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in his worship, private, social, or public? If you were about to be introduced into the presence of some great and exalted earthly personage, how anxious you would be to have your dress, and deportment, and conversation befitting the august occasion. You would spare no pains to have them what they should be. You would feel that your very character for elevated taste, and dignified propriety of manners, was at stake. The anticipated interview would occupy a great deal of your time and care in the way of preparation.

Jehovah is the King of kings, and Lord of lords; the Supreme Majesty of heaven and earth. His dominion is universal and everlasting. His greatness is unsearchable. His power is infinite. His truth is immutable. His justice is inflexible, and terrible to the impenitent. He is perfect in holiness. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity. He searches the heart, and is acquainted with all our ways.

How do you come before such a great and glorious Being? What is your preparation of heart for it? What are your feelings in his presence?

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Israelites at the foot of Sinai. God descends. Moses and Aaron go up the mountain. The ten commandments.

The Israelites had completed the required preparations, and rose, on the third day, anxious to know what the strange scenes were to be, which they would witness. An intense and solemn curiosity prevailed among them. For Jehovah himself was to come down upon Sinai, and they were to hear his voice.

The sight-would they be able to endure it? The voice ;-how would it fall upon the ear; in reproof and denunciation, or in encouragement and love!

Before them stood the sacred mountain in its lonely and majestic grandeur. A profound silence reigned over it; while, from its lofty summit, the pillar of a cloud, changing from that of fire, shed down its heavenly effulgence, and showed that the night had departed.

The bounds round the mountain had been set. Their import was fearful. Death was denounced against any living being that should pass them. The sound of an unearthly trumpet, loud and long,

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and then melting away in silence, would tell the people when they might dare even to approach these bounds.

The suspense was deep and breathless. Every eye, directed to Sinai, was eager to catch the first symbols of the descending Deity.-They are beginning to appear. A thick, dark cloud settles over the mountain. Streams of lightning issue from it, in quick succession, flashing wild and fearful. Terrific thunders roll and echo on every voice of the trumpet is heard exceeding loud. Its side. The summons is awful. It calls the people before their God. They tremble with consternation as they hear it. It dies away, and gives a short respite to their fears.

Moses now leads them forth from their encampment, and they assemble near the foot of the mountain. The approach of Jehovah is at hand. He comes down in flames of fire; with thousands and tens of thousands of angels to attend him. All Sinai blazes up to heaven; and the dense, dark clouds of smoke ascend as the smoke of a furnace. The mountain quakes to its centre. voice is again heard. It sounds long, and waxes The trumpetlouder and louder. It is the voice of God. Israelites shudder and tremble. So terrible is the The scene, that even Moses cannot control himself. He exclaims, " I exceedingly fear and quake." An encouraging voice calms his terrors.

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hears it from the top of the mount, from the pre sence of Jehovah. It calls him thither, and he goes up. Go down," said the Lord, "charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them."

"And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai," (they will not be so presumptuous as to do it,) "for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests and the people break through, to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them."

Moses obeys. He makes known the Divine injunction to the people, and re-ascends the mountain with Aaron.

It is the fiftieth day since the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. Preserved by the goodness of God, they are assembled before him. They have witnessed the awful tokens of his presence, and heard his voice. Such stupendous miracles are necessary to rouse their sluggish attention, and to establish for ever in their belief the divine mission of their leader. How can they, and their descendants, ever forget, or doubt, the reality of the scenes at Sinai, and of the presence there of Jehovah !

What God is thus doing, he does not for them alone. He shows himself in such terrible majesty, as the Moral Governor of the world. His law is about to be promulgated. It is for the Israelites ;it is for all men ;—that they may learn to fear him all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

The eyes of the multitude follow with intense gaze the forms of Moses and Aaron, as they ascend the mountain. Who but heaven-inspired men would

presume to approach the awful presence of Jehovah, amid scenes like these! But he has called them, and they are safe. They go up still higher. They are seen no more. They are lost in the clouds which they have entered. They are approaching the summit; and on that spot the attention of the assembled millions,—deep, silent, and awe-struck,-is riveted.

The mountain still burns with fire, unto the midst of heaven, with durkness, clouds, and thick darkness. Jehovah speaks out of the midst of the fire. They see no similitude; but they hear the voice of words :

"I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

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Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water

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