The Golden Calf Reduced to Powder.
By Lay Preacher
"And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."—Exodus 32:20. MANY persons, and amongst them some learned men, have supposed that the calf which is here spoken of could not have been made of gold, because this metal, being extremely malleable, spreads itself under the hammer, and does not break. M. Rieu, a lawyer, in Lausanne, gives the following narrative in the Chretien Evangelique, which removes all doubt upon the subject:— "Many years ago, being in a neighboring city, where the working up of gold constitutes the chief employment, I asked permission of one of the principal masters to visit his workshop. One of the clerks at once very politely placed himself at my disposal. We could hear from the office the anvil resounding with the blows of the hammer; but on entering the workshop, there was nothing to be seen of metal dazzling from the furnace, nor the bright showers of splinters which would be thrown off in working—all the metal in process was cold. On expressing my surprise to my guide, he said: 'Gold is always worked cold, because it crumbles when hot. Show this gentleman,' said he, calling a workman, who immediately took a bar of gold, and placing the end of it in the fire, stirred the coal, and used a powerful pair of bellows. In a few minutes he drew it out quite hot; the part thus prepared was placed on the anvil, and the first blow, although moderate, broke it off instantly from the bar. A few more blows sufficed to break it into innumerable pieces, the splinters of which spread all round. Thus, while iron, silver, platina, become more malleable when hot, gold is an exception, and becomes brittle as glass. The text which I have quoted, and all the disputes of which it has been the subject, came then to my mind. There was the means employed by Moses under my eyes; and, more than this, it has been three thousand three hundred years in the revelation, which, always exact, says expressly that Moses put the golden calf 'in the fire, and ground it to powder.'" Gold is one of the most precious substances; nevertheless, Moses hesitates not to reduce to powder that which had served for the idolatry of the Israelites. God never hesitates to break the idols that his children make for themselves, however precious they may be in their eyes, or in themselves; because an idol, not destroyed, destroys him who serves it.—Lay Preacher, (Eng.)