The Opelousas courier., 1893-04-08
REV. DR.. TALMAGk
THE BROOKLYN DIVlNE's SUN
IA SERMON.

TEXT: "And he took the aft phich theu
hod made and burnt it in the fire. and
ground it to poUder and strewed it upon
me wdter and made the children of Israel
drink OF at."-Exodus xxi, 30.
People will have a God of some kind. and
they prefer one of their own making. Here
come the lsraelites, breaking off their gold
en- earrings, the men as we'll as the women,
Tor In those times there were masculine as
We'll as feminine decorations. Where did
they. get these beautiful gold earrings,
coming up as they did from the desert? Oh,
they borrowed them from the Egyptians
when they left Egypt. These earrings are
Piled up into a pyramid of gatherings 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 moli 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, and he loses his pa
thence, and he takes the two plates If stone
on which were written the Ten Comm and
ments 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
len commandments.
Moses PUSHES in, and be takes this calf
goo and throws it into a hot fire until it is
melted all out of shape, and then pulverizes
1t-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 nauseating
draft: He takes this pulverized golden calf
and throws it into the only brook which is
accessible, and the people are compelled to
| drink of that hrnOfy nr not 1piny of oil R7rt
they did not drink all the giittering 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 it to the mouth of all the
rivers, and when the tides set back the re-
mains of this golden calf are carried up into
the Hudson and the East River. and the
Thames and the Clyde and the Iiber, and
men 60 out and they skim the glittering sur
face, and they bring it ashore, and they
make another golden calf, and California
and Australia break OFF their golden ear
rings to augment the pile, and in the fires of
hnanciaN Pxcitement aud struggle ali these
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 1sraelitish worship has become the golden
calf of European and American worship.
| shall describe to you the god spoken of
in the text, bis 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
stones, but it has al ear SO sensitive that it
can hear the whispers on Wall street and
Third street and State street, and the foot
falls in the Bank of England, and the hut-
ter eff F~renchman'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 in
sect in the Marylans peach orchard, and the
trampled grain under the hoof of the Rus
sian 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 "ivil war, and under
Goo stopped it, and it decided the Turko-
Russian contest. One broker in September,
1869, in New York, shouted, zone hundred
and sixty for a millionW and the whole con-
tinent shivered. This golden calf of the text
has its right front foot in New York. its
left front foot in Chicago, its right back foot
in Charleston, its left back foot in New Or
leans, and when it shakes itself it shakes the
world. Oh, this is a mighty god-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. Paurs 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 the other cathedrals
put together. Its pillars are grooved and
futed with gold, and its ribbed riches are
lowering gold, and its chandeliers are de.
scending gold, and it's floors are tessellated
gold, and it's 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 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. lt
altar is not made out of stone, as other al
tars, but out Of counting room desks and
freproof safes, and it is a broad, a long, &
high altar. The victims sacrificed on 1t are
innumerable. What does this god care about
She groaDs and struggles of the victims be-
fore It'll With cold, metallic eye it looks on
and yet let's them suffer. Oh, heaven and
earth. what an atari What a sacrifice o.
body, mind and soul! The physical health
feed altar. They canno sleep, and they take
Choral and morphine and intoxicants.
Some of them struggle in a nightmare of
stocks, and at l O'Clock in the morning sud-
denly rise up shouting: ga thousand shares
of railroad stock-one hundred and eight
and a hall, take itF' until the whole family
is afrightsd, and the spectators fall back
on their pillows and sleep until they are
awakened again by a corner" or a sudden
"rise" in something else. Their nerves gone,
their digestion 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 do not
"Jie in the Lord"-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. It a nan by an ILL
course is determined to go to perdition, I
suppose you will have to let him go; but he
puts his wife and children in ar equipage
that is the amazement of the avenues, aud
the driver lashes the horses into two whirl-
winds, and the spokes fash in the sun, and
the golden headgear of the harness CLEANS,
until Black Calamity takes the bits of the
horses and stops them, n shouts to the
luxurious occupants of the equipage, .Get
husband and father flung his family SO hard
they never got up again. There was the
mark on them for life-the mark of a split
hoof-the death dealing hoof of the golden
cali.
Solomon offered in one sacrifice, on one
occasion. twenty-five thousand oxen and one
hundred and twenty THOUSAND sheep; but
that was a tame sacrifice compared with the
multitude of men who are sacrificing them
selves on this altar of the golden calf, and
sacrificing their families with them. The
soldiers of General Havelock in India
walked literally ankle deep in the blood OF
the sshouse of massacre" where two hun
dred women and children had been slain by
tho Ganovs. hlt tha hIOo1 around ahnut