Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-01-09
HOW He WAS CALLED.
Or. Sunderland Tells Of Dr. TaimAes's ss-
lection By the Washington Church.


lection By the washinKton Church.
1t Is q queer tale Of how DR.. Talmags
was called TO the pastorate Of the First
Presbyterian church In Washington and Of
the terms upon which he has been en-
gagged. No salary has been stipulated. DR..
Talmage is simply to come and preach on
Sunday evenings, leaving the sordid ques-
tion of salary to be decided hereafter, ao-
cordiug to his own desire. The church,
with tho coming Of DR.. Talmage, will have
three pastors, as the venerable Byron Sun.
derland and the Rev. Adolos Allen viii
remain. DR.. Sunderland has been pastor
Of the church since 1853 and has been in
timately connected with its rise, decline
and fall. With him originated the idea Of
asking DR.. Tahnage to come, and he says
that he now looks upon the suggestion In
the light Of an inspiration. To use DR..
Sunderland's own language, it came
about in this way:
"If any one had told me two weeks
ago." said he TO The Sun correspondent,
THAT there was even a prospect of DIR.
Talhage coming to our church in the near
future, should certainly not have believed
it, for until two weeks ago the idea of
even asking him IL he could come was the
very farthest from my thoughts and those
of the officers of my church. The call
came about very curiOusly We had meet
ing of the officials of the church for the
purpose of talking over the ways and
means in the approaching centennial of its
founding in the city of Washington, which
we had proposed having during the latter
part of November. 1t had been proposed
by the trustees to have DIR. Talmage come
here at that time to give talk, possibly
at Convention hall, where he might have
a large crowd. attended this meeting
and gave my heartiest approval to the plan.
Suddenly, without thought, rose, and
the idea came into my mind-I look upon
it now as an inspiration-to call Talmage
permanently, and 1 said, and quick as q
flash and without thinking, Here VIC are
talking about getting this man to be with
us for one night, why not call him here
for all the time? Why not ask him to be
our pastorY The words actually dunn
founded the trustees, aud there stood,
almost dazed and thunderstruck at the
temerity of my remark. The reason I
think it was an inspiration is that had
not thought of it for moment and blurt-
u.
l really don't know what possessed me
that night.
"Of course the trustees thought it was
the most idle thing in the world to con-
slider. They answered me by saying that
he was man with offers from all over
the world; the proffer of an immense
salary from London and the building of
al. immense new church; large offers from
syndicates and many inviting propositions
from the largest Presbyterian churches in
the country. There was another PROPOSE
tion made him recently from the Red
Gross society. They raised a large sum of
money for the relief of the Armenians and
proposed to DIR. Talmage to go to Armenia
in their behalf and expend the money for
the benefit of the suffering Christians in
that prosecuted land. How could we, they
said, in our modest though historical
church here in Washington, expect to get
the services of man with such cffers as
these? argued that was old and feeble
nearly 75-and my sphere of active use
fulness was about over, but that there was
unquestionably a field in this city of poll
tics and government for man of DIR.
Talmage's attainments.
"In spite of myself controverted all Of
the objections of the trustees. l argued
that we didn't know about DR.. Talmage's
aims and ambitions. That while these
tempting offers had been made there were
lsAany things which might interfere with
his taking advantage of any of them He
was naturally anxious about the safety of
the Armenian expedition, and did not,
thought, care to leave his own country,
even to take advantage of such o magnifi-
cent offer as that which came to him from
London, and / was not certain that he
would not do as much good at our church
here in Washington as at any other Pres
byterian church in the country / argued
that it had been some time since Dr. Tai
mage had been unsettled in his prospects;
that he had not accepted anywhere else;
that his Tabernacle had been burned O
year; that his Brooklyn associations, ow-
ing TO the death of his wife, were sad, and
that he would probably like change We
were old friends. I knew that he liked
Washington and that he had preached at
my church, giving afterward expressions
of great qualification at the reception
which he had received from my people and
the people of other denominations in this
city who had called to hear him. All of
these arguments used as if they had been
in my mind for months, and from that
evening until his acceptance reached me
on Thursday morning l have been con-
vinced that he would come to us. Wash
ington Cor. New York Sun.