Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-11-03
"THE GOLDEN CALF"

"THE GOLDEN CALF"
r. The Evils ar Speculation and the Manin 4
Riches. a. Described by Taimaae ut Il
Brooklyn Tabernacle.
q The following extracts from di
n course of the Rev. r. De Witt Talmag
y of Brooklyn, will be read with interest
Pull aside this curtain and yo
d see the golden calf of modern idolatr,
o 1t is not like other idols, made out {
y stocks or stone, but it has an ear SO SCI
3 sitive that it con hear the whispers O
F, Wall street and Third street and Stat
. street, and the footballs Of the Bank c
England, and the futter OF French
mans heart on the Bourso. It has o.
eye 30 keen that it can see the rust o.
on the farm of Michigan wheat and til
insect in the Maryland peach.orchard
and the trampled grain under the hoo
of the Russian war-charger. 1t is s.
mighty that it swings any way it vii
the worlds shipping. 1t has its foot OF
all the merchantmen and the steamers
1t started the American civil war, anG
under God stopped it, and it will decid,
the Turko- Russian contest. One broke
in September. 1869, in New York
shouted "One hundred and sixty fol
a million |" and the whole continent
shivered. This golden calf of the text hss
its right front foot in New York, its left
front foot in Chicago, its right back foot
in Charleston, its left back foot in New
Orleans, and when it shakes itself il
shakes the world. Oh this is mighty
god-the golden calf of the world q
worship.
But every god must have it's temple.
and this golden calf OF the text is no OK
ception. Its temple is vaster than St.
Paul of the English. and st. Peter of
the Italians, and Alhambra of the Span
iards, and the Parthenon of the Greeks.
and the Mahal Tai of the Hindoos, and
all the other cathedrals put together.
Its pillars are grooved and futed with
gold, and its ribbed arches are lowering
gold, and it's chandeliers are descending
gold, and its floors are tesselated gold,
and its vaults are crowded heaps of gold.
and its spires and domes are soaring
gold, and its organ pipes are resounding
gold, and its pedals are tramping gold,
and its stops pulled out are flashing gold,
while standing at the head of the tenn
pie, as the presiding deity, are the hoofs
and shoulders and eyes aud ears and
nostrils of the calf Of gold.
Further: every god must have not
only its temple, but its altar of sacrifice,
and this golden calf of the text is no ex-
ception. Its altar is not made out of
stone as other affairs, but out of count
ing-room desks and fire-proof safes, and
it is broad, long, high altar. The
victims sacrificed on it are the Swartouts.
and the Ketchams, and the Fisks, and
tAAff tAAff TWffas odaeRsa daeRsat atnts god }caRs Rb6dt tfs
groans and struggles of the victims be-
fore it? With cold, metallic eye it looks
on and yet lets them suffer. Oh
heavens and earth, what an altar what
a sacrifice of body, mind, and soul The
physical health Of great multitude is
flung on to this sacriicial altar. They
cannot sleep, and they take chloral and
and intoxicants. Some of
them struggle in nightmare of stocks,
and at one o'clock i'll the morning sud-
denly rise up shouting: GA thousand
shares of New York Central-one hun
dred and eight and half! take it"
until the whole family is affrighted, and
they fall back on their pillow and sleep
until they are awakened again by q
" corner in Pacific Mail, or sudden
/" rise" of Rock Island. Their nerves
gone, their digestion gone, their brain
gone, they die. The gowned ecclesiastic
comes in and reads the funeral service
60 Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord" Mistake. They did not "die
in the Lord;" the golden calf kicked
them! The trouble is, when men sacri-
fee themselves on this altar suggested
in the text. they not only sacrifice them
selves, but they sacrifice their families.
If man by an i'll course is determined
10 go to perdition, I suppose you will
have to let him go; but he puts his wife
and children in an equipage that is the
of the avenues, and the
lriver lashes the horses into two whirl-
winds, and the spokes flash in the sun,
and the golden headgear of the harness
CLEANS, until black calamity takes the
bits of the horses and stops them, and
shouts to the luxuriant occupants of the
squipage: sect out!" They get out.
They get down. That husband and
ather flung his family so hard they
never got up. There was the mark on
hem for life-the mark of split hoof--
he death dealing hoof of the golden
,alf.
Solomon offered in one sacrifice, on one
occasion, twenty-five thousand oxen and
me hundred and twenty thousand sheep;
,ut that was a tame sacrifice compared
With the multitude of men who are sacri-
icing themselves on this altar of the
,olden calf, and sacrificing their families
With them. The soldiers of General Have
ock in India walked literally ankle deep
N the blood of ''the house of massacre"
yhere two hundred women and children
lad been slain by the Sepoys; but the
blood around about this altar of the
,olden calf flows up to the knee, flows to
he girdle, flows to the shoulder, flows
o the lip. Great Col of heaven and
,arth have mercy The golden calf has
zone.
Still the degrading worship goes on,
nd the devotees kneel and kiss the dust,
nd count their golden beads, and CROSS
themselves with the blood of their own
acrifice. The music rolls on under the
riches it is made of clinking silver and
.linking gold, and the rattling specie of
he banks and brokers' shops, and the