Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-11-07
Talmare's Last Trouble

| The Rev. DIR. Joseph Parker is prom
inent Dissenting minister of London, whose
sermons are widely read in this country
/ He is also the conductor of religious news
paper called the Fountain. According to
the Fountain, DIR. Talmage, when attend
ing jubilee of the Good Templars AN
English Temperance Society-announced
that he was a ''teetotaler" Having made
this announcement, Dr. Talmage subse-
quently went to dinner, where he drank
champagne. The Fountain thereupon point
ed out that this was inconsistent with the
profession of ''teetotalism." and intimated
that DIR. Talmage could not be both ''teeto-
taller and a wine-drinker. A few days
later, when company of deluded Britons
had assembled to witness one OF DR.. Tai
IMAGES entertainments. he read Il telegram
from the person with whom he dined on the
day that he had attended the Good Templar
| jubilee, denying that he drank wine ON that
day. Whereupon he dismissed the subject
with the remark that the Fountain had pub
lished IAN infamous and unmtigated false
/ hood" which must be classed among the
thousand lies which have been told of him
DR.. Parker, however, was not crushed
~ tiAAH AAAo"Nl- III lNlAlGu III lllt L ONft-
tain, that a mistake was probably made in
the date, and that Dr. Talmage told a
certain amount of truth alleging that he did
not drink champagne on the evening of July
s, 1879 Nevertheless, the fact that Tai
mage sought popularity among the Good
Templars by telling them that he was ''tee-
totaler. while at the same time he was in
the habit of drinking wine at dinner, still re-
manned to be disproved. He cannot deny, -
says DR.. Parker, that he drinks wine. A
witness in our own household has seen him
do it time after time" To deny that he
drank wine at one particular dinner, with
the manifest intention of producing the i'm
preston that he did not drink wine at other
dinners, is not, in the opinion of Dr. Parker,
the conduct of truthful man. We might"
continues the Fountain, very properly
avail ourselves of DR.. Talmage's own form
of words, and charge his self-defence as an
infamous and unmitigated falsehood. We
do not hesitate so to characterize it. We
go further than this, and say that DIR. Tai
IMAGES action in this one matter shows us
that the charges of deceit and lying brought
against him in the Brooklyn Presbytery are
very likely to be true. After which the
Fountain formally withdraws every friend
~ word it had previously published about
him, and hands over his eloquent legs to the
tender mercies of the Brooklyn Presbytery.
1t is of very little consequence what DR..
Talmage eats or drinks That he is intem-
perate in the use of wine no one has ever al
legged. In fact, his whole life would contra
dict any such ALLEGATION. In order TO keep
his legs and arms in condition for his week
ly performances ut the Tabernacle, he must
avoid wine, tobacco, and the various other
stimulants avoided by every successful
acrobat. 1t is only by strict sObriety that
the trapeze performer maintains that
constant command of his muscles which en-
ables him to perform his perilous feats, and
were Talmage to become addicted to excess
in drinking, his legs would some day give
way in the midst of an eloquent sermon,
and he would sustain fatal injuries. So long
as he has sufficient confidence in himself to
preach without spreading net below the
pulpit to break the force of possible fall,
We may feel sure that he is temperate in his
use of champagne and other wines While
he was in England he performed nearly
every night, and he certainly could not have
done this were he in the habit Of over-indul-
gence in wine.
But if DR.. Talmage tells what is not true
about his temperate and unobjectiopable
wine drinking. his conduct becomes a mat
ter OF interest to the friends Of the denomina-
ton of which he is, as vet. a minister. 1t is
the professed belief of DIR. Talmage that
there are only two classes Of persons who
find faul! with him One consists of the
enemies Of Christianity and the other of
ministers who are jealous of him. DIR.
Parker is certainly not an enemy of Chris
tilnity, and even il we concede that nearly
half the ministers of the Brooklyn Presby-
terry are, in spite of their reputation of Chris
tianS and gentlemen scOundrels who try to
ruin brother minister merely because of
contemplate jealousy, we cannot assume
that jealousy influences London minister,
between whom and Dr. Talmage there can
be no possible rivalry. And yet, either DIR.
Parker, moved by a base jealousy of DIR.
Tamage, has published and reiterated
wicked lie for the sole purpose of injuring
him. or else DIR. Talmage drank wine At
English dinner-iabes and ut the same time
assured the Good Templars that he was
''teetotaler ~ Y. Times