Marshall County independent., 1900-11-02


Copyright, 1900. Louis Klopsch. N. ~
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 curse. Text:
Exodus. xxxii, 20, "And he took the
calf which they had made and burnt
1t In the fire, and ground it to a pow
der. and strewed 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
making. Here come the Israelites,
breaking 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?
On, they borrowed them of the Egyp
tians when they left Egypt. These
earrings are piled up into a pyramid
of glittering beauty. "Any more ear
rings to bring?" says Aaron. None.
Fire Is kindled, the earrings are melt
ed and poured into a mold, not Of an
eagle, or a war charger, but OF soilly
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 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, Moses rush
es In, and he takes this calf god and
throws II into a hot fire until 1t Is
melted all out Of shape and then pull
verizes it, not by the modern appli-
ance Of nitromuriatic acid, but by the
ancient appliance OF inter or by the
aid fashioned file. He stirs for the
people a most nauseating draft. He
takes this pulverized golden calf and
throws Il Ia the only brook which Is
accessible, and the people are compell-
ed to drink Of that brook or not drink
at all
Modern Golden Calf.
Pull aside this curtain, and you see
the golden calf of modern idolatry
It Is not, like other idols. made out
sensitive that 1t can hear the whis-
pers on Wall street, and Third street
and State street, and the footballs in
the Bank Of England, and the flutter
Of Frenchman's heart on the Bourse.
It 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 it will the worlds
shipping. 1t has its foot on all the
merchantmen and the steamers. 1t
started the American civil war and,
under God, it stopped it, and it decid-
ed the Turko-Russian contest. One
broker in September, 1869, in New
York, shouted, Zone hundred and six
ty for million!" and the whole con-
tinent shivered. The golden calf of
the text has. as far as America is con-
cerned, its right front foot in New
York, its left front foot in Chicago.
its right back foot in Charleston, its
left back foot in New Orleans. and
when 1t shakes itself it shakes the
world. Oh, this Is mighty god-the
golden calf of the worlds worship.
Its Altar of Sacrifice.
Further, every god must have not
only its temple, but its altar of sacri-
fee. and this golden calf of the text Is
no exception. Its altar is not made
out OF stone as other altars, but out of
counting room desks and freproof
safes The victims sacrificed on it
are the Swartouts and the Ketchams
and the Bisks and 10000 other people
who are slain before this golden calf.
What does this god care about the
Sroans and struggles of the victims
before 1t? With cold, metallic eye it
looks on and yet lets them suffer.
What an altar. What a sacrifice of
mind. body and soul, The physical
health Of a great multitude is flung
on to this sacrifical altar. They can
not sleep and they take chloral and
morphine and intoxicants. Some of
them struggle in nightmare of
stocks and at 1 o'clock In the morning
suddenly rise up. shouting. "a thou
sand shares of New York Central
108h-take it," until the whole family
is affrighted, and the speculators fall
back on their pillows and sleep until
they are awakened again by a Cor
ner" In Pacific Mail or a sudden rise"
OF Rock Island. Their nerves gone.
their digestion gone, their brain gone,
they die. The gowned ecclesiastic
comes in and reads the funeral service
Blessed are the dead who die in the
LOrd!" Mistake. They did not "die
in the Lord" The golden calf kicked
them.
Degrading Worship Goes On.
Still the degrading worship goes on.
and the devOtees kneel and kiss the
dust and count their golden beads and
cross themselves with the blood of
their own sacrifice. The music rolls
on under the arches. 1t is made of
clinking silver and clinking gold and
the rattling specie of the banks and
brokers' shops and the voices of all