The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-09-20
A Talk with T. Dewitt Talmage

A Talk with T. Dewitt Talmage
as he was quietly resting in the shade of
a tree. He is fifty years of age. His
father was preacher, and all twelve of
his children became professors of reli-
gion. Dewitt has been in Brooklyn four
teen years, and has a wife and seven liv-
ing children, with one in heaven"
Next to Sturgeon, probably no clergy
mans utterances are more widely circu-
lated than DR.. Talmage's. Every SER
mon he breaches comes back to him in
from sixty to eighty papers, some of
which-like the Cincinnati Enquirer and
the Louisville Courier Jouamal-rank
among the foremost political journals of
the country. Besides, his sermons are
published in England, Austl ALA and
New Zealand. He tells us that he is
constantly hearing from persons who
were led to Christ by reading his SER
mons in secular paper. A minister in
Georgia said to him l was, as an I'M
godly youth, sweeping the store and
CHANGED to pick up piece of newspaper
on which was scrap of one of your SER
mons. read it, and it changed the
whole course of my life" A reporter of
0no VI tne NeW Iolh payers, While re-
porting one of DR.. Talmages sermons,
with view to caricature it, was con-
victed and converted.
When asked as to his manner of life.
Talmage replied: 1 eat good big beef
steak for breakfast on Sunday morning,
and then, after the morning service, |
eat a good dinner, and then sleep two
hours, and then am ready for my night
sermon. We have an animal nature as
well as spiritual. What does COW do
after eating heartily? The doctors may
say what they please; but 1 have tried
it thirty years, and 1 know that a good
dinner and good nap after it heI p a
preacher. put my whole strength on
my sermons, and then when Sunday
comes seek to have my body in good
trim, and 1 do my best
What about your pastoral work p
we asked.
well, the best way for pastor to work
is to put his people to work. divide the
church into twentyfour parishes, and
put brother over each parish, and once
a. month all twenty four meet to talk
over the work. Then, 1 have a large
number of elders, and upon them 1 pile
the work. They visit the sick and at
tend funerals, and the people like it Just
as well as if it was done by the pastor.
While my people are doing that, am in
my study, and no one is allowed to in
terrupt me until l o'clock P. M. The
gospel plan is to put the support of the
gospel on the conscience, and 1 aim to
make every one work and give, and thus
my church prospers all the time.
" How is it that you give so much of
your time to editing and lecturing, with
SO large a church p we asked.
Well, l will tell you that, too. 1
felt called of God to reach the neglected
classes not reached by other agencies. 1
wished to reach the multitudes in the
dram-shop and the brothel, where your
Religious Herald and other such papers
never go. Many of the eighty or ninety
papers that print my sermons are read
every day in those places. And SO
through the Sunday Magazine 1 reach
many who read no religious paper. And
80 with lecturing. Thus reach multi
tudes beyond the pulpit's influence. 1t
is wonderful the good a man can do by
means of type You preach through your
Religious Herald to people who are not
on the lookout lest you carry their ludg-
ments, as men so often are at church.
One picks up paper, and one thing af-
ter another gets hold of him, until he is
won. Then, your paper reaches thou
sands that never attend church. 1t in
structs and comforts the lonely mother
as she watches around the cradle of her
sick child. Hence it is that [ give so
much of my time to newspapers. AS
for lecturing, do not accept one in
twenty Of the invitations to lecture.
While ninety-four days in England, 1
lectured ninetysix times. Religious
Herald