was the mother of God, and the child the Saviour
of the world."
But away with monkish superstition. I stand
upon the very peak of Sinai—where Moses stood
when he talked wiih the Almighty. Can it be, or
is it a mere dream ? Can this naked rock have
been the witness of that great interview between
man and his Maker ? where, amid thunder and
lightning, and a fearful quaking of the mountain,
the Almighty gave to his chosen people the pre-
cious tables of his law, those rules of infinite wis-
dom and goodness, which, to this day, best teach
man his duty towards his God, his neighbour, and
himself?
The scenes of many of the incidents recorded in
the Bible are extremely uncertain. Historians
and geographers place the Garden of Eden, the
paradise of our first parents, in different parts of
Asia ; and they do not agree upon the site of the
tower of Babel, the mountain of Ararat, and many
of the most interesting plac"es in the Holy Land ;
but of Sinai there is no doubt. This is the holy
mountain ; and among all the stupendous works of
Nature, not a place can be selected more fitted for
the exhibition of Almighty power. I have stood
upon the summit of the giant Etna, and looked over
the clouds floating beneath it, upon the bold sce-
nery of Sicily, and the distant mountains of Cala-
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
under the walls. Since that time they had never
been molested by the Arabs, " and there is no
doubt," continued the old monk, " that the woman
was the mother of God, and the child the Saviour
of the world."
But away with monkish superstition. I stand
upon the very peak of Sinai—where Moses stood
when he talked wiih the Almighty. Can it be, or
is it a mere dream ? Can this naked rock have
been the witness of that great interview between
man and his Maker ? where, amid thunder and
lightning, and a fearful quaking of the mountain,
the Almighty gave to his chosen people the pre-
cious tables of his law, those rules of infinite wis-
dom and goodness, which, to this day, best teach
man his duty towards his God, his neighbour, and
himself?
The scenes of many of the incidents recorded in
the Bible are extremely uncertain. Historians
and geographers place the Garden of Eden, the
paradise of our first parents, in different parts of
Asia ; and they do not agree upon the site of the
tower of Babel, the mountain of Ararat, and many
of the most interesting plac"es in the Holy Land ;
but of Sinai there is no doubt. This is the holy
mountain ; and among all the stupendous works of
Nature, not a place can be selected more fitted for
the exhibition of Almighty power. I have stood
upon the summit of the giant Etna, and looked over
the clouds floating beneath it, upon the bold sce-
nery of Sicily, and the distant mountains of Cala-