Public Ledger

TALKING TO TALMAGE.

His Beautiful Home, With a View of Hell—What He Thinks of Leaving the Presbyterian Church.

Special Dispatch to Courier-Journal.

New York, May 15.—Your correspondent to-day called upon the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage in his home, at No. 1 South Oxford street, Brooklyn, to inquire relative to his alleged determination to leave the Presbyterian denomination on account of the pursuit of him by some of the leading ministers of the Brooklyn Presbytery.

Dr. Talmage lives in a four-story brown-stone house, with a cupola, having six glass sides, capping the roof. Here, on a movable stool, he might sit and, swinging around, scan the horizon from the ocean's blue to the crest of the Jersey hills in the far distance. It is related of him that he delights to mount up to this coop at night and contemplate the miles of cities about him, sparkling with gas-lights, which over some portions of New York City send up a lurid glare as though Satan had opened a window for some fresh air, and his furnaces were sending out some of their fire. I may as well confess to having stolen this extravagant thought from Dr. Talmage. His house commands an enchanting view of the tortuous paths winding about the hill of Fort Greene Park, just across the avenue from his residence. An air of domesticity pervades the house. The pictures are home-like and familiar, and the long mirrors, the graceful ornaments, the easy furniture, seem to be designed to welcome and not repel guests.

Talmage came in, roaring with laughter. He had received from all hands the expression that his speech, just before he broke loose from the presbytery after his acquittal, was one of the best things he had ever delivered, although it had made his antagonistic brethren almost wild with rage. "The Lord's field is big enough for us all to work in without striking hoe-handles," he said: "and, if I am cultivating my field and tending to it in my own way, I don't see why anybody should leave the work in his own field and come over to interfere with me just because I don't work as he does. Three or four ships might as well quarrel at sea because there is not water enough. The church only touches the rim of the great mass of people who need its help."

"Have you concluded to leave the Presbyterian denomination?" asked your correspondent.

"There has been nothing settled about that yet. My ties to that denomination were never very strong, and they are weaker now than ever before: but it seems to me that the one-man power which has so long controlled the Brooklyn presbytery has been broken. I had to meet a solid body against me when I went to that ecclesiastical court. The Lord has led me through. I was raised up so that I am not much of a sectarian. I can't tell what church I will choose. The largest part of my congregation are of New England rearing, and are inclined to the Congregational form of government. When the smoke of the conflict clears away, we will talk the matter over. Of course it will not be pleasant for us to remain in the Brooklyn presbytery."

The venerable Dr. Spear, who was Talmage's counsel in the trial, and is one of the editors of the Independent, has fallen quite in love with Talmage, although, when he did not know him so well, he confesses that he called him a buffoon and spoke strongly against him. Dr. Spear went to hear him preach on Sunday, and said that if it was necessary to testify his respect and admiration for Dr. Talmage any further, he would change his church relations and become a member of the Tabernacle.