Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-04-17
HIS WORDS REACHED MILLIONS
Had Two Congregations, One Before Him,
the Other Through the Press.

Had Two Congregations, One Before Him,
the Other Through the Press.
DR.. Talmage was without doubt the
most popular preacher America has
produced. When he had church, his
congregations were as enormous as
those of Henry Ward Beecher, and he
at the same time addressed another
congregation of millions through the
newspapers. When he was preaching
in Brooklyn, there was no necessity OF
stranger asking where DR.. TalmageS
church was; all he had to do was to
follow the crowd. For many years his
sermons were preached both from the
pulpit and through the newspapers,
but after he gave up his pulpit in
Washington the great divine spoke to
his flock wholly through the public
press, and there was hardly town
in the United States where his sermon
in the daily or weekly newspaper was
not eagerly awaited by scores of pro-
Pile. tt is probably no exaggeration to
state that his sermon was read each
week by several millions of people. 1t
appeared in at least six languages, and
the combined circulatiOnS of the news
papers printing his sermons were esti-
mated at 100000.
Few men were capable of doing as
much literary work in a day as the
famous preacher. When nearing three
score and ten he often dictated as
many as 10000 words in day, and
on many occasions he has worn out
two or three stenOgraphers during that
time. His sermons were all first
preached to a stenOgrapher, and when
he was in the thrOes Of composition he
walked tirelessly up and down his
study preaching and geStulating ex-
actly as he did later in the pulpit, and
almost with as great rapidity Each
week he read thoroughly between fifty
and one hundred papers, wrote the edi-
torials for his religious weekly, The
Christian Herald dictated sermons.
correspondence, letters and books, saw
scores Of friends, business callers, adj
mirerS, crankS and impOStOrS. and dur
| ING his lecture season lectured at least
once a year in most of the large and
many of the small cities of the cOun-
| try.
| He once tried debating his sermons
| TO a monographs; but. as walking about
| the room was practically a necessity
and as he could not very we'll carry
the machine with him, he abandoned
the scheme. He often said that in all
his life he had never written line CT
spoken word with the aid of a slim
ulant. At one time he was a habitual
smoker, but ceased one day with sud
den resolution that was typical of his
whole life.
DR.. Talmage was born in Bound
Brook. Somerset county, n. j., Jan. {,
1892 His home was small farm, and
he was the youngest son Of family
of twelve children. His parents were
deeply religious people. and their great
est desire was to see some of their sons
enter the ministry. Their hopes were
fulfilled. for the eldest brother at the
close of his college life went to China
as missionary, while another became
minister DR.. Talmage himself en-
tered law. but his parents never ceased
TO hope tina he would eventually fol
low in the footsteps of his brothers. In
| 1853 he gave up legal practice and
went to the college at New Brunswick
to prepare II the ministry.
| His first charge was at Belleville. n.