kindred, were subsequently united with the Israelites, seems highly probable from what appear to be. intimations of it in several passages of Scripture.

If a man of the age and character of Moses; brought up at the court of a king, and imbued with all the learning of the Egyptians; long taught in the school of experience; and more than all, holding direct communications with God himself, and receiving his peculiar guidance and instruction-if such an exalted personage was grateful for the counsel of a friend, how ought the young to be ready, at all times, with a thankful and ingenuous deference, to listen to the admonitions and advice of those who are able and willing thus to render them aid.

The pride that despises, and the folly that rejects such counsel, are too common, Children are very apt to think that they know more than their parents; pupils, than their teachers; and the inexperienced youth, than those whose age and wisdom entitle them to respectful regard!

Are you willing, my young friend, to take advice? Do you feel your need of it? Do you seek it, and especially from those whom God, in his providence has placed over you to afford you protection, to instruct, and to govern you? Do you in this respect, (if you have them,) honor your father and your mother?

He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul, but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Mount Sinai.

Leaving Rephidim, the Israelites entered the wilderness of Sinai. Since their departure from Egypt not quite fifty days had elapsed; and, in this short space of time, through what various and surprising scenes they have passed! We can scarcely form any adequate conceptions of them. The most vivid imagination fails in attempting to portray their soul-stirring features. They are shrouded, in part, with a mysterious obscurity. But the views, however imperfect, which we obtain of their sublime reality, excite within us emotions of the profoundest wonder and awe; and we bow in reverential silence before the majesty of that Being whose power can produce such results, and whose providence can order them for the accomplishment of ends so magnificent!

The Israelites were now making their way still further up the mountainous region that bears the name of Sinai, and coming in sight of one of its summits, where a scene of more awful grandeur than any which they had before witnessed, and full of portentous import, awaits them.

It was a scene affecting the whole human race in their deepest interests, both temporal and eternal. God himself came down from his throne in the heavens, and gave to man the Moral Law: containing every essential principle of duty, and binding, throughout all ages, upon all classes and conditions of men.

The spot where such a transaction took place, if we can ascertain its locality, or come any where near it, is surely a subject of the most interesting inquiry. It will be well therefore to suspend a little our narrative, till we can see what light can be shed upon it from the researches of some of those who have visited that portion of the globe.

Burckhardt tells us, that the upper region of Sinai, where we suppose the Israelites were journeying, forms a rocky desert of an irregular circular shape, intersected by many narrow valleys, and from thirty to forty miles in diameter. It contains the highest mountains of the peninsula, whose shagged and pointed peaks, and steep shattered sides, render it clearly distinguishable from all the rest of the country.

But the reader will be anxious to have the descriptions of this sacred place given by our intelligent countrymen, Messrs. Robinson and Smithboth familiar with the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, and the latter speaking Arabic, the prevailing language of the people-who prosecuted

their researches for the explicit object of adding to the stock of accurate Biblical knowledge; and who availed themselves not only of all the descriptions of modern travellers, but of every thing of importance that has been written on the subject back to the third and fourth centuries, by which they have been enabled to discriminate between the mass of monkish and other false tradition, and the record of facts, especially as given in the inspired oracles.

Proceeding in a south east course, they came to the foot of the pass called by the Arabs Nukb Hawy, "Windy Pass," and " dismounting," says Dr. Robinson, "we commenced the slow and toilsome ascent along the narrow defile, about S. by E. between blackened, shattered cliffs of granite, some eight hundred feet high and not more than two hundred and fifty yards apart, which every mo ment threatened to send down their ruins on our heads. Nor is this at all times an empty threat; for the whole pass is filled with large stones and rocks, the debris of these cliffs. The bottom is a deep and narrow water-course, where the wintry torrent sweeps down with fearful violence. A path has been made for camels along the shelving piles of rocks, partly by removing the topmost blocks, and sometimes by laying down large stones side by side, somewhat in the manner of a Swiss mountain road. But though I had crossed the most rug

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ged passes.of the Alps, and made from Chamouthe whole circuit of mount Blanc, I had never found a path so rude and difficult as that we were now ascending.

"Proceeding a little farther, the interior and loftier peaks of the great circle of Sinai began to open upon us, black, rugged, desolate summits; and as we advanced, the dark and frowning front of Sinai itself (the present Horeb of the Monks) began to appear. We were still gradually ascending, and the valley gradually opening; but as yet all was a naked desert. Afterwards, a few shrubs were sprinkled round about, and a small encampment of black tents was seen on our right, with camels and goats browsing, and a few donkies belonging to the convent. The scenery through which we had now passed, reminded me strongly of the mountains around the Mer de Glace in Switzerland. I had never seen a spot more wild and desolate.

"As we advanced, the valley still opened wider and wider, with a gentle assent, and became full of shrubs and tufts of herbs, shut in on each side by lofty granite ridges, with rugged, shattered peaks a thousand feet high, while the face of (the present) Horeb rose directly before us. Both my companion and myself involuntarily exclaimed: "Here is room enough for a large encampment!" Reaching the top of the ascent, or water-shed, a