The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-11-08

Wnere ZDU WDlbG WOluGll anu
been slain by the sepoys. But the blood
about this altar of the golden calf flows up
to the knee. flows up to the girdlc, flows
to the shoulder, flows to the lip. Great
God of heaven and earth, have mercy on
those who immediate themselves on this
ALTAR The golden calf has none.
Still the degrading worship goes, on, and
the devotees kpeel and kiss the dust and
count their golden beads and cross them
selves with the blood of their own sacri-
flee. The music rolls on under the arches.
1t is made of blinking silver and clinkinng
gold and the rafting specie o. the banks
and brokers' shons and the voices OF all
the exchanges. The soprano OF the wor-
ship is carried by the timid voices OF men
who have just begun to speculate, whlie
the deep bass rolls out from those who Tor
ten years have been steeped IN the seeth'
ing cauldron. Chorus of voices rejoicing
over what they have made; chorus OF
voices wailing over what they have lost
This temple of which | speak stands open
dav and night and there is the glltterlne
god with his four feet on broken hearts,
and there is the smoking altar of sacrifice;
new victims every moment on IT,. ana
there are the kneeling devotees and the
doxologv of the worship rolls on, while
death stands with moldv and skeleton arm
beating time for The chorus" More, more,
more!'
Some people are very much surprised at
the actions of people in the Stock Ex-
change, New York Indeed it is a 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 gestlculation
and raving like hyenas, and stamping Ike
buffaloes. and swaying to and tro, ana
iostling and running one upon another,
and deafening uproar. until the president
of the exchange strikes with his maltet
four or five times. crying, Order, order;
and the astonished spectator goes olt INTO
the fresh air feeling that he has escaped
from pandemonium. What does 1t all
mean? | will tell you what it means. Inc
devotees of every heather temple cut
themselves to pie s and yell and gNrate.
This yociferation End gyratlon OF r me
Stock Exchange is all appropriate. Inns
is the worship Of the golden calf.
But my text suggests that this worship
has to be broken up, as the behavior OF
Noses an this occasion indicated. There
are those who say that this golden calf
spoken of in thc text was hollow and
merely plated with gold. Otherwise
Moses could not have earned 1t. l 40
not know D." t. But somehow, perhaps by
the assistance of his friends he takes up
this golden calf. which is an internal liz
suit TO 0Ou anu JldI anu III wv ~ ~
the fire, and it is melted. And then IT
comes out and is cooled off. and by some
chemical appliance or by an old fashioned
file it is pulverized, and it is thrown INTO
the brook and as a punishment the people
are compelled to drink the nauseatlng
stuff 50 you may depend upon 1T that
God will burn and He will grind to pieces
the golden calf of modern idolatry, and lie
will compel the people in their agony to
hafnra ~ will he the
last day. | know not where the fire Will
begin, whether at the Battery or LON
bard street, whether at Shoredltch or
West End, but it will be very hot blaze.
All the Government securities of the Unit
ed States and Great Britain will curl up
ia the first blast All the money safes and
deposit vaults will melt under the first
touch; The sea will burn like tinder and
the shipping will be abandoned forever.
The melting gold in the broker's window
will burst through the melted window
glass into the street But the flying popu-
lace will not stop to scoop it up. The
cry of Fire." from the mountain will
be answered by the cry of Fire in the
plain. The conhagration will burn out
from the continent toward the sea and
then burn in from the sea toward the
land. new York and London. with one
cut of the red scythe of destruction, will
go down. Twenty-Five thousand miles OF
confagration! The earth will wrap itself
round and round in shroud of flame and
lie down to perish. What then will become
of your golden calf? Who then so poor
as to worship it? Melted or between the
upper and neither millstones Of falling
down, NIoloch down, Juggernaut down,
golden calf down!
The judgments of God, like Moses in
the text, will rush in and break up this
worship. and / say let the work go on
until every man shall learn to speak truth
with his neighbor, and those who make
engagements shall fell themselves bound
to keep them. and when a man who will
not repent of his business iniquity, but
goes on wishing to satiate his cannibal APP
petite by devouring widows houses, shall,
by the law of the land, be compelled to
exchange the brownstone front for the
penitentlary Let the golden calf perish!
But if we have made this world our god,
when we come to die we shall sell our idol
demolished How much of this world
are YOU going to take with you into the
next? VIII you have two pockets-onc
in each side of your shroud? VIII You
cushion your casIet with bonds and mort
cages and certificates of stock. All, no.
The ferryboat that crosses this Jordan
takes no baggage-nothing heavier than
an imnaterial spirit.
Where are the men who tried War
rem Hastings in Westminster hall? Where
are the pilgrim fathers who put OFT for
America Where are the veterans who on
the Fourth OF July, 1894 marched from
New York park to the Battery and fired
a 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
ten minutes before they landed? Where
ale the veterans that fired the salute,
and the men of the Cincinnati Society who
that afternoon drank to the patriotic
toast, and the oarsmen that rowed the
boat, and the people who were trans
ported? Gone Oh, this is a fleeing
world. 1t is a dying world. a man who
had worshiped it all his days in his dy.
ing moment described himself when he
said, Fool, fool, fool!'
When your parents have breathed their
last and the old, wriniIed and trembling
hands can no more be put upon your head
for a blessing, God will be to you father
and mother both, giving you the defense