but gave it a new distinctness, a new force, and a new authority. It was revealed, as 
the Apostle declares, “on account of transgressions.” And, as fear of punishment is 
the natural guard against the commission of crime - , the “terrors of the Lord” were 
displayed to the eyes of the people. All, hitherto, had been preparative to Divine 
awe. The miraculous passage of the Red Sea, the miraculous support in the 
Wilderness, the surrounding scene of utter desolation, the daily rescue from famine; 
were all combined in creating a sense of total dependence. But the Giving of the 
Law presented a new character of Jehovah. The people had, till then, seen Him only 
as their Protector. They were now to see Him as their Judge. Death was to be 
proclaimed against national and individual crime; and the wild hills, the continual 
thunders, the cloudy throne, and the angelic trumpet, were only accessories to that 
sacred terror, which was to be consummated by the voice of God Himself,, pronouncing 
the principles of moral government for all the generations of man. 
AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEMPLE ON GEBEL GARABE. 
This title has been given, as the one adopted in the country; although there exists some 
doubt of the propriety of its application. 1 A wilder spot cannot be imagined. The ruins 
lie in the Desert, on the summit of a mountain, of no great elevation, but of difficult 
access. These extraordinary relics of an unknown period were discovered by Niebuhr in 
1761; and though often visited since, the inscriptions have defied every attempt made 
to apply to them our growing knowledge of the Egyptian hieroglyphic character. No real 
approach has yet been obtained to the origin, or the purport, of these erections. One of 
the later conjectures is, that it was an ancient place of pilgrimage, and that the upright 
stones covered with inscriptions were votive rather than sepulchral monuments. 2 
The Artist made several exact copies of the inscriptions, but none of them have yet 
been deciphered. “ They lie within a small enclosure on the mountain, 160 feet long by 70 
feet broad. Within this space are about fifteen upright stones, like tombstones, and 
several fallen ones, covered with hieroglyphics, and also the remains of a small Temple, 
whose columns are decorated with the head of Isis for a capital.” The whole summit is 
covered with upright and fallen stones, some of them evidently fragments of structures. 
Several of the stones and the inscriptions are remarkably well preserved; others are worn 
away and decayed. “ What could have been the intent of these temples and memorial 
stones in the midst of solitude and silence, in this lone and distant land with which 
they would seem to have no possible connexion? This is a point wrapped in the 
darkness of time, and which the hand of modern science has not yet unveiled.” 3 
Roberts’s Journal. 
2 Lord Prudhoe. 
3 Bib. Res. i. 116. 
