The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-10-30
DIR. Talmage Pictures Evils
of Money Seeking.
KILLS HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
Tells Of Ocean Liner Crowded with Rich
Iavaiids, Who safer for Their Dearly
Beasht Weatth-The Golden Calf Of Med
err Idoiatry aud Its Victims - Men and
sance Have Ruined Their Character.

In his sermon yesterday DR.. Talmage
graphically described the awful penal
ties paid in the mad pursuit OF wealth.
and he bid his hearers desert the worship
OF the golden calf for the treasures OF re-
| ligion, which do not disappear in money
| panies and which need No burglar proof
vaults to keep safe. He took for ms text
Exodus, xxxii:20, And he took the calf
which they had made aud burnt it in the
| FIRE. and ground it TO powder, and Strewed
| ii upon the water, and made the children
of Israel drink Of It," and said:
1.-THE Oceanic. which last Wednesday
landed up from Europe, had. among as
| charming group of passengers rs eyer
crossed the sea. a number Of business
men who had gone abroad In search OF
the health which they had sacrificed in
business life. They had sriumphed in
monetary directions, but az the expense
Of physical and mental wounds. They
were successful inyalids. and il all set
me to thinking that worldly prosperity
may be attained at too dear cost, and
what l saw and heard on ship0oard will
help me to illustrate the Iesson of my
text concerning the oldtime worship Of
the golden calf.
People will have a god Of some kind,
and they prefer one of their own making.
Here come the Israelites, breaking OF
their golden earrings. the men as well as
the women, for In those times there was
masculine as well as feminine decoration.
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 kin
died; the earrings are melted and poured
into a mold, net of an eagle or a war
charger, but of silly calf; the gold cools
down; the mold Is taken away and the
idol is set up on its four less. An altar
is built in front OF the shining calf Then
the people throw up -Ieir arms and gyrate
and shrek and dance vigorously and wor-
ship.
Moses has been six weeks on Mount
Sinai, and he comes back, and hears the
bowling and sees the dancing af these
golden-calf fanatics, and he loses his pa
thence, 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 man gets angry he is apt TO
| break all the Ten Commandments Moses
PUSHES in, and he takes this calf-god and
throws IL into hot fire until it is melted
all out of shape, and then pulverizes it
not oy the modern appliance Of nitro-mu-
r1atlc acid, but by the ancient appliance
OF inter or by the Old-fashioned fie He
stirS for the people a most nauseating
draught. He takes this pulverized golden
calf and throws 1t in the only brook which
IS accessible, and the people are compelled
TO drink OF that brook or not drink at all
God of Modern ldoiaIry.
''But they did not drink all the glittering
stun thrown on the surface. Some of il
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 il IN
and bears 1t TO the mouth OF all the rivers.
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 go
out and they skim the glittering surface
and they bring 1t ashore and they make
another golden calf, and California and
Australia break off their golden earrings
10 augment the pile, and in the fires of
financial excitement and struggle ali these
thlhgs are melted together and while We
stand looking and wondering what will
come OF 1t, To- We find that the golden
cali or Israelitish worship has become the
golden calf Of European and American
worship
Pull aside this curtain and you see the
golden calf of modern idoiatry Ii is not.
IKE other idols, made out of stocks or
stone, but II has an ear so sensitive thar
IT 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 a Frenchman's heart on The
Bourse. II has an eye so keen that IL can
see the r1st on the farm of Michigan
wheat and the insect in the Maryland
peach orchard and the tramp.ed grain I'M
der the hoof OF the Russian war-charger.
IL Is so mighty that IL swings any way II
VIII the worlds shipping. 1t has its foot
on all the merchantmen and the steamers.
1t started the American civil war, and un-
der God stopped 1t. and it decided the
Iurko-Russian contest. One broker in
September, 1868. in New York, shouted.
one hundred and sixty for millionr and
the whole continent shivered The golden
cali OF the text has, as far as America is
concerned, its right front foot in New
York. its left front foot in Chicago tte
right back foot in Charleston, its left back
foot In New Orleans. and when II shakes
itself 1t shakes the world. Oh, this Is a
mighty god-the golden calf of the words
worship
But every god must have fits temple
and this golden calf Of the text Is no ex-
cepuon- Its temple is Yaster than ST
FauFs Cathedral in England, and ST
Peters In Italy. and the Alhambra OF the
Spanlards. and the PsrthenOn OF the
Greeks, and the Tai Mahal OF the Hin
zoos, and all the eathedrals put together
us pillars are grooved and fiuted with
gold, and its ribbed arches are hoyerinz
soid, and It's chandeliers are descending
gold, and It's floors are tessellated eold
ana us vaults are crowded heaps OF eold
ana It's spires and domes are soaring gold
and lis organ pipes are resounding gold
and its pedals are tramping gold. and fts
stops pulled out are flashing gold. while
standing al the head Of the temple. as the
presiding deity. are the boots ana Shout.
GERS and eyes and ears and nostrils of ths
calf OF gold.
Sacrifices 10 the Golden Calf.
Further. every god must have m, onIv
us temple, but It's altar OF sacrifice ana
THIS golden calf Of the text is no excen-
tlon. Its altar is not made out Of sfone
as other affairs. but out Of counting.ronun
desks and nreproof safes. and il is
broad. long. high altar rhe vict.n,S
seerifeed On IL are the Swartouts and TIE
ketehams and the Fisks and ten thou
saLd other people who are slain Lef9rs
this golden calf What does this 81
care about the grosns and struggles %
the victims before it, With cold metal
lie eye. 1t looks on and YET lets them s,,e.
fer. What an altar. What a saeriice II
mind. body, and souls The uhygicsI
health Of great multitude is 1urg on
10 this sacrincial altar. They cannot sIeen
and they take choral and morphine ana
intoxicants. Some Of them struggle IN
a nightmare OF stocks, and at | o'ciock
In the morning suddenly rise I'D shout
ing: A thousand shares OF New YORK
central-one hundred and eight srd A.
half, take itf-until the whole family Is
afsrighted, and the Spectators fall osek
ar Hzf