The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1892-12-30

TIE subject of discourse chosen bv
Rev DIR. Talmage for his first sermon
after the national election was one pe-
culiarly appropriate to the money-mak.
inc spirit of the times. 1t was "Tho
Golden Calf" the text selected being
Exodus 3e:20, And he took the calf
which they had made and burnt it in
the fire, and ground it to powder and
s,rewed 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 ear rings, the men
MS well as the women, for in those
times there were masculine as well as
feminine decorations.
Where did they get these beautiful
gold earrings, coming up 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 liindled: the ear
rings are melted and poured into q
mold, not of an eagle or 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 peo-
pie threw up their arms, and gyrate, and
Shrek, and dance nightly. and wor-
ship. Moses has been six weeks on Mt.
l. 4 L. 4
the bowling, and sees 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
Commandments and filings them so hard
against a rock that they split all to
pieces. When man gets mad he is
very apt TO break all the Ten Command
ments Moses rushes in and he takes
this calf-god and throws it into hot
fire. until it is melted all out of shape,
and then pulverizes it-not by the mod
ern appliance of nitro muriatic acid,
but by the ancient appliance of inter or
by the oldfashioned file. He makes for
the people most nauseating draught
He takes this pulverized golden calf
and throws it in the only brook which
is accessible, and the people are COM
PEELED 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 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
together, and while we stand looking
and wondering what will come OF it,
10! we find that the golden calf Of Is
raclitish worship has become the golden
calf of European and American 'wor-
ship.
! 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 golden calf of modern idolatry. 1t
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 1utter OF
Frcnchman's heart on the bourse. 1t 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 hoot
OF the Russian war charger.
1t is so mighty that it swings any
way it will the worlds shipping. IL
has it's foot on all the merchantmen
and the steamers 1t started the Ameri-
can civil war, and under God stopped
II, and il decided the Turko-Russlan
contest. One broker in September, 1869,
In New York, shouted: zone hundred
and sixty for million" and the whole
continent shivered. The golden calf OF
the text has it's right front foot in New
York, its left front foot in Chicago, It's
right back foot in Charleston, Its lett
back foot in New Orleans, and when IL
shakes itself it shakes the world On!
this is mighty god-the golden cali
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 81
Paurs, of the English, and St Peters.
If the Italians. and the Alhambra' Oh