Before this time these people had no books to read. God's Word and His law had been told from father to son, and so remembered. But during the slavery in Egypt this instruction had been forgotten by many, until they had become like the heathen around them. During their journey God had spoken to Israel only through Moses. But at this time all the people were called together, and God spoke His law to them with His own voice. The scene which the people saw was terribly grand. There was a thick cloud on the mount, and amidst it were thunderings and lightnings. The whole mountain was shaken with an earthquake. There was a loud blast of a trumpet from the mount, "so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." Then God spake His law to the people,--the ten commandments recorded in Exodus 20:3-17. The children of Israel were always to remember this scene. It was to impress upon their minds the greatness and power of God, the importance of His law, and the necessity of obeying it. Moses was called up into the very presence of God, on the top of the mountain. Here God gave him two tables of stone on which He had written with His finger the same ten commandments that He had spoken in the hearing of all Israel. God's law is as enduring as the stone on which it was written. These two tables are called "the tables of the covenant." Deuteronomy 9:11. The ten commandments are called God's covenant with His people. "And He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." Exodus 34:28. David said that His covenant, or law, was "commanded to _a thousand generations_." Psalms 105:8. It will _continue forever_. Christ Himself said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." Matthew 5:17, 18. Again He said, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least (or, of no account) in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:19. The Apostle James said, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10. Keeping nine of the commandments will not save us. If we break _one_ commandment, the law will condemn us as surely as if we broke all the ten. Man can not change _one single commandment_ of God's law. If he tries to do so, it is then only a commandment of men. The worship of those who make or keep such commandments is useless, for God will not accept it. Christ said of those who do so, "But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:9. The only safe course is to take God's law _just as He gave it_ on Sinai, and obey it _as_ He gave it. Of those who will be alive when Christ comes it is written, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God." Revelation 14:12.