TALMUD 



5693 



TALUS 



notice through his remarkable oratory and fear- 

 less statements, and soon received offers of other 

 pulpits. In 1859 he accepted the pastorate of 

 the Dutch Reformed Church at Syracuse, N. Y., 

 and three years later went to the church of the 

 same denomination at Philadelphia. While 

 holding this position he was permitted by his 

 congregation to become a chaplain in the Union 

 army, and was most energetic in caring for the 

 physical and spiritual welfare of soldiers in 

 Pennsylvania, Maryland and Northern Virginia. 



In 1869 he accepted the position of pastor of 

 Central Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 and within one year the congregation had be- 

 come so large that an immense structure known 

 as the Brooklyn Tabernacle was erected. There 

 his eloquence and bold denunciation of existing 

 evils attracted such audiences that even the 

 new building was often uncomfortably crowded. 

 He was in great demand as a lyceum lecturer 

 and was so frequently absent from, his pulpit 

 that Josh Billings once mentioned in his All- 

 minax as one of the remarkable events of the 

 year that "Talmage spoke in Brooklyn Taber- 

 nacle." His influence as a public leader was 

 increased not only by this lyceum work but by 

 the weekly publication of his sermons in more 

 than 3,600 city and country newspapers. 



Between 1872 and 1894 the Tabernacle was 

 burned three times, and after the third fire 

 Dr. Talmage resigned. The following year he 

 accepted the pastorate of the First Presbyte- 

 rian Church at Washington, D. C., but resigned 

 in 1899 to devote his time to writing. He was 

 author of such popular religious books as Every 

 Day Religion, The Almond Tree in Blossom 

 and From Manger to Throne. 



TAL'MUD, the book of Jewish civil and re- 

 ligious law, aside from the Pentateuch. It had 

 its beginnings in the time of Ezra, the period 

 following the Exile, when new conditions of 

 national life called for new laws. Decisions 

 were made from time to time by those in au- 

 thority, which, as centuries passed, grew into 

 the mass of tradition known as the Oral Law. 

 In the times of Jesus the scribes and Pharisees 

 required strict observance of all the details of 

 this law, but the Sadducees opposed it, declar- 

 ing their only authority to be the Pentateuch. 

 After the rise of Christianity and the destruc- 

 tion of Jerusalem by the Romans, pious Jews 

 turned their zeal toward putting the Oral Law 

 into writing. This work was completed at the 

 close of the second century and formed the part 

 of the Talmud known as the Mishna, meaning 

 instruction. After this, scholars commented on 



the Mishna, preserving their work in the sec- 

 ond part of the Talmud, known as the Gemara. 

 There are, in reality, two Gemaras extant, the 

 Palestinian and the Babylonian, the latter be- 

 ing the larger and more trustworthy. It was 

 completed in the sixth century. The Mishna 

 was written in Hebrew; the commentaries, in 

 Aramaic. 



These Jewish works, though opposed to 

 Christianity, did much to stimulate Christian 

 thought of the Middle Ages and must be given 

 a part of the credit for the German scholarship 

 that made possible the Protestant Reformation. 

 Students to-day find in them much interesting 

 matter concerning Jewish manners and customs 

 in Bible times. See HEBREW LANGUAGE AND 

 LITERATURE. 



Consult Rodkinson's History of the Talmud. 

 Darmesteter's The Talmud is an English trans- 

 lation. 



TALON, talohN', JEAN BAPTISTE (1625- 

 1691), a French official in Canada, one of the 

 ablest of the men who created New France. 

 After serving in the civil service of France for 

 some years, he was in 1665 appointed "intend- 

 ant of justice and finance" for the French pos- 

 sessions in North America. Talon was able and 

 energetic. He built a ship at the king's ex- 

 pense, in order to show the people how to 

 build ships. He sent out engineers to search 

 for coal, copper, lead and other minerals, and 

 he himself made shoes and woolen cloth as an 

 example to the colonists. He also gave much 

 aid and encouragement to the Jesuits in the 

 explorations and missionary enterprises on the 

 shores of the Great Lakes. One of his orders 

 provided that bachelors should not hunt, fish 

 or trade with the Indians, the obvious purpose 

 of this order being to encourage permanent 

 settlement by families. A book by Talon, 

 Memoire a Sa Majeste sur I'etat Present du 

 Canada, published in 1667, is a valuable record 

 for the history of New France. 



TA'LUS. At the foot of every cliff or large 

 ledge there is a heap of loose rocks that have 

 been broken from the large mass or face of the 

 cliff. The name talus has been given by geolo- 

 gists to such heaps. The fragments forming the 

 talus are broken off by weathering and by the 

 action of water, which in cold climates is the 

 most powerful agent. Water enters the crev- 

 ices in the rock, where it freezes ; in freezing, it 

 expands and makes the crevice larger. This 

 process is repeated each winter until, finally, a 

 large fragment is broken from its bed and falls 

 to the foot of the cliff. 



