The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1902-04-18
HIS WORDS REACHED MILLIONS
Had Two Congregations, One Before Him,
the Other Throus the Press.

Had Two Congregations, One Before Him,
the Other Throus the Press.
DR.. Talmagc was without doubt the
most popular preacher America has
produced. When he had a 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
i'll Brooklyn, there was no necessity of
a stranger asking where DR.. Talmage's
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 a town
in the United States where his sermon
in the daily or weekly newspaper was
not eagerly awaited By scores of pro-
pie. tt is probably no eXaggeration to
state that his sermon was read each
week by several millions of people. 1t
appeared in ut least six languages, and
the combined calculations of the news
papers printing his sermons were esti-
mated at 30,000,000.
Few men were capable of doing as
much literary work i'll a day as the
famous preacher. When nearing three
score and ten he often dictated as
many as 10000 words in Il day, and
on many occasions he has worn out
two or three stenographers during that
time, His sermons were all first
10
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
inc his lecture season lectured at least
once Il year in most of the large and
many of the small cities of the coun-
try.
He once tried debating his sermons
20 photograph; 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 a line OF
spoken Il word with the aid of a slim
ulant. At one time he was habitual
smoker, but ceased one day with Il sud
den resolution that was typical of his
whole life.
DR.. Talmage was born in Bound
Brook, Somerset county, n. J., Jan. Z
1882. His home was a small farm, and
he was the Youngest son of family
of twelve children. His parents were
deeply religious people, and their great
eSttdesire 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 a missionary, while another became
a minister. DR.. Talmage himself en-
tered law, ebut his parents never. ceased
to hope that he would eventually fol
low. in the footsteps of his brothers. Ii
1858 he gave up legal practice an6
went to the college at New Brunswick
to prepare for the ministry.
- His first charge was at Belleville. n