The Portland daily press., 1894-02-19
THE COLLAPSE OF TALMAoE.
Said to Have Been Inevitable, Owing to
His Lack of Sincerity.

The downfall of Talmage is an event
VIII ich very properly attracts wide atten-
ton, for it is a noteworthy sign of the
| times.
Talmage's resignation was no surprise
| to those who have kept close track OF
his later career. The evidence of his
| failure has long been open. and 1t was
| only question of time when he would
have had to make public confession of 1T.
| For while he appears to have cherished
! the hope that he might leave the Iaber-
nacle with unimpaired prestige. to open
| a new season somewhere else, probably
| in Chicago; but even Chicago gradually
| lost W hatever desire it had once had Tor
! his performances, and there was nothlng
| to do for it but to resign without pre-
| tence of a wider field OF usefulness" IN
| some other city.
| The failure OF Talmage is due to the
| lack of moral sincerity i'll the man. His
career has been one of false pref enceS
| throughout, and he has at last been
| found out. He was quick to see that
there was money in notoriety. He there
fore sought notoriety. He perceived
clearly the help which he could get from
! the press when the press SO generally
lapsed into sensationalism, and he there
| fore made friends with the newspapers.
He was always ready to puff the Won
derful enterprise of the modern press.
and the modern editors were always
ready in return to give him great
amount of advertising without charge.
Having become notorious, Ialmage be-
gan to market his name. He charged
large sums for writing small amounts OF
matter as. "editor" of one or another
publication which was read to pay for
a name He made sharp bargains with
syndicates for the publication of his
sermons. He neglected his pastoral work
to 90 off on lecturlng tours at $500 a
night He ran up his income into tens
of thousands year, while poorly paid
and overworked clergymen of other
Brooklyn churches had to attend
funerals in his parish and discharge
other pressing duties of his which he
shirked in order to swell his bank ac-
count.
A great church ought to be an i'm
mense force for good in community.
The Brooklyn Tabernacle has been al
most nonentity in this respect. Tai
mage himself never took pronounced
stand on any burning question. He was
always "red hot" against the wife beater,
and the rum seller, and any other sort OF
| friendless sinner in the abstract; but he
never pitched into" any abuse which
nau powerful SuppOibs NC uoFCl WIN
sides where somebody might be offended
by the expression of positive convic-
ton; he never made the slightest sacrl-
fee for the public interest Like mas
ter, like man." Plymouth church, un-
der Henry Ward Beecher, in the days
when he would run the risk of being
mobbed to speak what he believed to be
the truth, was a fount of benevolence, a
centre of moral forces, a power for good.
The Tabernacle under Taimage has pro-
voked derlsion by the paucity OF its con-
tributions for benevolent objects. 1t was
really nothing but theatre at which
Sunday performances were given.
At last it has failed even as a religious
show. Talmage used to boast that he
drew thousands of hearers; the treasurer
groaned because the fund in the contrlbu-
ton boxes contained thousands ofpennies.
The preacher employed the pulpit as a
means of securing the notoriety through
which he could line his own pockets, but
the time finally came when the receipts
would no longer pay the running expens-
es, Everybody knew that, when that
time came he would get out and leave
the church to grapple with its difficulties
alone. There is nothing more in it for
him; why should he stay any longer?
The lesson is that clerical mounte-
bankism in the long run does not pay;
that the public at last takes the true
measure Of man. that there must be a
moral basis for permanent success. The
long vogue which Talmage enjoyed was
discouraging, but it only serves to ac-
centuaGe and emphasize his final failure
N. Y. Evening Post.