The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-11-14
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE 6r HE NJ
DIVINE.
Subject: The Golden Calf Of Modern Idol
airy - The Spirit of Greed Destroys
Those Who Are in It's Grasp - Money
Got WrongfulIy is n Curse.
copyright 1aual
WASHINGTON, D. C-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage shows how the spirit OF
| greed destroys when it takes possession
of man and that money got in wrong
ways is curse; text. Exodus xxXil, ~,
"And he took the calf which they had
made and burnt l. in the fire and ground
! it to powder and strewed it upon the
water and made the children of Israel
drink of it."
People will have god of some kind,
and they prefer one of their own making:
| Here co the Israelites, breaking off
! their golden earrings. the men as well as
the women, for in those times there was
masculine rs we'll as feminine decoration.
Where a.l 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
giitterinz beauty. hAny more earrings
kindled, the earrings are melted and pour
ed into mold not of an eagle OF a war
charger, but of silly calf; the gold cools
| down, the mold is taken away, and the
idol is set u2 on it's four legs. An altar
is built in font of the shining calf. Then
the people throw up their arms and gy-
rate and shrek and dance vigorously and
worship
Moses has been six weeks on Mount
Sinai. a-d he comes back and hears the
! bowling and sees the dancing OF these
golden calf fanatics, and he loses his pa.
tience, and he takes the two plates Of
stone on which were written the Ten Com,
| mandments and filings them so hard
When man gets angry, he is apt to
break all the Ten Commandments. 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 modern appliance of nitro mu.
riatic ACID, but by the ancient appliance of
inter or by the old fashioned file. He stirs
for the people most nauseating draft:
He takes this pulverized golden calf and
throws it in the only brook which is ac-
cessble, and the people are compelled to
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 it to the mouth of all the rivera, and
when the tides set back the remains of
this golden calf are carried up into the
Potomac and the Hudson and the Thames
and the Clyde and the Tiber: And men
20 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
rinrs 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 ofsit,. 10, we find that the
golden calf of Israelitish worship has be-
come the golden calf of European and
American worship. &" *, ~ j
Pull aside this curtain, and you see the
golden calf of modern idolatry. It is not,
like otSer idols, made cut of stocks or,
stone, but il has an ear SO sensitive that1it
can hear the whispers on Wall street and
Third street and State street, and the.
footballs in the Bank Of England and the
| hutter OF. Frenchman's heart on the
bourse. 1t has an eye SO keen that it can
! wheat and the insect in the Maryland,
! peach orchard and the trampled' grain un.
der the hoof of the Russian var charger.
It,is so mighty thatSit swings any way it
will the worlds shipping. 1t. has its foot
on all the merchantmen }and the steam
ers.t It 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:
Leone hundred and sixty for samiiion =
and the whole continent shlyefed. .SSIhe;
golden calf of the text has, as far as Amer:
lea is concerned, its right front foot IN,
New York; it, left front foot IN Chicago
its right back foot in Charleston, it's left
shakes itself it shakes the world. Oh, this
is mighty god-the golden calf OF the
worlds worship! -. y :,
But every god must have it's temple, and
this golden calf of the text is no excep-
ton. Its temple is vaster than st. Paups
Cathedral in England, and st. Peters in
Italy, and the Alhambra of the Spaniards,
and the Parthenon of the Greeks, and the
Tai Mahal of the Hindoos, and all the
cathedrals put together. It's pillars arc
grooved and futed with gold, and it's
ribbed arches are lowering gold, ind its
chandeliers are descending gold, and its
floors are tessellated gold, and its vaults
are crowded heaps of gold and its spires
pipes are resoundirg 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 diety.
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.
| Its altar is not made out of stone as other
affairs, but out of counting room desks
and freproof safes, and it is q broad, q
| long, a high altar. The Victims sacrificed
on It are the Swartouts and the Ketchams
and the Fisks and ten thousand other
people who are slain before this golden
! calf. ~.
What does this god care about the
groans and struggles of the-victims before
/ it? With cold, metallic eye, it looks on
and yet lets them suffer. What an altar!
What sacrifice Of mind, body and soul!
The physical health of great multitude
| is flung on to this sacrifcial altar. They
cannot sleep, and they take chloral and
morphine and intoxicants.
stocks, and at / o'clock in the morning
! suddenly rise up shouting: "a thousand
shares of New York Central-one hun.
dred and eight and half, take it!"-until
the whole family is affrighted. and the
spectators fall back on their. pillows and
sleep until they are awakened again by
corner" in Pacific Mail, or a sudden
"rise" of Rock Island.
Their nerves gone, their digestion gone,
their brain gone, they die. The gowned
! ecclesiastic comes in and reads the funer-
al service, blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord" Mistake. They did not
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