T. De Witt Talmage

Thomas De Witt Talmage (January 7, 1832 to April 12, 1902) was a preacher, a clergyman and a divine in the Reformed Church in America and in the Presbyterian Church. One of the most prominent religious leaders in the US during the mid- to late-19th century, only Henry Ward Beecher equaled him as a preacher, and he preached also to crowds in England. In the 1860s and 70s, Talmage was a well-known reformer in NYC and often crusaded against vice and criminal behaviour. In his last years, Dr. Talmage stopped preaching and was devoted to editing, writing, and lecturing. He was editor of the Christian at Work (1873–76), in New York; the Advance (1877–79), in Chicago; Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine (1879–89), in New York; and the Christian Herald (1890–1902), in New York. Each week he preached to 8,000 people, and his sermons were published in more than 3,000 journals, which reached 25 million readers.