The Portland daily press., 1892-11-19
1.-THE GOLDEN CALF"
The Subject Of a Sermon by Rev.
7. Dewitt Talmage, D. D.
How Men Sacrifice Themselves and Their
Families in Their Greed for Wealth
The Great Temple and Altar OF
the Golden Calf of Mod
ern Idolatry.

Rev. DIR. IalmaBeS nrSb Seriuou dieoi
the national election was upon sub
ject peculiarly appropriate to the
money making spirit of the times 1t
was s9The Golden Calf" the text Sc
lected being Exodus xxi, %:
And he took the calf which they had made
and burnt it in the fire, and ground 1t to powder
and strewcd it upon the water and made the
children of Israel drink Of it.
People will have a god of some kind,
and they prefer one of their own MAX
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 well as ferni-
nine decorations. Where did they get
get these beautiful gold earrings COM
ing up as they did from the desert? o.
they borrowed" them of the Egyptians
when they left Egypt. These earrings
are piled up into pyramid of glitter
ing beauty. "Any more earrings tc
bring?" says Aaron. None. Fire is
kindled; the earrings are melted and
pured into mold, not of an eagle or
war charger, but of calf; the gold
cools off; the mold is taken away, and
the idol is set up on 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 goleden-calf fanatics,
and he loses his patience and he takes
the two plates of stone on which were
written the Ten Commandments and
filings them so hard against rock that
they split all to pieces. When mar
gets mad he is very apt to break all the
Ten Commandments! Moses rushes In
and he takes this calf-god and throws it
into a hot fire, until it is melted all out
of shape, and then pulverizes it-not by
the modern appliances of nitro-muriatic
acid, but by ancient appliance OF
nitro, or by the old-fasional file He
makes for the people most nauseating
draught. He takes this pulverized gold
en- 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 sur
face 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
tide sets back, the remains OF this gold
en- calf are carried 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 sur
face, and they bring it ashore and they
make another golden calf, and Califor-
MIA and Australia break off their golden
earrings to augment the pile, and in the
fires of financial exciteme tent and strug.
gle all these things are melted together.
and while we stand looking and won
dering what will come of it, 10! we find
that the golden calf of Israelitish wor-
ship has become the golden calf of Eu
ropean and American worship.
I 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 congregation of idolaters
Put aside this curtain and you see the
KOlucu Ct1ll Vi 4AOaOlh 1OO1db At Is
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 the footballs in the Bank of
England, and the futter of a French
mans heart on the bourse. 1t has an
eve SO 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 boot
of the Russian war charger. 1t is SO
mighty that it swings any way it will
the worlds shipping. 1t has its foot on
all the merchantmen and the steamers.
1t started the American civil war, and
under God stopped it, and it decided
the Turko-Russian contest. One broker
in September, 1869, in New York,
shouted: zone hundred and sixty for
a million!' and the whole continent
shivered. This golden calf of the text
has its right front foot in New York, its
left front foot in Chicago, it's right
back foot in Charleston, its left back
foot in New Orleans. and when it
shakes itself it shakes the w orld- 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 nc
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 all other cathedrals put
together. It's pillars are grooved and
fiuted with gold and it's ri bbed arches
are lowering gold, and its chandeliers
are descending gold, and its floors are
tesselated gold, and its vaults are
crowded heaps of gold, and its spires
and domes are soaring gold, and its or
gan 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 eyes and ears and nostrils
of the calf of gold.
Further: Every god must have moi
only it's temple, but its altar of sacrifice,
and this golden calf of the text is noex-
ception. Its altar is not made out Of