ARARAT

We need not stop at Ararat: for the Bible itself does not speak of any single mountain as that memorable stepping stone from the antediluvian world to the new; the language of the Bible describing the ark as resting "upon the mountains of Ararat"; as if Ararat were then a region, rather than a mountain.

And this wise arrangement of Providence has so well prevented the idolatry that would probably have resulted from certainty as to the peak, that mountains as far apart as those of the Caucasus, Ceylon, Armenia, Afghanistan and northern India, have been selected as the one from which Noah's family descended.

But if we accept the double peak in Armenia, whose highest point is 17,230 feet above the sea, capped with eternal ice and snow, not scaled until 1829 by Dr. Parrot, as the right mountain, we will have legend and tradition to support us. The conical symmetry and sunlight glory of this mountain, looking from whose sides other mountains seem like hills, make it appear like a landmark; and we can easily imagine that from its foothills the tide of migration naturally flowed early southward to the fertile plains of Babel.

But "Ararat," on which the ark of Noah rested, was not a single mountain, and is not so referred to in the Bible. I believe the word "Ararat" occurs in but one other place (Jer. 51: 27), reading thus:

"Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz."

Since writing the foregoing I looked into a great religious cyclopedia for the word, and find that it is not treated at all.

HOREB

Let us now go to Horeb, the "Mount of God," between the two arms of the Red Sea, one of which the Israelites crossed by the help of God in their escape from the bondage of Egypt. It was there that God gave the ten commandments to men, by the hand of Moses. It is the mountain to which Elijah went forty days and forty nights, in his great flight from the land where his duty lay. And it was there that God asked him, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Generations earlier, Moses, who also had fled from the land of duty, after having killed an Egyptian, led his flocks nearer the foot of this mountain, and saw a bush that burned with fire and was not consumed.

It is distinguished as no other height in the history of the world, except Mt. Calvary, and that other elevation where Jesus delivered the discourse called the Sermon on the Mount.

How strange it is that the exact location of these mountains is somewhat uncertain; although events happened on them that have influenced the destinies of the world more than any other! It must be that the same Jehovah that has ever veiled his face, the same Jehovah that

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prevented any likeness of his Son Jesus from being preserved by his disciples, has carefully kept uncertain to us the exact places of the ratification of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant; influenced by the same motives that caused him to keep secret the grave of his serv

ant Moses.

But the tract in which Horeb of Sinai must have stood is a wild, dreary and barren region. There are crags and precipices, separated by sandy defiles so narrow that they seem to make the opposing cliffs frown on each other; all desolate and terrific. There are springs and streams flowing among the crags, where, probably, the thousands of Israelites, while waiting for the law, secured water for their flocks and herds. Some traveler, whose name I have forgotten, without doubt concerning this part of Arabia Petraea, said, "It would seem as if Arabia Petraea had once been an ocean of lava, and while its waves were running mountains high, it was suddenly commanded to stand still."

Thus, blackened peaks of naked granite, stand sentinel over sheer precipices more than a thousand feet in height. In one place we may pass through a wild defile into a level plain, two miles long by two-thirds of a mile wide. Here we may assume that Sinai frowns down: for the conditions of the Bible history may here be

met. The plain comes to the foot of the abrupt mountain, that might be "touched," or not, according to the commandment of the Lord. The desolate cliffs surrounding this space, so suitable for a camp for many thousands, must have lent help to Moses in his effort to bring the Israelites into the disposition of awe and reverence, suitable for receiving the law that has become the "constitution of the civilized world."

Since writing the foregoing, I have found, in the pages of the "Common People" portion of the "Christian," of Boston, in its issue of April, 1911, probably from the pen of the son of my friend, H. L. Hastings, the following matter, which may further illustrate the peculiarities of the mountain :

"THE MOUNT OF GOD.

Few spots

on the face of the earth are invested with such deep and solemn interest as that barren mountain peak where Moses talked with God,

'When he proclaimed his holy law,

And struck the trembling tribes with awe.'

"Nearly in the center of the now desolate peninsula which stretches between the projecting horns of the Red Sea, stands a triangular ledge of granite, grünstein, and porphyry rocks, rising between 8,000 and 9,000 feet above the level of the sea, and stretching over an extent of from twenty to