3.3--Jaemin e scendeth its bonghs and branches jessa stalows that Xerres, the king of Persia, Excavolatat mert wie days together: so likewise wis d to much of the most High, with heavenly comfort the defendeth, all those that commit de de forat in all harm and danger. Sean Water-As fire is an element à nessary for man's life that we may in gule the water is very needful for us, being of ANONG BU më dhe me and so very meet to represent and dis, und properties of the Holy Ghost. Or as the fit the earth, making it fertile, causing it to how to bank nois àh wish away the filthiness of the body: so quis, fresh, and water the hearts and conChin, mững them to bring forth pleasant fruits, accept

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Ecodus xix. 20.-"AND THE LORD CAME DOWN UPON MOUNT SINAI, ON THE TOP OF THE MOUNT: AND THE LORD CALLED MOSES UP TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNT; AND MOSES WENT UP.

1868. Mount Sinai.-There is no spot in the world that can equal in grandeur and interest the mountains of the "great and terrible wilderness" of Arabia, which may be described as the rocky family of Horeb, of which Sinai is the chief. From its highest peak, which is about 7,000 feet above the level of the sea, a field of rugged rocks are visible to the extent of thirty or forty miles in diameter; far beyond is the Red Sea and Suez; below, a broad quadrangular plain, the valley of the assemblage wherestood the whole congregation when gathered before the Lord, and the effect of sunset in these sterile regions is grander than any pencil can sketch or pen describe. The vast pile, surmounted by lofty pinnacles, exhibit some of the sublimest effects when illuminated at the close of day, for at their base the greenstone presents a dark and sombre appearance in the shadow, while the porphyry ravines impart a purple hue to their precipitous sides and edges, but by far the largest portion, and particularly the lofty tops, are composed of brownish-red granite, which the vermilion of the clouds converts into a fiery glow that fills the astonished spectator with awe and delight.

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And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly," Ex. xix. 18. It was not the first time that such phenomena had been exhibited in this region of mountains, although the first time it had been witnessed by mortal eyes. No, Mount Sinai and the Horeb group form part of the great family of that description of rocks called Plutonic or igneous, and during some mighty convulsion they have been upheaved to their enormous height; and they are no doubt the relics of that remote period in the history of the world when all was chaos and confusion. Doubtless their hoary peaks have looked down upon many thousands of years before the grand display which took place there when the Almighty showed Himself to Moses, three-and-thirty hundred years ago; and, strongly fused and welded together, they will still defy the storms of all time, and will only be again melted when the consummation of all things shall come, and when from their molten mass God shall create a new heaven and a new earth.

The account of Moses, touching the giving of the law and the encampment of the Israelites, has been doubted, because the valley was supposed to be too small for their numbers, and the space too great for Moses' voice to be heard; but amongst the direct testimonies borne by modern travellers respecting the lands of the Bible, none is clearer or more interesting than the opinions of men eminent in science and religion concerning the exact suitability of the place to the purposes mentioned in the sacred narrative. The texts which have troubled some doubting minds are those mentioned in Exod. xix. 2, 11, 24, and others in the following chapters, but Dr. Robinson discovered one plain and the summit of one mountain which exactly answered the conditions required for the valley of the assemblage and the Sinai of Moses. "As we advanced," he says, "the valley still opened wider and wider, shut in on each side by lofty granite ridges, with ragged, shattered peaks a thousand feet high, while the face of Horeb rose directly before us. Both my companions and myself involuntarily exclaimed, 'Here is room enough for a large encampment!' Reaching the top of the ascent, a fine large plain lay before us, enclosed by rugged and venerable mountains of dark granite, naked, splintered peaks and ridges, and terminated at the distance of more than a mile by stern and awful summits, rising perpendicularly, in frowning majesty, from twelve to fifteen hundred feet in height. It was a scene of solemn grandeur wholly unexpected, and such as we had never seen, and the associations which at the moment rushed upon our minds were almost overwhelming."

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Upon entering the wady (valley)," says a friend who has very recently returned from encamping in this wilderness "we discharged several pistols. The reports were grand in the extreme; as they rolled along the several valleys, one could not help observing how crushingly loud and awing must have been 'the thunderings, the noise of the trumpet, the quaking of the mountain, and the great voice,' when God appeared here and gave Moses the law, echoing and re-echoing, rumbling and crashing, as they reverberated along the wadies around." Here, too, it was that Elijah the prophet lodged in a cave (1 Kings xix.), when supernatural phenomena again attended the manifestation of the Almighty, and the wind, the earthquake, and the fire were obedient to His word.

The group of peaks in the background of our picture represents the locality whence Moses is generally believed to have received the