Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/13



" Ten Commandments," says the Doctrine of the New Church, "were the first of the Word; for they were promulgated from Mount Sinai before the Word was written by Moses and the Prophets."

And with what solemnity and sublimity were they uttered—and by the very voice of Jehovah Himself! How grand is the description of the scene! "And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and be ready against the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.—And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood on the lower part of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof went up as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain