"Thou heardest His words out of the midst of the fire."--_Deut. 4:36._
WHEN the children of Israel had come out of Egypt, God had told Moses
to lead them to the foot of Mount Sinai. This was a high steep rocky
mountain in the wilderness. And God told Moses to set bounds round the
mountain, so that nobody should come and touch it; and the people were
to pray, and wait round it for the holy and awful thing that was to
happen.
Then there came on the hill-top a deep dark cloud, and the mountain
was altogether on a smoke, and it shook and quaked, and there were
lightnings and thunders and voices, and the sound of a trumpet loud
and louder, so that all the people trembled. Then out of that cloud
there came a voice speaking to them--a voice that they all could hear,
and that made them afraid. For it was the voice of God. And God spoke
out of the cloud, and gave the Ten Commandments. They were the very
same Ten Commandments you say in the Catechism, and see written up in
church.
[Illustration: The Ten Commandments.]
Thou shalt have no more Gods but me.
Before no idol bend the knee.
Take not the name of God in vain,
Nor dare the sabbath day profane.
Give both thy parents honor due,
Take heed that thou no murder do.
Abstain from words and deeds unclean,
Nor steal, though thou art poor and mean.
Nor make a wilful lie, nor love it.
What is thy neighbor's dare not covet.
God had come in this terrible and awful manner to speak to them, that
all Israel might hear and fear, and take care not to break them.
Afterwards God gave these Ten Commandments to Moses, written upon two
tables--or pieces of stone--written by God Himself. That was the way
the Ten Commandments were given--by God's own voice speaking to men,
out of the cloud, amid thunders and lightnings, and the sound of the
trumpet, dreadful to hear.
[Illustration: MOSES RECEIVING THE TABLES OF THE LAW.--Ex. 31:18.]
And God means us all to obey the Commandments, just as much as He meant
the Israelites to obey them. They are His words, and must be kept; and
if we ask Him in our prayers He will give us help and strength to obey
them, so that we may fulfil the promise that was made at our baptism,
that we should keep God's Holy Will and Commandments, and walk in the
same unto our lives' end.