Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-11-14
The cry Of ..s1rer non the mountain

zae cut Of the red scythe of destruction,
viii 20 down. twenty-five thousand
niles Of conhagration! The earth viii
wrap itself round and round in shroud
Of fame and lie down IA perish. What
then viii become of your golden calf
Who then 90 poor as 10 worship IL
Melted or between the upper and the
neither milestone Of falling mountains
ground 70 powder. DagOn down. Mo-
lcch down. Jnggernaut down. Golden
calf down.
BHt, NY friends, every day is a day Of
judgment, and God is all the time
grinding 10 pieces the golden calf.
Merchants OF Brooklyn and New York
and London, what is the characteristic
Of this time in which We live. Bad,
YOU say. professional men, what is
the characteristic of the times in which
We live? Bad" you say. Though /
should be IN minority of one, venture
the opinion that these are the best times
we have had, for the reason that God Is
teaching the world, as never before, that
old fashioned honesty is the only thing
that viii stand. We have learned as
never before that forgeries Will not pay:
that the spending of fifty thousand dol
lars on country seats and a palatial city
residence, when there are only thirty
thousand dollars income, will not pay;
that the appropriation of trust funds to
our own private speculation Will not pay.
We had a great national tumor in the
shape Of fictitious prosperity. We called
il national enlargement. Instead of call
ing it enlargement we might better have
called it a swelling. IL has been a tn
NOR, and God is cutting it out-has cut
it out-and the nation will get we'll and
fathers and grandfathers when twice
three made six instead of sixty, and
when the apples at the bottom of the
barrel were just as good as the apples
on the top of the barrel, and a silk hand
kerchief was not half cotton, and man
who wore a five dollar coat paid for was
more honored than a man who wore a
fifty dollar coat not paid for.
THE RAGE FOR SPECULATION.
The golden calf Of our day, like the
one of the text, is very apt to be made
out of borrowed gold. These Israelites
of the text borrowed the earrings Of the
Egyptians and then melted them into a
god. That is the way the golden calf is
made nowadays. A great many house
keepers, not paying for the articles they
get, borrow of the grocer, and the baker,
and the butcher, and the dry goods seller.
Then the retailer borrows of the whole
sale dealer. Then the wholesale dealer
borrows of the capitalist, and we borrow
and borrow and borrow until the COM
munity is divided into two classes-those
who borrow and those who are borrowed
of. And after awhile the capitalist
wants his money and he rushes upon the
wholesale dealer, and the wholesale
dealer wants his money and he rushes
upon the retailer, and the retailer wants
his money and he rushes upon the con-
sumner, and we all go down together.
There is many man in this day who
rides in carriage and owes the black
smith for the tire, and the wheefwright
for the wheel, and the trimmer for the
curtain, and the driver for unpaid
| wages, and the harness maker for the
| bride, and the furrier for the robe,
while from the tip of the carriage
tongue clear back to the tip of the shawl
| futtering out of the back Of the vehicle
everything is paid for by notes that have
| been three times renewed.
PULvERIZING CALF AND woRsHIPERs.
1t is this temptation to borrow and
borrow and borrow that keeps the peo-
pie everlastingly praying to the golden
calf for help. and just at the minute
they expect the help the golden calf
treads on them. The judgments OF God,
like Moses in the text, will rush in and
break up this worship; and say, lie. the
work go on until every man shall learn
to speak truth with his neighbor, and
those who make engagements shall feel
themselves bound to keep them, and
when a man who will not repent of his
business iniquity, but goes on wishing
10 satiate his cannibal appetite by de-
vouring widows houses. shall by the
law Of the land be compelled to ex-
change his mansion for Sing Sing. Let
the golden calf persist
But, my friends, if we have made this
world our god, when we come to die we
viii see our idol demolished. How much
Of this world are you going to take with
You into the next2 Will you have two
pockets-one in each side of your shroud3
Will you cushion your coffin with bonds
and mortgages and certificates of stock?
All, mol The ferrybost that crosses this
Jordan takes no baggage-nothing heav-
Ter than spirit. You may perhaps take
FIVE hundred dollars with you two or
three miles, in the shape of funeral trap
pings, to Greenwood, but you will have
to leave them there.
II would not be safe for you to lie
down there with gold watch or a dia-
mond ring. 1t would be a temptation
70 the pillagers. All. my friends, if we
have made this world our god, when we
die we wiz see our idol ground TO pieces
by our pillow, and we will have TO drink
it in bitter regrets for the wasted oppor-
tunities of a lifetime. Soon we viii be
gone Oh. this Il a fleeting world: IT is
dying world A man who had wor-
SHIPPED II all bis days. in his dying mo-
ment described himself when be said.
"Fool, fool foolr'
THE NEVER FADING TREASURE.
want you 70 change temples, and 10
give up tie worship OF tais unsatisfying
and cruel god for the service Of the Lord
I u IS