Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-10-29
DEGRADING WORSHIP
DR. TALMAGE ON THE GOLDEN CALF
OF MODERN IDOLATRY.

Who Are I'm Its Grnsp-Money Got
wrongfuIIy IN Curse-WOrshipers of
Gold Die Moral Rankrupss.
WASHINGTON, Oct 2S.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage shows how the
spirit of greed destroys when it takes
possession of a man and that money
got in wrong ways is a curse; text, Ex-
odus xxi, 20, "And he took the calf
which they had made and burnt it in
the fire and ground it to powder and
strawed 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 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, COM
ing up, as they did, from the desert?
Oh. they borrowed them of the Egyp-
tians 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
kindled, the earrings are melted and
poured into q mold not of an eagle or
war charger, but of a silly calf; the
gold coolS down, the mold is taken
away, and the idol is set up on it's four
legs An altar is built in front of the
shining calf. Then the people throw
ND their arms and gyrate and shrek
and dance vigorously 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 patience, 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 a 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 a hot fire until it is melted all out
OF shape and then pulveriZes it-not by
the modern appliance of nitro muriatic
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 accessible, and the people are
compelled to drink of that brook or not
drink at all
But they did not drink all the glitter
ing 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 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 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 financial excitement and strug-
gle all these things are melted together,
and while we stand looking and won
dering what will come of it, 10, we
find that the golden calf of Israelitish
worship has become the golden calf Of
European and American worship.
Calf Of Modern Idolntry.
Pull aside this curtain, and you see
the golden calf of modern idolatry. It
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 fiutter of a
Frenchman'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 hoof of the Russian war charger.
1t is so mighty that it swings any way
1t will the worlds shipping. 1t has it's
foot on all the merchantmen and the
steamers. 1t started the American civ
IL war and under God stopped it, and it
decided the Turko-Russian contest.
One broker in September. 1869. in New
York, shouted, lone hundred and sixty
for Million and the whole continent
shivered. The golden calf of the text
has, as far as America is concerned. it's
right front foot in New York, it's left
front foot in Chicago, it's right back foot
in Charleston. its left back foot in New
Orleans, 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 it's temple,
and this golden calf of the text is no
exception. 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
wu.& forothor ltS pil1arS aro orooyod
and fiuted with gold, and it's ribbed
arches are lowering gold, and its chan
deliers are descending gold. and its