h of its young" (Kalisch). But far more
tender, and very touching in its domestic homeliness, is the metaphor
of Him Whose discourses teem with allusions to the Old Testament, yet
Who preferred to compare Himself to a hen gathering her chickens under
her wing.

With the adhesion of Israel to the covenant, Moses returned to God. And
the Lord said, "Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people
may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever."

The design was to deepen their reverence for the Lawgiver Whose law they
should now receive; to express by lessons, not more dreadful than the
plagues of Egypt, but more vivid and sublime, the tremendous grandeur of
Him Who was making a covenant with them, Who had borne them on His wings
and called them His firstborn Son, Whom therefore they might be tempted
to approach with undue familiarity, were it not for the mountain that
burned up to heaven, the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder,
and the Appearance so fearful that Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and
quake" (=to phantazomenon=--Heb. xii. 21).

When thus the Deity became terrible, the envoy would be honoured also.

But it is important to observe that these terrible manifestations were
to cease. Like the impressions produced by sickness, by sudden deaths,
by our own imminent danger, the emotion would subside, but the
conviction should remain: they should believe Moses for ever. Emotions
are like the swellings of the Nile: they subside again; but they ought
to leave a fertilising deposit behind.

That the impression might not be altogether passive, and therefore
ephemeral, the people were bidden to "sanctify themselves"; all that is
common and secular must be suspended for awhile; and it is worth notice
that, as when the family of Jacob put away their strange gods, so now
the Israelites must wash their clothes (cf. Gen. xxxv. 2). For one's
vestment is a kind of outer self, and has been with the man in the old
occupations from which he desires to purify himself. It was therefore
that when Jehu was made king, and when Jesus entered Jerusalem in
triumph, men put their garments under their chief to express their own
subjection (2 Kings ix. 13; Matt. xxi. 7). Much of the philosophy of
Carlyle is latent in these ancient laws and usages.

Moreover, the mountain was to be fenced from the risk of profanation by
any sudden impulsive movement of the crowd, and even a beast that
touched it shoul