The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-11-14

ship is carried by the timid voices OF men men
who have just begun to speculate, whlie
the deep bass rolls out from those who TOR
| ten years have been steeDcd in the sreth'
ing cauldron. Chorus Of voices rejoicing
over what they have made; chorus OF
voices wailing over what they have lost.
This temple of which l speak stands open
day and night. and there is the glItterIhg
god with his four feet on broken hearts,
and there is the smoking altar OF sacrIncej;
new victims every moment on It.. ana
there are the kneeling devotees, and the
| doxology of the worship rolls on, while
death stands with moldy and skeleton arm
beating time for the chorus-"M More, more,
more!"
Some people are very much surprised at
the actions of people in the Stock En-
change, New York. Indeed it is scene
sometimes that paralyzes description and
! is beyond the imagination of any one VINO
has never looked in. What swapping OF
finger and thumb and wild gesticulatlon
and raving lie hyenas, and stamping ike
| buffaloes, and swaying to and tro, ana
| jostling and running one upon another,
and deafening uproar: until the Preslde1nG
of the exchange strikes with his mallet
four or five times, crying, "Orcer, order!"
| and the astonished spectator goes out into
the fresh air feeling that he has escaped
from pandemonium. What does it all
mean? I will tell you what it means. The
devotees of every. heather Temple cut
themselves to pie s and yell and gyr4te.
This vociferatcn ind gyration If the
Stock Exchange is ali appropriate. This
is tie worship of the golden calf.
But my text suggests that this worship
has to be broken up, as the behavior OF
Moses on this occasion Indicated. 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 have carried it: do
not know =, It. But somehow, perhaps by
the assistance of his friends, he takes up
this golden calf, which is an internal in.
suit to God and man, and throws it into
the fire, and it is melted. And then it
comes out and is cooled of, and by some
chemical appliance or by an old.fashioned
file it is pulverized, and it is thrown into
the brook, ard as punishment the people,
are compelled to drink the nauseating
stuff. So you may depend upon it that
God will burn and he will grind 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 on the
last day. / know not where the FIRE will
begin, whether at the Battery or Lom.
bard street, whether at Shoreditch or
West End, but it will be very hot blaze.
All the Government securities of the Unit
ed States and Great Britainswill curl up
il the first blast. All the moneYssafes and
deposit vaults will melt under the first
touch, The sea!fwilI burn like tihder. and
the shipping will be abandoned forever.
The melting gold in the brokers' window
will burst through the melted. window
glass into the street. But the flying popu.
lace will not stop to. scoop st up. The
cry of "Fire!" from the mountain will
be answered by the cry Of ;sstFire!3' in the
plain. The confagration will burn out
from the continent toward; the sea al ana
then burn ID from the sea toward the,
land. New York and Lon don. with one
cut OF the red scythe of destruction, will
20 down. {. Twenty-Five thousand miles Of
CONFEDERATION! / The earth will wrap itself
round and, round in shsoud of fame and
lie down TO perish, What then; will become
of lyotir golden calf? Who then so poor
as to worship it? Melted or between the
upper and neither ;millstones of falling
mountains ground to powder. Dagon
down, Moloch down. Juggernaut down,
golden calf down! y. -.
But every day is day of judgment,
and God is all the time grinding to pieces
the golden calf. Some years ago, in
time of panic, we learned as never before
that forgeries will not pay; that the wat
ering .of stock will not pay; that the
spending of $4,000 on country seats and
palatial city residence when there is only
$4,000 income will not pay; that the ap-
preparation of trust funds to our own
private speculation will not pay. we had
a great national tumor in the shape of
fictitious prosperity. We called it. nation.
al enlargement. Instead of calling it en-
largement we might better have called it
g. swelling: It was tumor, and God cut
III out, and the nation was sent, back to
the. principles Of our fathers and grand
fathers, when twice three made six instead
of sixty, and when the apples at the bot
tom Of the barrel were Just as good as
the apples on the top of the barrel, and
a silk handkerchief was- not half cotton,
and man who wore S. coat paid for
was more honored than a man who wore
a $50 coat not paid for.
The judgments of God, like Moses in
the text, will rush in and break up this
worship, and I say let the work 90 on
until every man shall learn to speak truth
with his neighbor, and those who make
engagements shall fell themselves bound
to keen them. and when a man who will
not repent of his business iniquity, but
goes on wishing to satiate his cannibal ap.
petite by devouring widows houses, shall,
by the law of the land, be compelled to-,
exchange the brownstone front for the
penitentiary. Let the golden calf perish!
But if we have made this world our god,
when we come to die we shall sello idol
demolished. How much of this world
are you going to take with you into the
next? Will you have two .pockets-one
in each side of your shroud? Will you
cushion your casket with bonds and mort
cages and certificates of stock: An, no!
The ferryboat that crosses this. Jordan
takes no baggage--nothing hcayler" than
an immaterial spirit. O.. -;
You may, perhaps, take $500 with you
two or three miles in the shape of fun:
eral trappings to the cemetery, but you
will have to leave them there. 1t would
not be safe for you to lie down there
with gold watch or diamond ring; it
would be temptation to the pillagers.
If we have made this world our god,
we shall see our idol, when we die, ground
to pieces by our pillow, and we shall have
to drink it in bitter regrets for the wasted
opportunities of lifetime. Soon we will
be gone. -" -
Where are the men who tried War
rem Hastings in Westminster hall? Where
are the pilgrim fathers who put out for
America? Where are the veterans who on
the Fourth of July, 1904, marched from
New York park to the Battery and fired
salute and then marched back again?
And the Society of the Cincinnati, who
dined that afternoon at Tontine Coffee
House, on Wall street, and Grant Thor
burn, who that afternoon waited fifteen
minutes at the foot of Maiden lane for the
Brooklyn ferryboat, then got. in and was
rowed across by two men with oars, the
tide so strong that it was an hour and