an<l recogniAed by them 08 snpcrhurnan-ns of the thunder" (K1Llisr,h), fnr thnn<lcr ,1,,,,, " the voice of God " ( Deut. iv. 33). It is in not shuke tho enrth, thongh it shnk,., t.he ,,r r vnin to seek to minimise, and to rationalise -but rnther hy an ndu11l earth'lunke. Com- pare Ps. xviii. 7; Matt. xxvii. 51-5·1; Arts tho scene, und tone it down into something iv. 31; xvi. 2G. not supernnturul. The only honest course is Ver. 19.-When the voioe of the trumpet either tc accept it as a plain record of pie.in sounded long, and waxed louder and louder. (albeit miraculous) facts, or to reject it o.ltc- This is a somewhat free translution: hnt it gether as the fiction of a romancer. gives well the real menning of the Hchrew. We may conclude that the trumpet's blast was Ver. 16.-There were thunders. Literally, not continuous. It sounded when the mani- " voices," as in eh. ix. 23 ; but there can be no festation began (ver. 16). It sounded again, doubt that " thunder" is meant. A thick much louder and with a much more prolonp;ecl cloud, Compare above, ver. !J, and the com- note, to heralcl the actual descent of God upon ment a,:l loc. The voice of the trnmpet. the mount. This time the sound was so pierc- Literally, "a trumpet's voice." The word ing, so terrible, so intolerable, that Moses conlr\ used for "trumpet' is not the same as in no longer endure to keep silence, but b111'1t out ver. 13 ; but the variation does not seem to in speech. Were his words those recorded in have any importance. Heh. xii. 21-" I exceedingly fear and quake" Ver. 17.-lllloaea brought forth the people -words not found now in the Old Testament out of the camp. The camp itself must have -or were they others which have been wholly been withdrawn tc some little distance from lost to us? It is impossible to say. His speech, the foot of the mount, so that a vacant space however, had the effect of bringing the awful intervened between the first tents and the preparations to a close-" Moses spake, and "fence" which Moses had caused to be erected God answered him by a voice, and the Lord o.lmost close to the mount. Into this vacant came down upon Mount Sinai." space Moses now led "the people "--i.e., the Ver. 20.-0n the top of the mount. Not, chief of the people-so bringing them as near probably, on the highest point of the Sinaitic as they might come to God. gro11p, the Jebel Musa, which is out of sight Ver. 18.-llllount Sinai was altogether on from the plain Er-Raha.h, where the Israelites a smoke. Literally, "smoked, all of it." must have been assembled; but on the highest Ko.lisch suggests that "the dense clonds from part of the face of Sinai fronting that plain, which the thunders •broke forth had the the Rae Snfsafeh, which would be to the appearance of smoke." But the reason assigned Israelites at the base "the top of the mount." -" because the Lord descended on it in fire," The Lord called l[oses up. Perhaps with seems to imply rea.l smoke ; and the same re- Aaron, who certainly accompanied him when sults from the comparison of it to "the smoke he next ascended (ver. 24), and who seems to of a furnace." The whole mount quaked be glanced at in the phrase used at the end greatly, Scarcely " through the vehemence of ver. 23
HOMILETICS. Vera. 16-20.-God's various modes of manifesting himself. It has been well said that " when God reveals himself it is in a manner suitable to the occasion." No revelation that he has made of himself has ever been so terrible in its material accom- paniments as that at Sinai; and no occasion can ever be conceived of a.s more needing the employment of solemn, startling, and impressive circumstances. Here was a peoplt> gross of heart, delighting in flesh-pots, debased by slavery, 'careless of freedom, immoral, inclined to idolatry, which had to be elevated into God's living witness among the nations, tlie depositary of his truth, the teacher of the rest of mankind for ages. Given the object of impressing such a nation permanently with the conviction that it had received a Divine revelation, and that very dreadful consequences would follow the neglect of it, and the need of the thunders and other terrors of Sinai becomes manifest. At other times and in other places God has pursued quite different me~ho~s._ To El1ph he revealed himself in the" still small voice;" to Isaiah and St. John m v1s1ons; to the apostles generally in the solemn teaching of his Son; to St. Paul in_ e?sta.si~s, wherein he heard unspeakable words. The contrast between the day of the g1vmg ol the law un Sinai and the day of Pentecost has often been noticed. "When God of old came down from Heaven, In power and wrath he came ; . Before his feet the clouds were riven, Half darkness w.ul half f!alllc.'' TII E nooK OF EXODUS. [en. x1x. lG-20.
" B.. t whoo he ea.me the eccond time, He co.me in power and love : Soft~r than gale at morning prime, Hovered his holy Dove " 'l'he coming of the Spirit l\t Pentecost l\nd the coming of Jesus were, both of them gentle and peaceful Epiphanies, suited to the time when God, having educated th~ world for four thouNand years or more, was about to seek to win men to himself by tho preaching of" good tidings "-of the gospel of love. The clouds anci. terror& of Sinai would here have been out of place-unsuitable anachronisms. In complete harmony with the two OCCIL!!ions were-at Bethlehem, the retired village, the humble stablo the angel~ singing of peace on earth, the lone shepherds wat.ching their flocks at night-in Jerusalem the voiceless wind," mighty" yet subdued, the lambent light playing round the heads of holy men, the unseen inward influence shed into their hearts at tho same time, impalpable to sense, but with power to revolutionise the world. And as God reveals himself to his Church in manifold ways, each fitting the occasion, RO does he reveal himself to individuals. Now he comes clothed in his terrors. He visits with calamity or with sickness, or with that awful dread which from time to time comes over the soul, that it is lost, hopelessly lost, alienated from God for ever. .Anon, he shows himself in gentler guise-he whispers hope, he instils faith, he awakens love. In every case he studies the needs of the individual., and adapts his revelation of himself to them. Now he calls by his preachers, now he warns by the " still small voice" of conscience ; now he wakes men out of sleep by a sudden danger or a sudden deliverance; anon, he startles them out of a self-oompl.t.cency worse than sleep by withdrawing himself and allowing them to fall It is for man to take advantage of every Divine manifestation, w listen when God speaks. to obey when he calls, to make the use of each occasion which it was intended to have, to "receive God's revelations of himself in his own way."