Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-11-18
THE GOLDEN CALF.
DR.. TALMAGE breaches ON
THE MONEY POWER.
The Vengeance of Heaven He Thinks
VIII Smite the Grinding Heel of the
Earth

Money Bags from the Face of the
Earth.
BROOKLYN, Nov. 10, 1892. The sub
Ject of discourse chosen by the Rev.
DIR. Talmage for his first sermon after
the national election was one pecu-
Harlv appropriate to the money making
spirit of the times. 1t was "The Golden
Calf" the text selected being Exodus
1920, And 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 chill
dren of Israel drink of it,"
People will have god of some kind,
and they prefer one of their own maxi
ing. Here come the Israelites, break
ing off their golden earrings, the men
as well as the women, for in those
times there were masculine as we'll as
feminine decorations. Where did they
get these beautiful gold earrings, com
ing mp as they did from the desert?
Oh, they borrowed" them of the
Egyptians when they left Egypt.
These earrings are piled up into
a pyramid Of glittering beauty. "Any
more earrings to bring?" says
Aaron. None. Fire is kindled; the
earrings are melted and poured into a
mold, not of an eagle or a war charger,
but of a 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 gy-
rate, and shrek, and dance nightly,
and worship. Moses has been six
weeks on Mount Sinai, and he comes
back and hears the bowling
and secs the dancing of 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 rock that they split all to
pieces When a man gets mad he is
very apt to break all the Ten Com
mandments! Moses rushes in and he
takes this calf-god and throws ii into a
hot fire, until it is melted all out of
shape, and then pulverizes it-not by
the modern applia nee of nitro-muriatic
acid, but by the ancient appliance of
nitre, or by the old-fashioned file. He
makes for the people a most nauseat-
ing draught He takes this pulverized
golden calf and throws it in the only
brook which is .cessible, and the peo-
pie 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 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 il 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 Tiber, and men 90
out and they skim the glittering sur
face, and they bring it ashore and they
make another golden calf, and Califor-
mia and Australia break off their gold
en- earrings to augment the pile, and
in the fires of financial excitement and
struggle all these things are melted
together. and while we stand looking
and wondering what will come of it,
10! we find that the golden calf of
worship has become the
golden calf of European and American
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 mp
Of the whole congregation of idolaters
Put aside this curtain and you see
the golden calf of modern idolatry. 1T
not like other idols, made out of stocks
Or stone, but it has an ear so sensitive
that it can hear the whispers on Wall
street and Third street and State
street, and tie footballs in the Bank
Of England, and the hutter of a
heart on the Bourse.
It has an eye so keen that it
IAN see the rust on the farm of Michi- |
gan wheat and the insect in the Mary
and peach-orchard, and the trampled |
grain under the hoof of the Russian |
var charger. 1t is SO mighty that it |
swings any way it will the worlds |
shipping. II has its foot on all the !
and the steamers. 1t |
started the American Civil war, and |
inder God stopped it, and it decided |
he TurlSo- Russian contest One broker |
n September, 1860, in New York,
houted: lone hundred and sixty for a |
nillionp and the whole continent |
hivered. This golden calf of the text
has its right front foot in New York,
is left front foot in Chicago, its right
pack foot in Charleston, its left back
DOT in New Orlens, and when it
hakes itself it shakes the world. Oh!
his is a mighty god-the golden calf
# the worlds worship.
But every god must have its temple,
nd this golden calf of the text is no
Exception. Its temple is vaster than
It. Paurs of the English, and st.
'eter's OF the Italians, and the Alham-
IRA of the Spaniards, and the Parthe-
ION of the Greeks, and the Tai Mahal
4 the Hindoos, and all the other
athedrals put together. It's pillars
re grooved and fiuted with gold, and
Is ribbed arches are lowering gold,
"A = n -