T. DeWitt Talmage
1832 - 1902

“Just as sometimes a child is so sick that it cannot any longer lie in the cradle, and the mother has to take it up, so sometimes God’s children are so troubled that they cannot lie easy anywhere but in God’s lap.”


If Charles Spurgeon was the “Prince of Preachers,” then T. DeWitt Talmage must be considered as one of the princes of the American pulpit. In fact, Spurgeon stated of Talmage’s ministry: “His sermons take hold of my inmost soul. The Lord is with the mighty man. I am astonished when God blesses me but not surprised when He blesses him.” He was probably the most spectacular pulpit orator of his time—and one of the most widely read.

Like Spurgeon, Talmage’s ministry was multiplied not only from the pulpit to immense congregations, but in the printed pages of newspaper and in the making of many books. His sermons appeared in 3,000 newspapers and magazines a week, and he is said to have had 25 million readers.

And for 25 years, Talmage – a Presbyterian – filled the 4,000 to 5,000 seat auditorium of his Brooklyn church, as well as auditoriums across America and the British Isles. He counted converts to Christ in the thousands annually.

He was the founding editor of Christian Herald, and continued as editor of this widely circulated Protestant religious journal from 1877 until his death in 1902.

He had the face of a frontiersman and the voice of a gold bell; sonorous, dramatic, fluent, he was, first of all, an orator for God; few other evangelists had his speech. He poured forth torrents, deluges of words, flinging glory and singing phrases like a spendthrift; there was glow and warmth and color in every syllable. He played upon the heartstrings like an artist. One writer described him as the cultured Billy Sunday of his time. Many of his critics found fault with his methods; buy they could not deny his mastery, nor could they successfully cloud his dynamic loyalty to his Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ.