The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-11-09
THE SPIRIT OF GREED
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS Of ITS BLIGHT
ING EFFECT ON MANKIND
Strong Denunciatfon of Those VINO
Worship the Golden Calf or Modern
Idolatry and Sacrifice themselves
and Their Families on It's Altar

Tn this discourse DR.. Talmage shows
how the spirit Of greed destroys when
it takes possession OF a mar and that
money got in wrong ways is a curse.
Text: Exodus, xxxii, 20, land he took
the calf which they a made and
burnt it in the fire, and ground 1t to
powder. and strewed it upon the water.
and made the children of Israel drink
of it."
People will nave a god of some kind,
and they prefer one Of their own maxi
ing. Here came the Israelites, break
ing off their golden earrings. the men
as we'll as the women, for in those times
there was masculine as we'll as feml-
nine decoration. Where did they get
these beautiful gold earrings, coming
I'D 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 or ghtter-
ing beauty. Amy more earrings 10
bring?" says Aaron None. FIRE Is
kindled, the earrings are melted anu
poured into a mold, not of an eagle or
a war charger, but of a silly calf The
gold cools down, the mold is taken
away. and the idol is set up on lts 1our
legs. An altar is built in front OF the
shining calf. Then the people throw
I'D 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 RANGING or 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 a rock that they spht all
to pieces. When a man gets angry
he is apt to break all the Ten com
mandmentsI Moses ruSheS in, and ne
takes this calf god and throws 1t into
a hot fire until it is melted all out OF
shape and then pulVeriZeS II, not Dy
the modern appliance of n1tromurlauc
acid, but by the ancient appliance Oh
inter or by the old fashioned ME. he
stirs for the people a most nauseatlnS
draft. He takes this pulverlzed 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 gilt
tering stuff thrown on the surface.
Some of it flows on down the surface
of the brook to the river and then noWs
on down the river to the sea and the
sea takes it up and bears 1t to the
mouth of all the rivers. and when the
tides set back the remains or this god
en- calf are carried up into the Poto-
mac and the Hudson and the Thames
and the Clyde and the Tiber, and men
go out, and they skim the gltter1ng
surface, and they bring it ashore, n
they make another golden cali, ana
California and Australia break Off
their golden earrings to augment the
pile, and in the fires of financial excite
ment and struggle all these things are
melted together, and while we stand
looking and wondering what will come
of it, 10, we find hat the golden calf
of Israelitish worship has become the
golden calf of European and American
worship.
MODERN GOLDEN CALF.
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 it has an ear SEN
sitive that it can hear the whispers
on all street. and Third street, and
State street, and the footballs in the
Bank of England, and the flutter of a
Frenchman'S heart on the BourSe. IL
has an eye so keen that it can see the
rust on the farm of Michigan whea'
and the insect in the Maryland peach
orchard and the grain under
the hoof of the Russian war charger
1t is so mighty that it swings any way
it will the worlds h1pplng 1t ma:
it's foot on all the merchantmen anC
the Gamer 1t started the American
civil war and, under God, stopped 1t
and it decided the con
test. One broker in September, 1869, II
New York, shouted, "One hundred anC
sixty for a million!' and the whole con
tinent shivered. The golden calf of tn
text has, as for as Americ /:
concerned, it's right front foot in New
York. it's left front foot in Chicago, it:
right back foot in Charleston, it's LEFT
back foot in New Orleans, and wher
it shakes itself it shakes the world
Oh, this is a mighty god-the COLDER
calf of the worlds worship.
But every god must a its temple
and this golden calf of the text is nc
exception. Its temple is vaSter thar
St. PauFS cathedral in England, and ST
Peters in italy, and the Alhambra OF
the Spanirds, and the Parthenon OF
the Greeks, and the Tai Mahal OF the
Hindoos and all the cathedrals put to-
gether. It's pillars are grooVed anC
futed with gold, and it's ribbed arches
are lowering gold. and it's chandeliers
are descending gold, and it's floors are
t~essellated gold. and it's vaults are
crowded heaps of gold, and it's spires
and domes are soaring gold, and its
organ pipes are resounding gold, and
it's pedals are tramping gold, and its
stops pulled out are flashing gold
while standing at the head of the tenn
pie, as the presiding deity, are the
hoofs and shoulders and eyes and ears
and noStrilS of the calf OF gold.
IT'S ALTAR OF SACRIFICE.
Further, every god must have not
only it's temple, but it's altar OF sacrl-
flee, and this golden calf of the text is
no exception. It's altar is not made oul
of stone as other affairs, but out OF
counting room desks and freproo1
safes, and it is a broad, a n a high
altar. The victims sacrificed on it are
the Swartouts and the Ketchams ano
the Fisks and 1000 other people who
are slain before this golden calf. What
Ices this god care about the groans
and struggles of the victims before it:
With cold, metallic eye it looks on ano
yet lets them suffer. What an altar:
What a sacrifice of mind, body anC
SOUL The physical health of a great
multitude is flung on to this sacrifca
altar. They cannot sleeep, and they
take chloraI and morphine n intox: