The adaptation to accomplish a necessary end is apparent in the scene at Sinai. The Israelites had been accustomed to an idolatry where the most common familiarities were practised with the idol gods. The idea of reverence and majesty which belongs to the character of God had been lost, by attaching the idea of divinity to the objects of sense. It was necessary, therefore, that the idea of God should now be clothed, in their minds, with that reverence and majesty which properly belong to it. The scene at Sinai was adapted to produce, and did produce for the time being, the right impression. The mountain was made to tremble to its base. A cloud of darkness covered its summit, from which the lightnings leaped out and thunders uttered their voices. In the words of a New Testament writer, there was 'blackness, and darkness, and tempest.' It was ordered that neither man nor beast should touch the mountain, lest they should be visited with death. The exhibition in all its forms was adapted to produce that sense of majesty and awe in view of the Divine character which the Israelites needed to feel. To minds subjected to the influence of other circumstances than those which affected the character of the Israelites in Egypt, such manifestations might not be necessary; but in the case of the Jews, accustomed as they had been to witness a besotting familiarity with idols, these manifestations were directly adapted to counteract low views of the Divine character, and to inspire the soul with suitable reverence in view of the infinite majesty and eternal power of the Being with whom they had to do. The testimony of the Bible in relation to the design of the exhibition at Sinai corroborates the views that have been given. 'When the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.'--Ex. xx. 18-20. The scene which occurred afterwards, evinced the necessity of this exhibition, and developed the result of the proof [trial] that was made of their character. In the absence of Moses, they required an image of Jehovah to be made, and they feasted and 'played' (this last word having a licentious import) in its presence. Thus, after trial of the strongest exhibitions upon their mind, some of them proved themselves so incorrigibly attached to licentious idolatry, that they desired to worship Jehovah under the character of the Egyptian calf. They thus proved themselves unfit material, too corrupt for the end in view; and they were, in accordance with the reason of the case, destroyed.