Madison C. Peters, the brilliant preacher, author and orator

              Madison C. Peters
THE          BRILLIANT
Preacher, Author and Orator
EXCLUSIVE              MANAGEMENT
BROCKWAY LECTURE BUREAU
6101      Penn     Ave.,     PITTSBURG,     PA.
MADISON    C.    PETERS
Biographical
MADISON C. PETERS was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, November 6th, 1850. He worked his own way through school, doing odd jobs, canvassing for books, working on farms during summer vacations, preaching and lecturing in country school houses and churches as opportunity offered. At 15 he taught school. After one year at Muhlenburg College, Allentown, Pa., and two years at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., he entered the Theological Department of Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio. Graduating therefrom at 21, he entered the ministry of the Reformed Church, serving four large German and English congregations in Clinton and Tippecanoe counties in Indiana. His fame as an orator spread over the State and in a short time he spoke from the same platform with Governor St. John, of Kansas, and other famous orators on the temperance question, which was then a burning issue in the politics of Indiana. At twenty-two, Mr. Peters moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, organizing a new Presbyterian Church, in association with the Rev. Thomas Parry, D. D. In a few months the building available was inadequate for the crowds who came to hear him. He was next urged to go to Ottawa, Illinois, to a church which had never been a success. It had been closed entirely for two years, and only twenty members were left. In that city of 12,000 people, he began tc preach, and it is a literal fact that the streets in front of his church were crowded with car¬riage loads of people listening to what they might hear through the open doors and windows. The Opera House was next secured and during the summer time he preached in the Park, where often 4,000 people gathered. People came twenty to thirty miles to hear him. One hundred and forty-five joined the church by profession the first year of his pastorate. I lis fame as a preacher and winner of souls reached Philadelphia, and at twenty-three he was called to the Old First Presbyterian Church, on Buttonwood street, below Sixth. This in¬fluential and honored down-town church was threatened with dissolution because of the up¬town movement, but in less than three months the spacious auditorium was filled to over¬flowing, and continued so for five years, until he was called, at twenty-eight, to Blooming-dale Reformed Church, Broadway and Sixty-eighth street, New York. His fame as an elo¬quent preacher preceded him to New York, and there for eleven years, with the magic touch of genius and hard work, he accomplished results that mystified those who watched his ca¬reer. The papers reported what he said, for they recognized the fact that some one was speaking who had something to say and had the boldness to deliver his message without the slightest regard to adverse criticism. He took a giant hold upon the great throngs which crowded his church, and after preaching twice a Sunday for over eleven years in the same pulpit, his popularity as a preacher was greater than ever, his Sunday night audiences were during all those years the largest in New York, and his regular congregation was composed of eleven different denominations.
On June 3, 1890, Dr. Peters was married to Miss Sara H. Hart, of Philadelphia. Two daughters and one son bless the union.
In June, 1895, Crsinus College, in Pennsylvania, and Heidelberg University, in Ohio, on the same day, conferred on him the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity—the youngest man upon whom these very conservative institutions had ever conferred this honor.
February, 1, 1900, Dr. Peters stirred the religious world by resigning his position of power and influence and laying down one of the most successful pastorates any man ever enjoyed, because he had come to the conclusion that the Bible taught baptism for believers only. Dr. Peters thus stepped from the heights to begin life over again. Not waiting for a field such as he had been accustomed to, Dr. Peters went over to Brooklyn, took hold of a church which was almost abandoned, and which on account of its great debt seemed doomed to die. For years the Baptists of Brooklyn feared that the Sumner Avenue Church would have to go under the hammer. With Dr. Peters' coming the crowds began to gather, in eighteen months a $37,000 debt was paid, upwards of $7,000 were spent in improvements, an Assistant Pastor secured, and the communicant membership nearly doubled. Dr. Peters for a long while held out against being installed as Pastor, preferring a more centrally located church, for the purpose of reaching the masses.    For a while Dr. Peters preached to great crowds in Baltimore, but preferring the North he came to Philadelphia and began to preach in the Broad Street Church, located right in the heart of the city, and a church which had been ready to close up, but now three times every Sunday Dr. Peters speaks to vast throngs, his evening congregations overflowing by hundreds the possibilities of the building. Over 60 per cent, of his hearers are men. The afternoon service is a men's meeting, often reaching an attendance of 600. Dr. Peters declines to accept the call to this church, but continues in¬definitely as Stated Supply. He feels that since becoming a Baptist he has not been settled, and prefers for the present his mission as preacher and lecturer at large.
Dr. Peters is in great demand as a lecturer, speaker and preacher on special occasions. He knows how to dress his thoughts in attractive form, his wit is charming, while few can tell a story better than he. Few men can combine instruction and entertainment better than he.
