The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-11-29
tsTaE GOLDEN CALF"
The Bvils of8peculatlon and thu Mania
fer Riches. ~ Described by TalmaEe 1t
the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

The Evils ofspeculaslon and thu Mania
fer Riches, ~ Described by Talmage At
the Rrssksyn Tabernacle.
The following extracts from discourse
of the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, of
Brooklyn, will be read with interest:
Pull aside this curtain and you see the
golden calf of modern idolatry. It is not
like other idols, made ont of stocks or
stone, but 1t has an ear so sensitive that it
can hear the whispers on Wall street and
Third street and State street, and the
footballs of the bank Of England, and the
futter Of a Frenchman's heart on the
Bourse. It has an eye so keen that it
can see the rust on the farm of Michigan
wheat and the insect in the MARYLAND
peach orchard, and the trampled grain
under the hoof of the Russian war-char
ger. 1t is so mighty that it swings any
way it will the worlds shipping. 1t has
its foot on all the merchantmen and the
steamers. It started the American civil
war, and under God stopped it, and it
will decide the Turko- Russian contest.
A broker in September 1865, in Now York,
shouted: "One hundred and sixty for
million" and the whole continent SILVER
ed. This golden calf of the text has it's
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 it
shakes the whole world. Oh! this is a
mighty god-the golden calf of the
Worlds worship.
But every god must have its temple
and this golden calf of the text is no
exception. Its temple is vaster than st.
Paul of the English, and St. Peter of the
Italians, and Alhambra, of the Spaniards,
and the Pantheon of the Greeks, and the
Mahal Tai of the Hindoos. and all the
other cathedrals put together. Its pill
lars are grooved and futed with gold,
and it's ribbed arches are lowering gold,
and its chandeliers are descending gold,
and its floors are tessellated 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 stand
ing at the head of the temple, as the pre-
siding deity, are the hoofs, and shoulders
and eyes and ears and nostrils of the calf
of gold.
Further: every god must have not
only its temple, but its altar Of sacrifice,
and this golen calf of the text is no ex-
ception. Its altar is not made out of
stone as other affairs, but out of counting
room desks and fire-proof safes, and it is
broad, along, high:altar. The victims
sacrificed on it are the Swartouts, and the
&1,nn
and ten thousand other people who are
slain before this golden calf. What does
this god care about the groans and strug-
giles Of the victims before it2 With cold,
metallic eye it looks on and yet lets them
suffer. Oh? heavens and earth, what an
altar! what sacrifice of body, mind, and
soul! The physical health of great multi
tudes is flung on to its sacrifcial altar
They cannot sleep, and they take choral
and morphine and intoxicants. Some of
them struggle in nightmare of stocks,
and at one o'clock in the morning sud
denly rise up shouting: "a thousand
shares Of New York, Central--one hun
dred and eight and a half! take it!''
until the whole family is affrighted, and
they fall back on their pillow and sleep
until they are awakened again by a
"corner" in Pacific Mail, or a sudden
rise" of Rock Island.
Their nerves gone, their digestion gone,
their brain gone, they die. The gowned
ecclesiastic comes in and reads the tuner
al service: BLESSED are the dead who
die in the Lord" They did not Idle in
the Lord" the golden calf kicked them
The trouble is, when men sacrifice them.
selves on this altar suggested in the text,
they not only sacrifice themselves, but
they sacrifice their families. If man
by an i'll course is determined to 20, to
perdition, I suppose you will have to let
him 60; but he puts his wife and children
in an equipage that is the amazement of
the avenues, and the driver lashes. the
horses into two whirlwinds, and the
spokes flash in the sun, and the golden
headgear of the harness CLEANS, until a
black calamity takes the bits of the horses
and stops them, and shouts to the; lux
uriant occupants of the equipsge:: ttGet
outp They get out. They get down.
That husband and father flung his family
20 hard they never got up. There was
the mark on: the family: for ife-the
Il