IS IT CROOKEDNESS?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1879

IS IT CROOKEDNESS?

There is no little excitement in religious circles in New York and Brooklyn just now, but not, however, of a nature very creditable to the parties concerned. The disturbing question is whether the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, T. De Witt Talmage, has acted an honest or dishonest part in his effort to raise the debt of his church. The Independent of a recent issue gave utterance to a scathing criticism of Mr. T.'s course. In its issue of Feb. 6, 1879, it makes the following additional allusion to the subject, which will explain itself:—

“Dr. Talmage is entitled to his own defense of his telegram, as reported in The Tribune:— “‘I have been found fault with by one or two religious papers, but by no secular papers yet, concerning a telegram that I sent last spring to Baltimore. I sent a dispatch to a brother, who was in Baltimore, for a large subscription, as we were anxious to raise our church debt. He telegraphed back that he could not afford it. Then I sent another one, saying: “Will you and Mr. Hobbs allow me to pledge you each for $5,000, if I make up the difference between this amount and your actual subscription privately?” Signed T. De Witt Talmage.” The president of the board was in Baltimore, and I thought if he gave a large subscription it would inspire the whole congregation, and I asked for $5,000 from him and Mr. Hobbs. Any man of common sense can see the meaning, which was that if these men could not make up the $5,000 asked for, I would out of my own pocket make it up to them; and, indeed, that was the amount of my first subscription. Let me say, in passing, that any man who can twist any other meaning out of that telegram is either a villain or a fool. [Loud applause].”

The Independent adds:—

“We can, at least, shrug our shoulders when asked to choose between the two designations. But T. DeWitt’s nephew and trustee, John F., ought to have been able to catch the meaning; and he thought it was the uncle that was something other than a fool. Put on it the best possible construction; forget that Dr. Talmage’s subscription was met by raising his salary; and then it remains that, for the purpose of persuading other people to subscribe liberally, on the ground that the trustees were well disposed and were doing the most they could, these two men were asked to pretend that they gave what the pastor was going to give himself. The man who can twist any honesty out of that proposition is either—but we forbear.”