Thomas Dewitt Talmage
1832-1902
American Presbyterian minister. Thomas Dewitt Talmage was a
lawyer before his conversion. Upon entering the ministry, he
served three Reformed churches in New Jersey, New York, and
Pennsylvania, and also two Presbyterian churches in New York
and Washington, D.C. After serving as a chaplain in the Union
Army during the Civil War, he built a tabernacle in Brooklyn
in 1870. It was burned by vandals in 1872. It was rebuilt but
burned again in 1889, and again in 1894.
Talmage served as pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church in Washington, D.C., from 1895 until 1899. His sermons
were printed in 3,500 newspapers each Sunday across America
and Europe. He also edited The Christian Herald and authored
more than 500 sermons, which were published as a complete
set.
Preaching without the aid of notes, his oratorical
powers were compared to those of George Whitefield, and his
poetic expression to that of Shakespeare and Milton. Over
30,000 people received the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Sa-
viour during Talmage's ministry as pastor.

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Christian Biographies