Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-11-18
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject, 1.-THE Golden Calf"

had made and burnt it ia the IRE, and
ground 10 10 polCder and stret0ed u upon
The icoter and mode the children of Israel
drink of IL Exodus xxi, %
People will have God OF some kind, ami
they prefer one of their own making. Here
come the Israelites, breaking off their gold
en- earrings, the men as well as the women.
for in those times tbsre were masculine as
well as feminine decorations. Where did
they get these beautiful gold earrings
coming up as they did from the desert? %,
they BORROWED" them from the Egyptians
when they left Egypt. These earrings are
piled up into pyramid Of gatherings beauty.
HAny more earrings to bring% says Aaron.
None. Fire is kindled, the earrings are
melted and poured into mold, not OF an
eagle or war charger, but OF a cali; tae
gold cools oft, the mold is taken away, and
the idol is set upon its four legs.
An altar is built in front OF the shining
calf Then the people throw up their arms
and eyrste and shrek and dance nightly
and worship. Moses has been six weeks on
Mount Sinai, and he comes back and hears
the bowling AMI sees the dancing OF these
golden calf fanatics and be loses his pa-
thence, and he takes the two plates uf stone
on which were written the Ten Command
ments and filings them so hard against
rock that they split all TO pieces. When
man gets mad he is very apt to break all the
Ten Commandments.
Moses rushes in, and he takes this cali
god and throws it into hot fire until 1t Is
melted all out Of shape, and then pulveriEss
it-nOt by the modern appliance OF nitro
muriatic acid, but by the ancient appliances
of inter, or by the old fashioned file. he
makes for the people most uauseating
draft. He takes this pulverized golden calf
and throws it into the only brook which is
accessible, and the people are compelled to
drink OF that brook or not drink at all. but
they did not drink ell the g,itteriDg stuff
thrown on the surface. Some OF It bows on
down the surface OF the brook to the
river, and then flows on down the river
TO the sea, and the sea takes
up and bears il to the mouth OF all the
rivers, and when the tides set back the re-
mains of this golden calf are carried up into
the Hudson and the East River and the
Thames and the Clyde aud the Tber, and
men 60 out and they skim the glittering sur
face, and they bring il ashore, and they
make another golden calf and California
and Australia break of their golden ear
rings TO augment the pile and in the fires OF
financial excitement aud struggle all these
these things are melted together, and while
we stand looking and wondering what will
come Of II, 10 we find that the golden calf
Vi ASTdcHllSu hoc OcSOnO NhO bN-N~N
calf of European and American worship.
shall describe TO you the god spoken OF
in the text his temple, his altar OF sacrifice,
the music that is made in his temple, AMI
then the final breaking up OF the whole
congregation of idolaters.
Put aside this curtain and you see the
golden calf OF modern idolatry. 1t 10 not
ike other idols, made out OF stocks or
stones. but it has an ear 50 sensitive that 1t
can hear tho whispers on Wall street. AMI
Third street and State street. and the foot
falls in the Bank Of England, and the Hut
ter Of a Frenchman's heart on the bourse.
II has an eye 50 keen that it can see the rust
on the farm OF Michigan wheat and the in-
sect in the Maryland peach orchard, and the
trampled grain under the hoof OF the hlS'
sian war charger.
II is so mighty that it swings any way il
will the world shipping II has its foot on
all the merchantmen and the steamers. IL
started the American civil war, and under
God stopped it, aud 1t decided the Turko-
Russian contest. One broker in September,
1869. IN New York. shouted, Zone hundred
and sixty for million" and the whole con-
tineEt shivered This golden calf OF the text
has its right front foot in New York, its
left front foot In Chicago, its right back 1905
in Charleston, its left back foot IN New Or'
leans, and when it shakes itself it shakes the
world. Oh, this is 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. Paups Of the
English. and ST. Peters of the Italians, and
the Alhambra of the Spaniards, and the
Parthenon Of the Greeks and the Tai Mahal
of the Hindoos, and ell the other cathedrals
put together. Its pillars are groovet and
n ~ u - s-fh hAH ri0hQc
lowering cold. and its chandeliers are de-
scending gold, and its floors are tessellatsd
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 temple, as the
presiding deity, are the hoofs and shoulders
and ewes and ears and noStrils OF the calf OF
gold.
Further, every god must have not only its
temple, but its altar OF sacrihcA ana TINS
golden calf OF the text is no exception. Its
altar Is not made out Of stone, as other al
tars. but out Of counting room desks and
fireproof safes, and it is broad, long, a
high altar. The victims sacrificed on II are
ippumerable. What does this god care about
the groans and struggles OF the victims De-
fore i'll With cold, metallic eye it looas on
and vet lets them suffer. Oh, heaven and
earth. what an altar. What sacrifice oil
body, mind and soul Toe physical health
of a great multitude is flung on this sacri-
fed altar They cannot sleep, and they take
choral and morphine and intoxicants.
Some OF them struggle in nightmare Of
stocks, and at o'clock IN the morning sud
denly rise up shouting: "A thousand shares
OF railroad stock-one hundred and eight
Ill - 4 he rb@t< e. 10
is affrightsd, and the spectators fall back
on their pillows and sleep until they are
awakened again by Il corner or a sudden
rise in something else. Their nerves gons,
their digestion gone, their brain gone-they
die. The clergyman comes 10 and reads the
funeral service: blessed are the dea who
die In the Lord" Mistake They do not
''1ie 10 the Lord"-the golden calf kicked
them
The trouble is whe0 men sacrifice than
selves on this altar suggested in the tex
they not only sacrifice themselves, but they
sacrifice their families. II q man by an Ill
course is determined to 60 to perdition,
suppose you will have to let him go; but be
puts his wife aud children Ia an equp1gs
that Is the Amusement Of the avenues, and
the driver lashes the horses into two whirl-
winds, and the sookes fash In the sun, ant
the golden heaigear OF the harness CLEANS,
until Black Calamity takes the bits OF the
horses and stops them, and shouts to tins
luxurious occupants Of the equipage, Get
outs' They get out. They get down. That
husband and father flung his family 50 hard
they never got up again. There was tls
mark on them for life-the marx OF split
hoof-the death dealing hoof OF the golden
calf.
Solomon offered in one sacrifice on on9
occasion, twenty two thousand oxen and one
hundred and twenty thouSan sheep: but
that was tame sacrifice compared with the
multitude Of men who are sacrificing than
selves on this altar Of the golden calf, aud
sacrificing their families with them. Tne
soldiers OF General Havelock In India
walked literally ankle deep in the blood OF
the "house Of massacre" where two hun
dred women and children hal been slain by
the Sepoys; but the blood around about
this altar Of the golden calf flows up 70 the
knee. flows to the girdle, flows to tine
shoulder, COWS to the lip Great God OF
heaven and earth, have mercy The golden
calf has none.
Still the degrading worship goes on, and
the devotees kneei and kiss the dust, aud
count their golden beads aud cross them
selves with the blood Of their own sacrifice.
The music rolls on under the arches; IL Is
made of ctnking silver and clinking gold
and the rafting specie of the banks AMI
brokers shops aud the voices OF all the ex.
changes The sODraDO OF the worship Is