QUESTIONS.
1. Where had the children of Israel come from? 2. Who was leading them? 3. Where did God tell Moses to take them? 4. What wonderful sight did they see on Mount Sinai? 5. What did they hear? 6. Who spoke out of the cloud? 7. What did God speak? 8. How many Commandments? 9. Tell me the first of them. 10. On what did God write them? 11. To whom did He give them? 12. When do you say them? 13. When did you promise to keep them? 14. What is keeping the Commandments? 15. How can you be helped to do as they tell you? 16. How must you ask for God's help?
SECOND READING.
"The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of fire."—Deuteronomy 5:4.
WHEN the lightning and thunder and the loud voice of the trumpet came forth from the cloud on Mount Sinai, and God had spoken the Ten Commandments, He called to Moses to come up and speak with Him in the cloud. How wonderful it must have been! Moses was the only man that ever spoke so near to God.
God gave him two blocks of stone written with the Ten Commandments, written with God's own Finger. Then God told him to make a chest to keep them in. It was to be made of wood, with gold all over it; and two figures of cherubims were to be one on each side. This chest was to be called the Ark of the Covenant. And it was to be put into a square room, inside a tent, that was to be made with curtains, and carried about with the Israelites. It was to be called the Tabernacle. And this was to be a very holy place.
The children of Israel would say their prayers in front of the Tabernacle; but they were not to go into the place where the Ark was, because they were sinful, and God is holy. That place was to be called the Holy of Holies, and no one might go near it but the Priests whom God chose, and set apart to lead His worship.
The first High Priest was to be Moses' brother Aaron; and he was to wear a beautiful dress when he ministered before God—a high cap with "Holiness to the Lord" on it, a long embroidered robe, edged with gold bells and pomegranates, and a blue scarf crossed over her breast; and in the middle a breast-plate, made of twelve precious stones, each carved with the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, so that he might have them on his heart as he prayed to God. All this and much more God told Moses while he was on the mount.