March Fifteenth.
THE GOLDEN CALF.
"here be thy gods, O Israel."—Exod. xxxii. 4.
NOTWITHSTANDING the numerous miracles that were wrought before the eyes of the Israelites, to convince them that Jehovah was the true God of heaven and earth, yet such was their proneness to idolatry, that when Moses their leader, delayed his coming down from the mount, they applied to Aaron to make them gods, who should go before them in their march to the land of promise. How strange is the request, for any people to ask a frail man to make them gods! If he made them, they could be nothing but senseless idols or images, destitute of all life and power. The request of the people to Aaron to make them gods, teaches us in this day, that although they drew near to Jehovah with their lips, yet their hearts inclined to idolatry, and were far from him. Aaron, however, complied with their request, to shew them how utterly dead they were to all spiritual and true religion. Prone to sensual pleasures and gratifications, they say, "Up, make us gods!" And the mere worldly man of this day makes the same impious demand while bowing his slavish knee at the altar of mammon!
It is worthy of notice, that the Israelites themselves furnished the materials to make this golden calf; instructing us that they presented, by their golden ornaments, their love of worldly and sensual pleasures, and that their best affections were set on these. Hence they desired the whole to be formed into an object of
