Show mountebanks MOUNT EBANKS prodoc ed considerable bof interesting pulpit monstrosities and the new york sun puta one of these dams on record in handsome tyle aa follows v 1 r in navolume of his eemmons eer mons re bently issued the rv R v T da will talmage sustains his reputation as the leading pulpit mountebank of the age the sermons exhibit the aade ignorance conceit andreck the same irreverence mis conceptions of scripture and trav cities of bible narratives the same hatred of science and disregard of ethical truths which have always characterized mr tal mages discourses so gross and numerous are taci against taste truth and common sense in this volume that it would hardly be possible for an intelligent person to read it without coming to the con elusion that ita author ia as great an asa as ever had ordaining hands laid between bis cars the sermons are preceded by an anonymous biographical of mr talmage no wonder that the writer shrank from putting his name to the sketch it is a performance that any one might well be asham ed of in fact we doubt if any body having a proper regard for his own good opinion to say nothing oi the respect of the public would even write such a sketch anonymously this with other reasons lead us to that the sketch is autobiographical its author displaces es an intimate knowledge of mr Talmage 8 inter bior consciousness and motives which no exterior mind could possess besides it is not probable that anybody exo himself have such an exalted idea ot his alleged genius as the writer of ahr biographical sketch strenuously cherishes who for example except talmage could write in thia wise of balmages Tal mages prayers the prayer succeeds in which the pastor carries his own wants and those of his people his country and the church straight to llie throne the graphicness of it is alie intense recital of human needs the fervor of it is the supreme appreciation 0 divine fullness the simplicity of it is the childlike certainty of answer oa cicro tho lit it ia the awful consciousness of souls unsaved and unconcerned the tri of it is the literal loss of self in overpowering realization of chrisia Chr isiH love and boundless and beauty how different is this Tal notion of prayer from that of the poor publican who emote himself upon the breast and cried god be merciful to me a sinner S the most absurd part of the sketch is probably that which treats of what the author calls air tal mages style of oratory he says iti combine the beat of the colloquial and the dramatic the ermon a be anya jor what precision excision memory distinctness and they reveal need not be stated they are more condensed than theorems as round d pointed nd polished as esais es ays yet extemporaneous and their preservation dependent on pencil I 1 there moro than one man in the world who could so extravagantly praise the jerky t rhou omon ladesi rigmarole which sir talmage bab doma dally exhibits 9 mr talmage draws large au di cancea and the general testimony that his hearers enjoy his we caa readily believe this ilia audience usually consists of awu divisions one of which is composed of pious people who care but little for intelligence and the other ot intelligent persons who care nuth ing for piety the latter yi to the brooklyn tabernacle as they would go to sunday circus to be amused and the more irreverent and absorb the sermon is the more t divert fl them on the other hand the paje tora pious devotees perceive no irreverence in his trave etie of the bible and are in competent to he hotca acri correctly or incorrectly makes no difference to his auditors li i all the same to theiu hi chief aim seems to ba to aston stupid tickle the skeptical and alarm the simple ho about god and prayer and atio must acred things with vulgar flippancy as witness the following example beerah afraid they will att heterodox by coing too far they donl believe in herff tion there i n aliis r of your bi ink perfect for eydne time yet I 1 u in keep watch and nive you notice in hinr if you net too near for the of aiu hlf christians are atuck in the mud why from everything but bod alvo nt to him that formal petition maile up afoa 0 O lord this and 0 O lorda that when people are robil anil have nothing to eay to god tl cy trew their with 01 an forever and ever avenand ahin fill ur ched chrt old prayer iata been makiri rf thene II M years jt time it throw with your old leaters led and your old haia and your old shoes i |