When the great Moses undertook to initiate the Israelites into the Divine mysteries which had been inaugurated on Mount Sinai, he did not consider them ready to receive the theophany until he had ordained the purification of the people by chastity and the sprinkling of water. But even so they did not brave the manifestation of the Divine Power, but were struck down by all the apparitions, the fire and the darkness, the smoke and the trumpets. So they turned back and asked the Lawgiver to be their mediator of the will of God, seeing that they were not fit by their own power to draw near to God to receive the Divine manifestation. But when our Lawgiver the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing us to Divine grace, he does not show us Mount Sinai covered with darkness and smoking with fire, nor does he strike fear into us by the meaningless sound of trumpets.