Thomas De Witt Talmage

Thomas De Witt Talmage (7 January 1832 – 12 April 1902) was an American Presbyterian preacher.

He was born at Bound Brook, New Jersey, USA; his older brother was noted China missionary John Van Nest Talmage. He was educated at the University of the City of New York (now New York University) and at the Reformed Dutch Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, New Jersey, from which he was graduated in 1856.

Immediately afterwards, he became pastor of a Reformed church at Belleville, New Jersey. In 1859, he removed to Syracuse, New York; in 1862, to Philadelphia, where he was pastor of the Second Reformed Dutch Church; and, in 1869, to the Central Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, where a large building known as the Tabernacle was erected for him in 1870.

In 1872, this building was burned down. A larger one, holding 5,000 persons, was built in 1873, but even this could not contain the crowds attracted by his eloquence and sensationalism. In 1889, this church also burned to the ground, only to be succeeded by another and larger one, which, in its turn, was burned in 1894. Shortly afterwards he removed to Washington, D.C., where, from 1895 to 1899, he was the associate pastor, with Dr Byron Sunderland (d. 1901), of the First Presbyterian Church.

He served as a chaplain for the Union Army during the American Civil War.

During the last years of his life, Dr. Talmage ceased preaching and devoted himself to editing, writing, and lecturing. At different periods he was editor of the "Christian at Work" (1873–76), New York; the "Advance" (1877–79), Chicago; "Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine" (1879–89), New York; and the "Christian Herald" (1890-1902), New York. For years his sermons were published regularly in more than 3,000 journals, reaching, it is said, 25,000,000 readers.

His books also have had large circulations; among them are "The Almond Tree in Blossom" (1870); "Every Day Religion" (1875); "The Brooklyn Tabernacle" (1884); "Talmage's Life of Christ" (1894); "From Manger to Throne" (1895); "The Pathway of Life" (1895); and "The Earth Girdled" (1896). His eloquence, while sensational, was real and striking. His fluency and the picturesqueness of his language and imagery were remarkable. He died at Washington in April 1902.

On his father's side, he descended from the original founders of South Hampton and East Hampton, New York. His father's family came from Barton Stacy, England.

External links

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*gutenberg|no=18422|name=Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z, contains two speeches by Talmage.
* [http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder6652 "Talmage on Miracles" recited by Len Spencer] , from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.