Brooklyn History -- Reverend Talmage
Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage. Photo: Autobiography, T. De Witt Talmage

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, and Part 5 of this story.

The Second Presbyterian Church, at the Corner of Fulton and Clinton Street, was the site for the ecclesiastical “Trial of the Century” of popular preacher Rev. Dr. Thomas DeWitt Talmage, of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. There, he was to be held accountable for actions taken in his career, actions that his accusers told the larger Presbytery had been against church law.

This was quite an accusation to make against one of Brooklyn’s most famous and popular ministers, a man who was second only to the great Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in popularity and standing. His enormous church, fondly called “Talmage’s Tabernacle”, was packed every Sunday, and Talmage was called upon by churches and important people across the United States and Europe, to speak and give advice.

His sermons and lectures were circulated in pamphlets and books, and his church services were legendary for his enthusiastic, but intellectually stimulating sermons, and the thundering music of praise coming from the powerful organ, its massive pipes rising majestically behind the pulpit.

At the keyboard of this instrument was George W. Morgan, one of the 19th century’s finest and most well-known organists. Talmage and Morgan made quite a team, and on that day in March, 1879, that team lay at the root of the some of the charges.

For more background and details on what transpired in “Organ-gate”, please see parts One and Two of our story. Suffice it to say, the Trustees of the Tabernacle wanted to fire the popular Morgan, which, while not the smartest of decisions, was within their job description.

Talmage overturned their decision, and the entire board quit in protest. There were accusations of Morgan being a rude and abusive drunk, and worse, accusations of Talmage being a boldfaced liar, telling his board one thing, and Morgan and his congregation another. Word of this reached the Presbytery, the governing board of the Presbyterian Church, and charges of falsehood and deceit were placed against Rev. Talmage.

The first day of the trial brought out not only Talmage’s supporters and accusers, but the press, and representatives from almost every denomination in Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan, and even overseas. Second Presbyterian was packed to the rafters.

Talmage entered with his wife, seated her with supporters, and sat in a pew with his advisors. After some the rest of the panel was seated, including a blind clergyman who had to be escorted to his chair, (great dramatic move, there) the meeting got down to business.

The Committee did not find Rev. Talmage guilty of any kind of heresy. That was the first thing they mentioned. They applauded him for his successes and popularity, and chided him for his excesses in delivery. “We are obliged to add, however that some of this methods… are out of harmony with those of Christ and His Apostles….with suggestions of our directory of worship, chapter 2, section 2, ‘In the time of public worship, let all the people attend with gravity and reverence, etc.’”.

They were starting to warm up now, and then launched into complaints about WHERE his ministering to the unsaved was taking him. Talmage had a long record of railing against the evils of drink and public vice, and often thundered from his pulpit detailed descriptions of what went on in the various dens of evil in this world.

“There is too often in the public ministration of Dr. Talmage, the want of reference for God, His Work and His House…We cannot but think that in the preparation and delivery of some of his sermons, that some serious mistakes were made: First – Going to places of ill resort, not to rescue the fallen, but rather for the purpose of unveiling before excited multitudes what many of them are only too eager to see.

Second – Attempting to cure vice in the vicious and prevent it in the virtuous, by depicting it as seen in its dark and loathsome haunts…Men learn their sinfulness and ruin more in Emmanuel’s glory than in the darkness of the pit.

Third – A series of sermons, made up of chiefly vivid descriptions of human wickedness in its manifold forms is not promotive either of the salvation of the lost or the edification of the body of Christ.

It is certainly not desirable or possible to bring God’s ministers to the dead level of sameness, and is it not right to condemn unless we are we are well assured that God condemns, but we believe that the use of the improper methods we have noted does tend to bring religion into contempt.”

After this scolding, the meeting got down to the issue at hand. “It has been, from the first, the sincere and earnest desire of every member of your committee to find that the rumor charging Dr. Talmage with untruthfulness was of such a nature that we might be able conscientiously to report to the Presbytery that there was no need of further action in this case.

But as our investigation proceeded we became convinced that the rumor specifying the sins of falsehood and deceit fulfills all the conditions of chapter III, section 5, of our Book of Discipline.

