The Rock Struck by Moses for Water

The rock which was smitten by Moses, and whence the water afterwards flowed for the relief of the thirsty Israelites under his command, is situated in the desert or wilderness of Sinai. This desert is in the peninsula, made by two branches or bays of the Red Sea, extending into Arabia Petrea. "This is, in truth, a great and terrible wilderness, where there is (little or) no water." The rock, which tradition has pointed out as the one whence the water gushed out, when struck by Moses, and gave relief to the people complaining of their privations and sufferings, and comparing the abundanco [abundance] they had enjoyed in Egypt under bondage, is not far from Sinai or Horeb; but is nearest the latter. It has been somewhat differently described by the numerous travellers [travelers] who have given an account of it. One represents it as six yards square, and another to be fifteen feet long, ten wide, and twelve in height. It appears in a tottering state, and the base is smaller than the body of the rock near the top. It is rough and uneven on the sides, indicating a disrupture [disrupter] from the mountain by some volcanic power or uncommon agitation of the earth.

This event was soon after the publication of the law of Moses from Sinai; and it is represented as miraculous, equally as the passage of the Red Sea, and the supply of quails and manna. There have been attempts by some learned men to show that the extraordinary events connected with the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, and with their journey of forty years in the wilderness, were not miraculous. We do not see, however, but one may as well deny the miracles of Christ, and indeed all miracles whatever. And yet we are not to multiply miracles unnecessarily. The writer of the Psalms has celebrated the occurrence as a miracle; and Moses, who gave an account of it, speaks of it as such. A great question was to be decided before the nations of the earth, at that period, when almost the whole world was given to idolatry; whether the God of Moses, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was the true and only God; and it was therefore a proper occasion for the particular interference of Him who made heaven and earth, and had the control of nature and the elements. The judgments of Pharaoh and his people, and the subsequent protection of the Hebrews, and the giving of the law by Moses, are all the works of Him who created and governs the world, and who (so far as reason or philosophy is able to show) can suspend the laws by which matter is regulated for great moral purposes. Why should it be "thought incredible for God to raise the dead?" He who first made man a living and intellectual being, who formed him with so wonderful a body, and a spiritual property capable of indefinite improvements, "who stamped its lustre [luster] on an insect's wing, and wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds" he surely, can raise the dead to life, he can calm the stormy winds, he can cause the earthquake to engulf the solid land, and the fire of the volcano to overwhelm the fairest cities.