New Tabernacle Sermons

Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt), 1832-1902Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 538K words
Chapters: 54

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.New Tabernacle Sermons by T. De Witt TalmageAuthor: Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt), 1832-1902,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: Nov 24, 2004

Editor's review

This is a collection of sermons by Thomas De Witt Talmage, the renowned nineteenth-century American evangelist, issued in the Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook series. Talmage was known for vivid preaching aimed at ordinary listeners, and the pieces collected here carry on that style: their themes stay close to daily life and exhortation to faith, the language is compelling, and they make deft use of metaphor and scene-painting to turn doctrine into felt admonition. For readers studying nineteenth-century American revivalism, sermon style, and popular religious reading, the book offers direct primary material and a sense of how the pulpit of the day addressed social concerns and personal perplexity. As an English ebook, it is easy to search and excerpt, and suits reading by individual sermon. Note that the sermons carry pronounced period rhetoric and theological assumptions, and some expressions may strike today's reader as fervent or even alien; those seeking systematic theology or modern devotional guidance may find the structure loose and the context remote.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of literature and history studying nineteenth-century American sermon style and revivalism
Readers who want to experience classic English sermon rhetoric and exhortation
Researchers who need a public-domain English religious text for selected reading and excerpting
Readers interested in Talmage's preaching with basic English reading ability

Not a good fit for

Serious learners expecting a systematic theology textbook or dogmatics survey
Readers who only want modern Chinese devotional essays and are unaccustomed to English
Casual readers impatient with nineteenth-century religious rhetoric and its period context

Reading tips

Read by sermon rather than straight through: start with pieces whose themes touch your own concerns.
As you read, note how the sermon builds its figures and answers the listeners' situation; keep two-column notes on rhetoric and theme.
Set the sermons against the background of nineteenth-century American revivalism; a related historical overview helps.
Mark strongly period-flavored expressions and return to them after finishing a sermon, so details don't interrupt the flow.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a work of systematic theology?

No. It is a collection of sermons whose pieces center on exhortation and the application of faith for listeners, with strong pulpit rhetoric and period concern rather than doctrine arranged by topic. For systematic theology, choose a textbook; to feel nineteenth-century sermon style, this book is the better fit.

Can I read this book if my English is only average?

You can try selected reading, but some English reading ability is needed. Talmage's sermons favor metaphor and scene, with long sentences and nineteenth-century rhetorical habits. Start with a short piece, use a dictionary and search function, skip dense rhetorical passages for now, and grasp each sermon's core exhortation.

How does reading this book help understand the society of the time?

Sermons often answer listeners' daily anxieties, moral dilemmas, and social concerns, so the book shows how the pulpit spoke of faith and life amid nineteenth-century American revivalism. Readers can observe the hot topics, modes of exhortation, and popular religious language of the day, but should combine this with historical background and not take a single sermon as the whole of society.

As a public-domain ebook, how can I read it more efficiently?

Read by theme rather than straight through: skim the contents, choose three to five sermons for close reading, use search to find recurring keywords and figures, and take brief excerpts. Since there are no modern annotations, check historical figures or events yourself; read one sermon at a time and write a few lines in response rather than trying to cover too much.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt), 1832-1902 Author

T. De Witt Talmage (Thomas De Witt Talmage, 1832–1902) was a well-known nineteenth-century American preacher and religious writer. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life are difficult to verify, but the five works held in the collection reveal the focus of his writing. He was concerned with the character and fate of biblical figures, as shown in Bible Characters; New Tabernacle Sermons reflects the publication of his sermons in book form; The Wedding Ring deals with marriage and family ethics; and The Abominations of Modern Society offers criticism of the social customs of his day. Another work, T. De Witt Talmage as I Knew Him, records his words and deeds as remembered by those close to him. His writing has a strong sermonic tone, with plain argument and abundant examples, addressed to ordinary believers, and it found a readership among the religious literature of his time.