The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-14
.EGYPT'S GOLDEN CALF.
TIE MODERN WORSHIP OF GOLD
JUST AS FANATICAL.

Modern Calf Shakes Itself-Humsu
Beings the Sacrifice offered on Its
Altar-The Worship as Carried on
In the Stock Exchange.
BROOKLYN, Nov. 13.-The subject Of dis
course chosen by Rev. DR.. Talmags for his
first sermon after the national election, was
one peculiarly appropriate to the money
making spirit of the times. Ii was the
1.-THE Golden Calf, the text selected being
Exodus xxi, 20. Aud he took the calf
which they had made and burnt it in the
fire, and ground it to powder and strewed il
upon the water and made the children OF
Israel drink of it"
People viii have god Of some kind, and
they prefer one of their own making. Here
come the lsraeltes, breaking off their
golden earrings, the men as well as the wo-
men, for in those times there were mascu-
line as we'll as feminine decorations. Where
did they get these beautiful gold earrings,
coming up as they did from the desertt Q,
shey borrowed them of the Egyptians
when they left Egypt. These earrings are
piled up into a pyramid of glltterlng beauty.
ANY more earrings TO brinEF says Aaron.
None Fire is kindled. the earrings
are melted and poured into q mold, not
of an eagle or a war charger, but of
calf; the gold cools off 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 gyrate, and shrek, and
dance nightly, and worship. Moses has
been six weeks on Mount Sinai, and he
comes back and hears the bowling and sees
the dancing OF these golden calf fanatics,
aud be loses his patience, and be takes the
two plates of stone on which were written
the Ten Commandments 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 aud he takes
this calf-god and throws into a
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 most nsuseating draught. He takes
this pulYeriEed 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 sur
face. Some OF it 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
it up and bears it to the mouth of all the
rivers, and when the tides set back,
the remains Of this golden calf are
carried up into the Hudson, and the East
river, and the Thames, and the Clyde. and
the 1lOer, 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 together,
and while we stand woking and wondering
what will come OF it, lol we find that the
OnldaD palf 0f ICraalifieh haa 10
come the golden 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, and
then the final breaking up of the whole cons
gregation OF idolaters.
Put aside this cur ain and you see the
golden calf of modern idolatry. 1t is not
Ike other idols, made OUT of stocks or stone,
but it has an ear so sensitive that it can
hear the whispers on Wall street ana Third
street and State street, and the footballs in
the Bank of England, and the futter of a
Frenchmau's heart on the bourse 1t has an
eye 50 keen that it can see the rust
on sthe 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. 1t he's its foot on
ali the merchantmen aud the steamers 1t
started the American civil war, and under
God stopped 1t, and it decided the Turko-
Russian contest. One broker in September
1863, In New York, shouted: Zone hun
dred and sixty for a mill1on!n and the
whole continent shivered. This golden calf
OF the text has its right front foot in New
York, it's left front foot in Chicago, Its right
back foot in Charleston, its left back foot IN
New Orleans, and when it shakes itself il
knlm- + -
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. Paulis of the
English, and st. Peters of the Italians. and
the Alhambra of the Spaniards, and tbs
Parthenon of the Greeks. and the Tai Mahal
of the Hindoos, and all the other cathedrals
put together. Its pillars are grooved and
f1uted with gold, and it's ribbed arches are
lowering gold, and its chandeliers are
descending gold, and its floors are tesselated
gold, and its vaults are crowded heaps OF
gold, aud its spires and domes are soaring
gold, and its organ pipes are resoundine
gold, and it's 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 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
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 fire.
proof safes, and it is broad, along, a high
altar. The victims sacrificed on it are in
Vulnerable. What does this god care about
the groans and struggles OF the victims be-
fore it, With cold, metallic eve it looks on
and yet lets them suffer. O! heaven and
earth, what an altar What a sacrifice of
body, mind and soul The physical health
OF great multitude is flung on this sacri-
fetal altar. They cannot sleep. and
they take choral and morphine
and intoxicants. Some of them
struggle in nightmare of stocks, aud at
one O'Clock in the morning suddenly rise up
shouting: "a thousand shares of railroad
stock-one hundred and eight and half take
1t" until the whole family is affrighted. and
the spectators fall back on their pillows
ana sleep until they are awakened again by
''corner" or a sudden rise" in some
thing else. Their nerves gone, their diges-
ton gone, their brain gone, they die. The
clergyman comes in and reads the funeral
service: blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord" Mistake. They did not Idle in
the LORD; the golden calf kicked them
The trouble Is, when men sacrifice them
Eelves 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 perdition I