Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-04-19
oND OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.

and that am a sinner, enriched by his
grace. though all unworthy"
FOND OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.
All his life he was Unfortunately fond
of religious literature. Even in child
hood he would read SCOTS Commenta-
ries. bulky volume. when he was too
small to sit upon a chair and had to
use a stool instead II he could have
mastered even single foreign lam
guagc. he would probably have become
missionary like his brothers, but he
mad no knack Of acquiring strange
tongues. so he stuck to the plain An
glo-Saxon and to such purpose that his
sturdy utterances have been translated
into nearly a score Of foreign Ian
guagcs When he visited Athens in
1890, he was presented to Queen Olga,
who told him that she had the pleas
ure of reading his sermons In her ma
tive Greek in her own capital in the
columns Of n weekly publication"
Through such means he doubtless
reached much vaster audiences in for
eign lands than any missionary could
ever hope to reach. When he was max
ing his round the world trip, he found
his sermons read in so many places
that he afterward used to say jocular-
ly. 81 felt on that trip as though | was
making a round of pastoral calls"
Speaking OF the secret Of his own
powers. DR.. Talmage once said: Il
take the subjects that are interesting
people all around me every day and
particularly at the moment. jot down
my notes in little book and always
try to get down the precise point |
wish to make. Then | take all availa
bic sources OF information on that
point ard slft them thoroughly. avoid
ing beaten tracks. | suppose | have
preached more sermons than any one
living on texts that are overlooked by
other preachers. | revise my work and
boil it down, making IT as pungent and
epigrammatic as possible. and then die
tate it to get the oratorical effect. I've
found my subjects in odd, out of the
way places, in a locomotive train. oil
hotel piazza. in patent Office report. in
rainstorm. | never had more than
three lessons in elocutiOn. but | recall
an early experience that helped me.
When a young man. belonged to de-
batting club 1t was a rule of the clIb
to devote one evening q month to ex-
temporaneous addresses on topic not
to be announced, even TO the speaker,
until the moment Of delivery. None of
us knew what we might have to talk
about. but we were expected to get
I'D and say something anyway without
hesltatlng about 1t. One night it came
my turn, and when the president an
nounced, Mr.. Talmage will now ad-
dress US on the influence of the moon
upon vegetation felt as though
had been struck with a baseball bat.
But rose, pulled up my collar and
made speech. l don't remember
what | said, but it was as full Of seri-
Gus. fine spun resounding phrases as
though | had been a scientific professor
fresh from the study of the subject,
and 1t passed muster. After that ex-
perience," he added, laughing. Il felt
quite equal to speaking offhand on
anything"
'TALMAolsMs."
AS an editorial writer DR.. Talmage
was versatile and prolific. and his
weekly contributions on an immense
variety Of topics would fill many vol
umes. His writing was as entertaining
and pungent as his preaching and
full Of brilliant eccentriciues-"Tal-
macisms." as they were called. He
coined new words and invented new
phrases. If the topic was to his liking,
the pen raced to keep time with the
thought. 1t was the same with his SER
mons. Once conceived in the busy
brain. the committing to paper was
swift and exciting. Still. with all this
haste, nothing could exceed the scru-
pulous care he took with his finished
manuscript. He once wired from Gin
cinnau to his publisher In New YORK
instructions to change comma in his
current sermon to q semlcolon. lie had
detected the error while reading proof
on the train.
His phenomenal memory was never
Mt a loss. He had spoken or written on
thousands Of topics, and he remember
ed almost everything he had ever
preached. In preparing his twenty
volume series Of sermons he used only
500. or less than half the total number
he had preached. In addition to at
least a thousand sermons of 1000
words each, each sermon different
from the other this vast pulpit roper
tory aggregatng probably 100000
words, he was the author Of a number
Of lectures, the most popular being
1.-THE New Life Of the Nation" "Grum-
blers," "Our New Home" big Blum
ders" and "The Bright Side Of Things"
Originality in all things was perhaps
the most pronounced trait Of DR.. Tai
mage's character. In his literary work
he scorned to borrow though his own
unique phrases and ideas were the
prey Of many petty plagiarists. AL
though his fame will rest chiefly upon
his sermonic writings, his treatment of
lighter topics was brilliant and clever.
But his finest work was not among the
shadows. His pen could go deeply into
the secrets Of the heart and soul, and
such was his rare gift that with a sim
Gle sentence ne could move multitude.
Some of his volumes written In the
early part Of his career show rare Vi
vacity and wit and give clew to his
wonderful success as an entertaining
lecturer In maturer years. Among the