Show ORE than 5 years ago there were gathered at the command of moses on the plains 0 assemblage in the valley ot mount all ot the children of israel to listen to the reading of the laws that were revealed to moses during the forty days and forty nights he spent in the midst of a cloud communing with of the chosen people since that momentous and epoch malting event nations have risen to mighty power only to go down to plains have been decay and oblivion and hives of in converted into hives of industry austry have reverted back to plains new lands have been discovered and peopled and new seas have been navigated and charted everywhere progress has changed the physical condition everywhere progress has changed of the people the historical and geographical importance of na eions and countries here alone in the mount valley where the nation that gave us the savior farst sprang into prominence progress has stood still surrounded by the peaks of the forty martyrs all Is bushed and still on the plain where once the hum 0 thousands of voices was beard and where the valley rang with the resounding march of the hosts of israel on the peak of hases has es Satsa feh the cross the symbol of christianity has been planted on the very spot upon which moses the great law giver and leader of the jews stood and gave to his people the ten commandments the basis of all religious beliefs and the foundation of all law moral and civil now and deserted the very lonesomeness of the place Is awe inspiring and the silence of the tomb Is not more impressive than the veil of silence that envelops lias es Safea feb and its surroundings the mount on which god Is said to have revealed himself to moses is situated in the south ern halt of ahe so called peninsula of projecting into the northern extremity of the red sea between the gulf of suez on the west and the gulf of ahabah on the east this park of the peninsula consists of mass of granite and porphyry mountains which may be divided into three groups a northwestern reaching in aebel jebel derbal a height of feet a central include ing aebel jebel musa mount of moses feet and aebel jebel katerin 8 feet and an eastern and southern whose highest peak Is aebel jebel shomer 8 feet whether the was aebel jebel shomer of aebel jebel musa was long disputed by leading authorities the former was advocated by eusebius Euse blus jerome cosmas indico pl eustes and in more modern times by and ebers aebel jebel musa however Is preferred by most authorities and Is favored by tradition which dates however only from christian times indicated by the name mountain of moses and the erection of a monastery upon it which goes back to the days of justinian the northern peak of aebel jebel musa known as has es feet meets the conditions required since there Is an open space at its base sufficient to accommodate a large encampment standing on the lofty summit of mount what thoughts and visions are conjured up as one contemplates that there on the vast plain of assemblage that stretches before the eye hun deeds of feet below fifty centuries ago the corn mand ments were dellvera dell verd to the assembled ahll dren of israel for the mount monastery which from these heights looks like a little toy fort built of blocks the region Is still and hushed and almost deserted the massive walls of the monastery raided by the peace loving and god fearing monks under justinian in A D as a protection the marauding ma bands of bedouins Bedou ins that infested that part of the coun try when afe wealth of an empire was possessed by the builders and occupants of the monastery aro in the bame condition as when built 1 60 years ago today however the christian world keeps a watchful eye over this mountain monas tery and its contents and the knowing athla to be the fact keep on friendly as well aa visiting terms with the monks rn the monastery are stored the priceless books narrating the history of christianity in the tongue of every christian nation slowly the brotherhood of mount monks are dying out there being but twenty or twenty five at the present time the alto and the pay not enough to buy tobacco are not sufficient in du cement for young recruits to join the forces that year by year are nailer in the course of a few eara me of tho monastery will remain but a memory to on ot afra preat nese of its founder justinian looking northwest from aebel jebel bausa to el fl aar S loja the traveler who tor days has been wearied by the sight of nothing else but the monotonous blue of the burning sky and the dreary desert all about him Is exhilarated pleased and rested by the sight of those beautiful cypress trees with their cool dark foliage down in the the arabic name for hollow or valley on can scarcely imagine anything more dreary than ane valley where these trees raise their heads above the rock bound hollow in the desert they stand in all their majesty in the gardens of the monas tery of the monks on at catherine one of the mountains of the range called the forty martyrs and great pride Is taken by these men of god in these trees which for a thousand yeara nave broken the monotony of the desert waste and have cast their welcome shade wherein the weary traveler and the travel stained caravan may rest and take shelter for more than a year the israelites were en camped in the valley of sinai when they again took up their wanderings in search of the prom ased land through asia minor they proceeded to the land of canaan their great leader moses dying as they came in sight of the country which god had promised to abraham isaac and jacob one of the most important places la asia minor on the road from constantinople to conla la the ancient town of adlum whose extraordinary citadel rising SOO feet in its very center was the fortress of Aero enus where in A D the arabs under the leader ship of aldel battel el ghazi were defeated by the turks in its very shadow to get a view of this most picturesque town a climb up the stairway cut in the rock of the citadel brings one to the very summit where there still remain the me turkish fortifications like all other towns in asia minor kara hassar is built of mud bricks its streets run in every direction of the compass although the language spoken there Is turkish there Is a large armenian population it Is as dirty a place as one can imagine overrun with halt starved howling dogs in the day the night is made hideous by their mad attempts to clean up the refuse thrown in the streets it Is a good place to be avoided by the fastidious the town boasts of a fine bazaar churches tor the armer lans and mosques for the turks as well as schools for both classes the armenians Armen ians have made a commendable effort sto make their part of the town inhabitable and sanitary the story of the birth and infancy of the founder and first legislator of the israelite nation is one of the treasured gems of hebrew literature lie was of the tribe of leal and his mother jochebed his father a name waa amram hid him three months in defiance of the edict of who to prevent the growth of his hebrew slave population had ordered all tl belr male children to be put to death at birth As the danger of discovery became great he infant was placed in an ark on the nile was found and adopted by the daughter of pharaoh and waa brought up aa an egyptian prince but bl heart was with hl enslaved brethren and i saif v f v bis slaying 0 one of their oppressors ed bla flight p where he received the divine call to be the deliverer of bla people from egypt after considerable trouble he led them forth crossed the red sea la which the pursuing egyptians were drowned and then during a forty years residence in the desert organized the religious and social polity of the nation moses stands out as a sublime and unique figure without whom neither judaism mohammedanism nor christianity could have been what they are |