Having no judicial power or authority to call witnesses, and no means of ascertaining the truth, we can, of course, express no conviction as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. We believe that a full, fair and impartial trial is clearly due to Dr. Talmage, to the Presbytery of Brooklyn, and to the honor of Christ.”

The Brooklyn Eagle took scrupulous notes during this trial, and their articles are as good as transcripts. Basically, the charges were as follows: Dr. Talmage lied on several occasions about several different things, misrepresented himself as being on one side of an issue to some people, and was then on the other side to others, such as in the firing of the organist, Mr. Morgan, and what seems to be the worst offense, declared that the Brooklyn Tabernacle was a “free church”.

Turns out most churches at this time rented out pews. A family would pay a yearly stipend for their pew, or part of a pew, and only they, or people they gave permission to, could sit there. They were also free to sublet the pews, with church permission.

Churches that did not rent out pews, and those were usually lower class congregations, were called “free churches”. The Tabernacle was supposed to be collecting rent for pews, and apparently, when the new church rose from the ashes of the first, they were not.

What followed was much speechifying by Talmage’s supporters and villifiers, starting with another eminent Presbyterian clergyman, Dr. Spears, of Cobble Hill. He was firmly on Dr. Talmage’s side, and went on at great length, with impassioned oration in defense of his friend.

He basically said, “All you have are rumors, rumors of falsehood are not proof. Put up or shut up, my learned brethren.” Other clergymen on the panel interrupted with obscure points of canonical law and Scripture, and for the lay person in the audience, it must have been extremely tedious and rather boring.

The case against Dr. Talmage went on for over a month, from the middle of March until the end of April. On April 24th, the venue changed from Second Presbyterian Church to the Lay College, which actually belonged to the Tabernacle, and was once the eminent Dr. Spear’s church, before it was sold to the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

It was on Clinton Street at Amity Street. The building was much larger and afforded more space for spectators as well as people related to the trial. It was winding down, by the end of April, and even Mrs. Talmage was not coming every day, her nerves shot by the whole experience. Many people had testified against Rev. Talmage, but no one was able to really prove that he had lied about anything, or had gone against church doctrine.

When he took the stand, Talmage spoke against all of the charges against him, and actually made mincemeat of the prosecutor, Mr. Crosby. Crosby wasn’t able to pin him down on anything, and the Brooklyn Eagle mentioned in their headline, “Futile efforts of his enemies to sustain their cooked up charges of falsehood and deceit – A tedious and absurd cross examination by Mr. Crosby – the youthful prosecutor rather severely handled by the defendant.”

The last thing that came out of the testimony was the declaration that Brooklyn Tabernacle was indeed a “free church”, as Talmage was quoted, from the Eagle, no less, as saying at the dedication ceremony of the new church that, “I am opposed to pew rents altogether on principle. A man’s financial ability should not be made a test of his religious prospects.

A man without a farthing in his pocket has as much right in the house of God and to all the joys of the sanctuary as another with a million. The church of God makes no difference between rich and poor. “

After much deliberation, the Presbytery of the Church declared that no evidence existed to show that Dr. Talmage had lied, misrepresented himself, or had otherwise done any wrong. He was cleared of all charges, his church was still his church, and he was able to go back to his pulpit. They just asked him to tone down the sensationalism. After all the fuss, Dr. Talmage was back in his pulpit, Mr. Morgan back to his organ, and the crowds were soon back to hear them.

The church remained a staple of the religious column for the Eagle, as Talmage was still a firebrand preacher, and community leader. But controversy seemed to follow him everywhere. If he wasn’t doing anything, members of his congregation seemed to make the news every once in a while, for everything from accidents to arrests for crimes.

One man smacked his wife right as they were leaving a Sunday morning service. When she sued for divorce, he declared they were having a religious discussion, and besides, he had every right to strike his own wife. In other news, money became tight, as expenses grew, and the church grappled with debt, which they struggled to pay.

There were suits and counter suits by church members claiming they had not been paid back for loans to the church. And then, on October 13, 1889, it happened again. The second Brooklyn Tabernacle caught fire right before Sunday service, and burned to the ground.

Next time – A little freaked by lightning striking twice, the church decides to abandon that location and rebuild the third Talmage Tabernacle in Clinton Hill, not downtown, on Schermerhorn Street. The fate of this building, and the Reverend Talmage and his flock, as the story continues.


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