Milford chronicle., 1892-11-18
THE RAGE FOR GOED.
DR.. TALMAeE FINDS MANY LEssors
IN AARoN's GOLDEN CALF.

first sermon after the national election wa
one peculiarly appropriate to the none
making spirit of the times. It was "Th
Golden Calf, d" the text selected being Exc
dus xxi, 20, "And he took the calf whicl
they had made and burnt it in the fire, an,
ground it to powder and strewed it upol
the water and made the children Of Israe
drink of it."
People will have a god Of some kind, an,
they prefer one Of their own making. Her
come the Israelites, breaking of thei
golden earrings, the men as well as the wo
men, for in those times there were mascu
line as well as feminine decorations. Wherl
did they get these beautiful gold earrings
coming up as they did from the desert
Oh, they borrowed" them from the Egyp
tians when they left Egypt. These ear
rings are piled up into Il pyramid Of gilt
tering beauty. "Any more earrings t
bringSn says Aaron. None. Fire is kin
died, the earrings are melted and poured
into mold, not Of an eagle or a wal
charger, but of a calf; the gold coOls off
the mold is taken away, and the idol is sci
upon its four legs.
An altar is built in front of the shining
calf. Then the people throw up their arm.
and gyrate and Shrek and dance nightly
and worship. Moses has been six week,
on Mount Sinai, and he comes back and
hears the bowling and sees the dancing oi
these golden calf fanatics, and he loses his
patience, and he takes the two plates OF
stone on which were written the Ten Com
mandments and filings them so hard against
a rock that they split all to pieces. When
a 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 it is
melted all out Of shape, and then pulverizes
it--not by the modern appliance of nitro
muriatic acid, but by the ancient appliance
of inter, or by the old fashioned file. He
makes for the people a most nauseatine
draft. He takes this pulverized golden
calf and throws it in 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 all the glittering
stuff thrown on the surface. Some Of il
flows on down the surface of the brook
to the river, and then flows on down the
river to the sea, and the sea takes il
up and bears it to the mouth of all
the rivers, and when the tides set back
the remains of this golden calf are car
ried up into the Hudson, and the East
river, and the Thames, and the Clyde, and
the Tiber, and men go out and they skim
the glittering surface, and they bring it
ashore, and they make another golden calf,
and California and Australia break off
their golden earrings to augment the pile,
and in the fires of financial excitement and
struggle all these things are melted to.
gether, and while we stand looking and
wondering what will come Of it, lol we
lind that the golden calf of Israelitish wor-
ship has become the golden calf of Eu-
rOpean and American worship.
THE MODERN IDoLATRY.
I shall describe to you the god spoken of
in the text, his temple, his altar of sacri-
fee, the music that is made in his temple,
and 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 is not
like other idols, made out of stocks or
stones, but it has an ear so sensitive that
it can hear the whispers on Wall street
and Third street and State street, and
the footballs in the bank of England, and
the hutter 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
charger.
1t is so mighty that it swings any way it
will the worlds shipping. It has its foot
on all the merchantmen and the steamers.
It started the American civil war, and un-
der God stopped it, and it decided the
Turko-Russian contest. One broker in
1869, in New York, shouted,
zone hundred and sixty for a millionw
and the whole continent shiYered. This
golden calf Of the text has its right front
foot in New York, its left front foot in Chi
cago, its right back foot in Charleston, its
left back foot in New Orleans, and when
it shakes itself it shakes the world. Oh,
this is a mighty god-the golden calf of the
worlds wOrshipl
But every god must have its temple,
and this golden calf Of the text is no ex-
ception. It's temple is vaster than ST,
Paul's 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 Hin
docs, aud all the other cathedrals put to-
gether, Its pillars are groOYed and tluted
with gold, and its ribbed arches are hover
ing gold, and its chandeliers are descend
ing 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
standing at the head of the temple, as the
presiding deity, are the hoOfs and shOul-
ders and eyes and ears and nostrils of the
calf Of gold.
THE CRUELTY OF AvARICE.
Further, every god must have not only
its temple, but its altar Of sacrifice and
this golden calf of the text is no exception
Its altar is not made out Of stone, as other
affairs, but out OF counting room desks and
6reproof safes, and it is a broad, a long, "A
high altar. The victims sacrilied on it are
What does this god care
about the gr0ans and struggles Of the vic
Tins before iti With cold metallic eye it
looks on and yet lets them suffer. Oh,
heaven and earth, what an altarl What
a sacrifice Of body, mind aud soull The
physical health of a great multitude is
dung on this sacrifcial altar. They can
not sleep, and they take chloral and NOR
phine and intcxicants.
some uA hiAGAA aNA uHEA1 ~ q AA7HsAAAt-AN
Of stocks, and at one o'clock in the morning
suddenly rise up shouting, "A thousand
shares of railroad stock-pne hundred and
hight and half; take itl' until the whole
family is atfrighted, and the spectators
fall back on their pillows and sleep until
they are awakened again by a "eprneF' or
a sudden ''risen in something else Their
nerves gone, their digestion gone, their
brain gone-they die. The clergyman
comes in and reads the funeral service,
'Rlessed are the dead who die in the
Lord" Mistake They did not die In the
Lordi'--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 a man by
an i'll course is determined to 20 to perdi-
tion, 1 suppose you will have to let him 90;
but epnts his wife aud children In an equi-
page tliat is theamazement Of the avenues,
and the driver lashes the horses into two
and the spokes flash in the
sun, and the golden headgear Of the har-
moss frlanr,,q uufil nlark Calamity takes