Connecticut western news., 1900-11-01
DEGRADING WORSHIP
DR. TALMAGE ON THE GOLDEN CALF
 OF MODERN ioolATRY.

DIR. TALMAoE ON THE GOLDEN CALF
 OF MODERN l0OlATRY.
 -wAo Are In It's Grasp-Money Got ! wrongfslly . Curse-Worshiperso of Gold Die Moral Bankrupts.
 ! WASHINGTON, Oct 28.-In this dis course Dr. Talmage shows how the spirit of greed destroys when it takes possession of man and that money got in wrong ways Is a curse; text, Ex- odus xxxii, 20, And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground 1t to powder and strawed 1t 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 mak- ing. Here come the Israelites, break ing of their golden earrings, the men as we'll as the women, for In those ffnsas there was masculine as we'll as feminine 6sssss +.s;S Where did -the5' get these beautiful gold enrHngs, 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. Amy more earrings to bringY 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 silly calf; the gold cools down, the mold is taken away, and the idol is set up on its four legs. An altar Is built in front of the shining calf. Then the people throw up their arms and gyrate and shriek 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 1t into a hot fire until 1t 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 hitter or by the old fashioned file. He stirs for the people a most nauseating draft 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
 But they did not drink all the glitter ing stuff thrown on the surface. Some of 1t 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 1t up 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 of 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 1t, 10, we find that the golden calf of Israelitish worship has become the golden calf of European and American worship.
 Calf of Modern Idolatry.
 Pull aside this curtain, and you see the golden calf of modern idolatry. 1t is not like other idols. made out of stocks or stone, but 1t has an ear so sensitive that 1t can hear the whispers on Wall street and Third street and State street and the footballs in the Bank of England and the futter of a FIenchman's heart on the bourse. 1t has an eye so keen that 1t 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. It Is so mighty that 1t swings any way 1t will the worlds shipping. It has its foot oh all the merchantmen and the steamers. It started the American civ il war and under God stopped 1t, and 1t decided the Turko-Russian contest. One broker in September, 1869, in New York, shouted, "One hundred and sixty for a millionv' 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, its right back foot in Charleston, It's left back foot in New Orleans. and when 1t shakes itself 1t shakes the world. Oh, this Is 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. Paul's 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. Its pillars are grooved and fiuted with gold, and it's ribbed arches are lowering gold, and it's chan deliers are descending gold, and its floors are tessellated gold. and Its vaults are crowded heaps of gold, and it's spires and domes are soaring gold and it's organ pipes are resoundine gold, and its pedals are tramping gold and It's stops pulled out are flashing gold. while, standing at the head of tho temple, as the presiding deity, are thu hoofs and shoulders and eyes and ears and nostrils of the calf of gold.
 Altar of Sacrifice.
 Further, every god must have no only It's temple, but its altar of sacri flee, and this golden calf of the text 1. no exception. Its altar Is not made out of stone as other altars, but out o counting room desks and fireproo safes. and 1t Is broad, long, a higl altar. The victims sacrificed on 1t ar, the Swartouts and the Ketchams ant the Fisks and ten thousand other peo pie who are slain before t',is goldel calf, What does this god care abou the groans and struggles of the vic