The northern brow of Horeb, which overlooks the plain er-Rahah, rises perhaps 500 feet above the basin. The distance to the summit is more than half a mile. The extreme difficulty, and even danger of the ascent is well rewarded, by the prospect which is spread out from the top.

'Our conviction,' continues Dr. Robinson, 'was strengthened, that here, or on some one of the adjacent cliffs, was the spot where 'the Lord descended in fire,' and proclaimed the Law. Here lay the plain where the whole congregation might be assembled; here was the mount which one could approach and touch, if not forbidden; and here the mountain-brow, where alone the lightnings and the thick clouds would be visible, and the thunders and the voice of the trumpet be heard, when ‘the Lord came down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.’ We gave ourselves up to to the impression of the awful scene.”’—Rev. Dr. Robinson.

You may expect after September, a great ingathering of the Saints from this land—things are in a dreadful condition here, and the desire of the Saints to escape is quite unexampled. I rejoice to say that many excellent and respectable individuals have been added to the of late, and many are enquiring.

and family talk of leaving in January, and of being in by the first of March.

We are very short of news from ; we have received nothing save the “Times and Seasons” dated Feb. 15.

Not a single philosopher had any idea of a God of such an exalted character, as to be the agent in the construction of the Universe, till ANAXAGORAS, the disciple of Hermotimus. This philosopher came to Athens in the year 456 before Christ, and first taught, that the world was organized or constructed by some mind or mental being, out of matter, which this philosoper supposed, had always existed. Socrates, Plato, and others adopted, illustrated, and adorned this opinion.

Aristotle, on the contrary, supposed the world to have existed in its organized form eternally, and that the supreme being, who was coexistent, merely put in motion.

The Epicureans believed a fortuitous concurrence of atoms to have been the origin of all things. Many were atheists; and were sceptics, who doubted and assailed every system of opinions.

Those, who maintained the existence of a framer or architect of the world, (for no one believed in a creator of it,) held also to an animating principle in matter, which originated from the supreme architect, and which animated, and regulated the material system.

Things of minor consequence, especially those, which touched the destiny of man, were referred by all classes, to the government of the gods, who were accordingly the objects of worship, and not the supreme architect. Paul gives a sufficiently favorable representation of this defective knowledge of God, Rom. 1: 19–24. After all, it may be made an inquiry, whether Anaxagoras or Hermotimus had not learnt some things respecting the God of the Jews from the Jews, who were sold as slaves by the Phoenicians into Greece, Joel 3: 6, or from the Phoenicians themselves, who traded in Ionia and Greece, and whether these philosophers did not thus acquire that knowledge, which was thought to have originated with themselves. Perhaps they derived their notions of an eternal architect from the doctrines of the Persians respecting Hazaruam or the endless succession of time, and Ormuz. However this may be, we observe on this topic,

I. That the Hebrews remained firm to their religion before their acquaintance [p. 918]