Like Elijah at Horeb’s cave alone;
And a gentle voice comes through the wild,
Like a father consoling his fretful child,
That banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear,
Saying, ‘Man is distant, but God is near.’”
Among all the attendants who had accompanied Saulus to Damascus, but one remained faithful to him. Some of them thought him suddenly mad, and others were minded to take him back to Jerusalem under arrest. Their counsels were confused and came to naught. But Amoz, the companion of his former disturbed nights in the Holy City, though having but little appreciation of his great change, remained personally loyal, and was willing to go with him for a time, even in the wilderness. He sympathized with his infirmities, and was tender in ministration.
It was well along in the afternoon, after the midday rest, during the terrible heat of the desert air, that the two travellers started on the last stage of their wearisome journey. A great arid sand-waste stretched away on both sides of the narrow trail, with here and there a few hardy shrubs and wiry yellow grasses which were [pg 265]stirred by the fitful summer air. As they advanced towards the foothills of the mountain range, the landscape became more broken by the numerous wadies which were worn by the torrential mountain streams of the rainy season, and there was an increased luxuriance of vegetation.
The Sinaitic peninsula is interesting both on account of its topographical peculiarities, and historically in its association with the giving of the Law, and other events which are recorded of the wanderings of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness. Between the gulfs of Suez and Akaba, this bold mass of mountains, lying south of the great desert of Ettyh Paran, projects itself well into the Red Sea.
It was thoroughly apart from all the world’s highways, cities, and towns—a veritable corner of the earth, surrounded by sea and desert. Its lofty reddish-brown frowning peaks looked down upon a vast solitude. They were generally precipitous, having many fissures, hollows and caves around their bases, forming a shelter from the heat of the sun, and convenient even for dwelling-places most of the year. Amid these mountains, hermits anchorites and pilgrims found a lonely resort fitted to their desires.
As the travellers went on, the ground was more broken, the valleys deeper, and the tangled reeds and grasses greener and more varied. The trail led into a wide, shallow wady, the bed of which was still soft from recent rains, and as they toiled along the slow ascent the verdure thickened. An occasional oleander in bloom, tangles of climbing vines, scattered mulberry-trees, with [pg 266]here and there a palm, now gladdened their sight, in marked contrast to the barren wilderness which they had left behind. They soon found themselves among low bluffs and cliffs, with here and there a tiny stream of clear water springing from the cracks of the fissured rocks.