Ho Y Mountains Modern Pilgrimages to the Mountains of the Bible
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I w i i e es lin hills from m t . ill l ft up m ne y to the , whence co e h my help Ps ( . 1 21 , H o y M ou nta in s Mo dern Pilgrim ages to the Mountains of the Bible 'etold from the Narrative s of Trave llers and Ezrplore rs by Th. G r a eb n e r C o n c o r d ia S e m in a r y L S t. ouis Mo. Ern Kaufm an - ' st n, New ork — 7 1 1 Spruce Street Pri nted in Germany Ensslin Laiblin , Reutlingen . 1 . Mountains . '” he everlasting hills how calm they rise, Bold witnesses to an Almighty Hand ' z We ga e with longing heart and eager eyes , An d feel as if short pathway might suffice From those pure regions to the heavenly land. w s At early da n, when the first ray of light Play like a rose -wreath on the peaks of snow ; And late when half the valley seems in night, Yet still around each pale majestic height ’ The sun s last smile has left a crimson glow ; i Then the heart longs, it calls for w ngs to fly, ' all to soar Above lower scenes of earth , Where yonder golden clouds arrested lie, Where granite cliffs and glaciers gleam on high ’ As with reflected light from Heaven s own door . i l _Whence th s strange spell, by thoughtful sou s confest Ever in shadow of the mountains found ' ‘ the Tis deep voice within our human breast, Which bids us seek a refuge and a rest t ' Above, beyond what mee s us here around G Ever to men of od the hills were dear, Since on the slopes of Ar arat the dove Plucked the wet b live - pledge of hope and cheer ; r O Israel stood entranced in silent fear, While God on Sinai thundered from above And once on Hermon was a vision given i Subl me as that which Israel feared to view, h u h W en the transfig red Lord of earth and eaven, ’ f e Mortality s dim curtain li t d, riven, Revealed His glory to His chosen few . On mountain heights of Galilee He prayed While others slept, and all beneath was still ; ’ Fr om Olivet s recess of awful shade z Thrice was that agoni ed petition made , “ i 0 that th s cup might pass, if such Thy ' Zic m e And on Mount , in the bett r land, i Past every danger of the pilgr m way, ’ our s At Redeemer feet we hope to stand, And learn the meanings of His g uiding hand ‘ Through all the changes of our earthly day. lm ' Then hail, ca sentinels of heaven, again m ' Proclaim y our essage, as in ages past us l n Tell that pilgrims shal not toil in vai , t ’ S n Tha Zion s mount we urely shall attai , Where all home longings find a home ‘ at last ' M e t a H e u 2 . A rar at. Gen . And the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. a Mount Ar rat. The mountain known to Europeans as Ararat consists of two immens e s h conical elevations (one peak con iderably lower_t an the other) , towering in r massive and majestic grandeur from the valley of the A as, the ancient m i Araxes . S th and Dwight remark that in no part of the world had they seen any mountain whose imposing appearance coul d plead half so power ful ly as this a claim to the honor of having once been the stepping - stone b etween the old world and the new. — 6 a It ppeared, says Ker Porter, as if the hugest mountains of the world had been piled upon each other to form thi s one sublim e im m m s ity k . of earth, and roc s, and snow The icy peaks of its double heads rose majesti z d cally into the clear and cloudless heavens ; the sun bla e bright upon them , Ar k r The on Mount A arat . c zz s . and the refle tion sent forth a da ling radiance equal to other sun My eye, not able to rest for any length of time upon the blinding glory of its summits, w I c wandered do n the apparently interminable sides, till ould no longer trace their vast lines in the mists of the horiz on ; when an irrepressible m e i f i z impulse i mediat ly carrying my eye upward aga n re xed my ga e upon, ” the awful glare of Ararat. To the same effect Morier writes Nothing c an be more beautiful t e . han its shape, more awful than its h ight All the sur rounding mountains ' n I si k into insignificance when compared to it. It S perfect in all its parts ; nn a u 1 8 no hard rugged feature, no u t ral prominences ;everything in harmony, i ” and all combines to render it one of the sublimest objects n nature . Several attempts had been made to reach the top of Ararat, but few ot i persons had g beyond the l mit of perpetual snow . T he honor was reserved n to a Germa , Dr . Parrot, in the employment of Russia, who in his R e i s e “ v s the he m it of t e z u m A r a r a t gi e following particulars T sum . h 0 42 ’ 0 ’ 39 . 61 55 . Great Ararat is in north lat , and east long from Ferro . Its di , perpen cular height is Paris feet above the level of the sea, ‘ n and above the plai of the Araxes . The little Ararat is Paris ” ab ove the the r . and feet r sea, and above plain of the A axes After he s his party had failed in two attempts to ascend, the third was uccessful , on 2 t h 1 829 and the 7 of Septem ber, , they stood on the summit of Mount It A . 200 rarat was a slightly convex, almost circular platform, about feet b a in diameter, composed of eternal ice, unbroken y rock or stone ; on c f c un o Ould . a co t the great distances, nothing be seen distinctly Parrot describes the secondary summit about 400 yards di stant from the highest w m he point, and on the gentle depression hich connects the two e inences surmises that the ark rested. The n region immediately below the limits of perpetual snow is barre , and r unvisited by beast or bird. Wagne describes the silence and solitude a . A r uri th t reign there as quite overpowering g , the only village known i to have been built on its slopes , was the spot where , according to tradit on, ln x h Noah planted his vineyard. Lower down , the plain of Ara es, is Nak c hevan n . , where the patriarch is reputed to have bee buried “ 3 . S inai. s 24 1 6. n n . Exodu , And the glory of the Lord abode upo mou t Sinai A strong East wind had miraculously parted the waters of the Red l n nei hboorhood e Sea the g of what is now Suez , the Israelit s had gone u r through on dry gro nd, and the waters retu ning to their level had destroyed ' the army of Pharaoh . The limits of the Red Sea have changed somewhat e a a of since those days , but there can be no qu stion as to the gener l tr ck the ’ Israelites after the passage . They continued in the road of all travelers he r . between the Sea and the table land of t Wilderness , in a southern di ection ' A t Onward they marched to the southern point of the Sinai peninsula. its “ two lower tip there are great clusters of mountains, one of which, the Serbal, is very probably the one referred to at various times in the bobk of Exodus ” God . a l as The Mount of The entire elevation of l nd was cal ed Horeb . ' - n- Here Moses had kept the flock of Jethr o his father i law . In one of the ravines at the foot of this mount the Children of Israel now pitched their t e te n s, and here the Amalekit s were defeated by Israel while Aaron and H ur held up the hands of Moses . Dean Stanley visited Mount Serbal in 1 853 and describes it as follows “ n as s It is o e of the finest forms I have ever seen . It is a v t ma s of d r peaks, which , in most points of view, may be reduce to five, the numbe e e . adopt d by the B duins These five peaks, all of granite , rise so precipit ous l - the m the y, so column like , from broken ground which for s the root of ‘ u God ee f d Feir an Gebel Serbal, the Mo nt of , s n rom Wa y . n t i to e . t are i de mou tain, . as a f rst sight appear inacc ssible But hey d vi d e i w a . U by st ep ravines, f lled ith fragments of fallen g r nite p the central ‘ ’ ravine, Wady Abou Hamad ( valley of the father of wild figs , so called - - a m e .