The Portland daily press., 1892-11-19
Juggernautdown. Golden

But, my friends, every day is a day OF
Judgment, and God is all the time grind
ing to pieces the golden calf. Merchants
Of Brooklyn and New York and Lon
don, what is the characteristic of this
time in which we live? Bad you say
Professional men, what is the charac-
teristic of the times in which we live?
'Bad,' you say. Though l should be
in minority of one, venture the opin-
ion 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 will stand. We have learned
as never before that forgeries will not
pay; that the spending of fifty thousand
dollars on country seats and palatlal
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
turnor, in the shape of fictitious pros
perity. We call it national enlarge
ment; instead of calling it enlargement,
we might better have called 1t swell
ing. 1t has been tumor, and God is
cutting-has cut it out and the nation
will get well and will come back to the
principles OF our fathers and grand
fathers when twice three made six in
stead 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 silk handkerchief was not
half cotton, and a man who wore tiye-
dollar coat paid for was more honored
than man who wore a fifty-dollar coat
not paid for.
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 earnings OF
the Egyptians and then melted them
into god. That is the way the golden
calf is made nowadays. A great many
housekeepers, not paying for the arti.
cles they get, borrow of the grocer and
the baker and the butcher and the dry
goods seller. Then the retailer borrows
of the wholesale dealer. Then the
wholesale dealer borrows of the CAPT
talist, and we borrow, and borrow, and
borrow until the community is divided
into two classes, those who borrow and
those who are borrowed of; and after
while the capitalist wants his money,
and he rushes upon the wholesale
dealer, and the wholesale dealer wants
his money and he rushes upon the re-
taller, and the retailer wants his money
and he rushes upon the consumer, and
we all go down together. There is
many man in this day who rides in q
carriage and owes the blacksmith for
the tire, and the wheelwright for the
wheel, and the trimmer for the curtain,
and the driver for unpaid wages and
the harnessmaler 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.
1t is this temptation to borrow, and
borrow and borrow that keeps the peo-
pile 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 1 say, let
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 man who will not repent OF
his business iniquity but goes on wish
ing to satiate his cannibal appetite by
devouring widows houses, shall by the
law of the land be compelled to ex-
change his mansion for Sing Sing. Let
the golden calf perish.
But, my friends, if we have made
this world our god, when we come to
die we will see our idol demolished.
How much of this world are you going
to take with you into the next? Will
you have two pockets, one in each side
of your shroud? Will you cushion your
coffin with bonds and mortgages and
certificates of stock? All! no. The
ferry boat which crosses this Jordan
takes no baggage-nothing heavier
than a spirit. You may, perhaps, take
$500 with you two or three miles, in
the shape of funeral trappings, to Green
wood, but you will have to leave them
there. 1t would not be safe for you to
lie down there with gold watch or a
diamond ring; it would be temptation
to the pillagers. All, my friends! if we
have made this world our god, when we
die we will see our idol ground to
pieces by our pillow, and we will have
to drink it in bitter regrets for the
wasted opportunities of a lifetime. Soon
we will be gone. Oh! this is a fieeting
world, it is dying world. A man who
had worshiped it all his days, in his dy-
ing moment described himself when he
said ''Fooll fooll fool!'
want you to change temples, and to
give up the worship of this unsatisfying
and cruel god for the service of the
| Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the gold
| that will never crumble. Here are Sc
curities that will never fail Hero are
| banks that will never break. Here is
| an altar on which there has been one
| sacrifice once for all. Here is a God who
will comfort you when you are in
trouble and soothe you when you are
sick, and save you when you die. When
your parents have breathed their last,
| apd the old wrinkled and trem.