The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-11-09

If a man by a wrong course is determ-
ined to go to perdition, I uppose you
will nave to let him go. But he puts
his wife and children in an equipage
that is the amaZement Of the avenues,
and the driver lashes the horses into
two whirlwinds. and the spokes flash
in the sun, Inc the golden h~eadgear
of the harness CLEANS until black ca
takes the bits of the horses and
stops them and shouts to the lu~xuriant
occupants of the equipage, Get Quit"
The get out. They get down. That
husband and father flung his family
so hard they never got up. There was
the mark on them for life-the mark Of
a split hoof-the death dealing hoof Of
the golden calf.
Solomon offered in one sacrifice on
one occasion p, 900 oxen n 120. 00O
sheep, but that was a tame sacrihce
compared with he multitude OF men
who are sacrificing themselves 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
house of massacre, where 200 white
women and children had been slain by
the sepoys, but the blood about this
altar of the golden calf flows up to the
knee, flows up to the girdle, flows up
to the shoulder, flows up to he lip.
Great God of heaven n earth, nave
mercy on those who immediate them
selves on this altar, The golden calf
has lone.
DEGRADING WORSHIP GOES ON.
Still the degrading worship goes on,
and the devoteees kneel and kiss the
dust and count their golden beads and
cross themselves with the blood Of
their own sacrifice. The music rolls
on under the arches. 1t is made or
climbing silver and climbing gold and
the rafting specie of the banks and
brokers' shops n the voices of all the
exchanges. The soprano of the wor-
ship is carried by the timid voices of
men who have just begun to speculate,
while the deep bass rolls out from those
who for ten years have been stepped
in the seething caldron. Chorus or
voices rejoicing owe what they have
made; chorus of voices walllng over
what they have lost. This temple of
which 1 speak stands open day and
night, and there is the glittering god
with his four feet on o hearts,
and there is the smoking altar of sac
rifice, new victims every moment on 1t,
and there are the kneeeling devoteeS;
and the doXology of the worship roofs
on, while death stands with moldy and
skeleton arm beating time for the
chorus-"More, more, more!"
Some people are very much surprised
dl lie dSlIOli I'll pCoplV III liz StoSh
exchange, New York Indeed, it is a
scene sometimes that paralyzeS de-
scription and is beyond the imagination
of any one who has never locker in.
What swapping of finger n thumb
and wild g~eSticulation n raVlng ike
hyenas and stamping like buffaloes
and swaying to and fro and jostling
and. running n upon another n
deafning uproar, until the president of
the exchange strikes with his mallet
four or five times, crying, Order, or
der!" and the tStoniShed spectator goes
out into the fresh air feeling that he
has escaped from pandemonium. h
does it all mean? I will tell you hat
it means. The devotees of every heather
temple cut themselves to pieces and
yell and gyrate. This vociferation and
%gyration of the stock exchange is all
appropriate. This is the worship of the
golden calf.
But my text suggests that this wor-
ship mas to be broken up, as the beha-
vior of Moses on this occasion lndlcat-
ed. There are those who say that this
golden calf spoken of in the text was
hollow and merely plated with gold,
otherwise Moses could not "a carried
it. I do not know that, but somehow,
perhaps by the assistance of his
friends, he takes up this golden calf,
which is an internal insult to God and
man, and throws it into the fire and il
is melted, and then it comes out and
is cooled off, and by some chemical ap-
pliance or by an old fashioned file it is
pulverized, and it is thown into the
brook, and as a punishment the people
are compelled to drink the ~nauseatins
stuff. So you may depend upon il
that God will burn and he will grin(
to pieces the golden calf of modern
idolatry, and he Will compel the people
in their agony to drink it. If not before
it will be so on the last day. 1 know
not where the fire will begin, whether
at the Battery" or Lombard street
whether at Shoreditch Or West End
but it will be a very hot blaze. All thu
government securities or the United
I States and Great Britain will curl III
in the first blaze. All the none safe:
and deposit vaults will melt under tn,
first touch. The sea will burn like tin
der land the shipping will be abandon
ed forever. The melting gold in tn,
brokers' window will burst through thu
melted window glass into, the street
but the flying population will not stoI
to scoop it up. The cry of "Fire!'
from the mountain will be answered by
the cry of Fire." in the plain. The
conf1agration will burn out from The
continent toward the sea and theT
burn in from the sea toward the land
New York and London with one cut OF
the red scythe of destruction will &c
down.. Twenty-Five thousand miles OF
conf1agration! The earth will wrap it
self round and round in shroud OF
flame and lie down to perish. What
then will become of our golden calf
Who then so oor as to worship it
Melted or between the upper or neither
milestone of falling mountains ground
to powder. Dagon down, Moloch down
Jugge-naut down, golden calf down!
DAY OF JUDGMENT COMING.
But every day is a day of judgment
and God is all the time grinding tC
pieces the golden calf. Some years age
in a time of panic We learned as never
before that forgerieS will not pay ha
the watering of stock will not pay
that the spending of $50, 900 on country
seats and a palatial city residence whe
there are only $50. 600 income will not
pay, that h appropriation of trust
funds to u own private speculation
will not pay. We had a great national
tumor in the shape of fictitious pros
perity. We called it national enlarge
ment. Instead of calling it enlarge.
mont We MIGHT haftar hauo oollod II Q