Mount Sinai

FROM Sinai’s top the lightnings flashed;

The thunders rolled around—around—

As if the heavenly orbs had clashed

Together with destructive bound,

And down their shattered fragments hurled

Upon a desolated world.

And on the mount there hung a cloud,

Dark as the midnight’s darkest gloom;

And blew a trumpet long and loud,

Like that which shall wake the tomb.

And terror like a sudden frost

Fell on the Israelitish host.

In radiant fire the mighty God

Descended from the heavenly throne;

And on the mountains where He trod,

A pavement as of sapphire stone

Appeared like glittering stars of even

When storms have left the deep-blue heaven.

And as the wondering people turned

To see the glory of the Lord,

The smoke—as if a furnace burned

Within the mountain, swelled and roared,

And all its lofty summits shook

Like sedge leaves by the summer brook.

And Moses from the trembling crowd

Went up to God’s dark secret place

And heard from the surrounding cloud

His message to the Hebrew race,

Who vowed with fervor and accord

To keep the covenant of the Lord.

For they had marked the trump that blew

The fires that gleamed, the peals that roared—

In shadowed glory shine to view

The presence of the eternal Lord,

Bright as His mercy chose to give,

For none can see His face and live.