Dr. Peters has written more than a score of books, his "Justice to the Jew" having re¬ceived remarkable attention both in Europe and America. His other Jewish books, "The Jew as a Patriot," and "The Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud" have had a wide sale. Among his other successful books we may name "The Panacea for Poverty," "Sanctified Spice," "Empty Pews," "The Great Hereafter," "The Church and the Theatre," "The Birds of the Bible," "Wrongs to Be Righted," "The Man Who  Wins/   etc.,   etc.
Dr. Peters is a contributor to many important newspapers and magazines, and his fine literary style has made him one of the best known writers as well as orators in America.
SUBJECTS      OF      LECTURES
HOW TO MAKE THINGS GO.
In a witty, wise and eloquent way defines the winning forces in life.
WILL THE COMING MAN MARRY ?
A critical study of social conditions.
HOW TO BE HAPPY THOUGH MARRIED.
Pointing out to the single what mistakes to avoid, and to the married how they may make their marriage happy along the years after the wedding day.
WILL THE REPUBLIC LIVE ?
Discusses in a non-partisan, unsectarian, yet  fearless and patriotic way the perils which threaten our Republic.
WHAT THE JEW HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD.
A remarkable revelation of the Jew in history.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
The economic phase of the Drink Problem.
DOES DEATH END ALL ?
Showing how far reason points out an hereafter.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.
Is it Christian?    Is it scientific?    Has it a mission?
THE DIVINE MISSION OF FUN.
The wit and humor of the world's greatest  preachers.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CHURCH.
Especially adapted for conventions, etc.
Dr. Peters has a score or more lectures and addresses appropriate to all occasions.
Just a Few of the Hundreds of Press Notices
NEW JERSEY
"Dr. Peters thrilled his great audience in the Ocean Grove Auditorium. His clear voice filled each part of the great building. Every one of the 6,000 people remained to the end. Bishop Hurst pronounced the benediction. Then the bishops, clergymen, and hundreds in the audience flocked about Dr. Peters and congratulation's upon his masterly address were showered upon him. Bishop Fitzgerald showed his appreciation of Dr. Peters in a hearty hug. The lecture was probably the greatest effort ever given in the Auditorium."— The Asbury Park Daily Press.
"Seemingly the oppressive weather had no ter¬rors for the thousands who gathered in the Audi¬torium to listen to Madison C. Peters, the famous pulpit orator, whose very name is an irresistible magnet that draws crowds to listen to him."— The Ocean Grove Record.
OHIO
WOOSTER    UNIVERSITY.
"Intensely dramatic, witty, convincing."—The Republican.
"Fearless, grand, manly, straightforward."—The Voice.
PENNSYLVANIA
"The whole seating capacity of the house was occupied, and the aisles and lobbies were choked with people. They even sat on the bellows of the organ and swarmed on the gallery stairs."—The Philadelphia Press.
"In years past, when Institutes were held in the Court House, it took a lecturer of note to fill the court-room with its capacity of eight or ten hundred. Dr. Peters' audience would have filled the Court House twice over. The 1,500 chairs placed in the large Market Hall for the Institute were all taken and many stood.
"They heard a lecture that fully justified the reputation of the man.
"Dr. Peters faced an unusually critical audience. Many had known him but not heard him since he became such a conspicuous figure. That he cap¬tured all was shown from the applause which be¬gan at the start and continued until he finished.
"Dr. Peters received a regular ovation all through  his  lecture."—The Allentown  Leader.
CALIFORNIA
"Rare elocutionist. Remarkably clear enuncia-tion.v Strong, impressive manner."—The San Francisco Examiner.
"Original, instructive, eloquent and humorous. The audience testified by their loud applause and peals of laughter their hearty appreciation of it." —The San Francisco Call.

MASSACHUSETTS
"Facts massed in a masterly and lawyer-like way, and almost with the sequence of a story."— The Boston Globe.
"Pronounced the best lecture ever given in Worcester. In Dr. Peters' voice, gesture, method, matter and manner all combine to make the elo¬quent orator."—W. A. Smith, Manager Mechanics' Hall Lecture Course.
"Inspiring, eloquent, racy and broad."—Wor¬cester Spy.
RHODE ISLAND
"Madison C. Peters kept a thousand people in a state of either laughter or applause for an hour and a half. The speaker's forcible way of putting things was what made the men cheer and old la¬dies almost fall from their seats in applauding."— Providence News.
KENTUCKY
"The best lecture ever given in Lexington. This is a strong statement, but all who heard the lec¬ture say so."—The Lexington Morning Transcript.
"Sensible, logical and instructive. His wit is as keen as his satire is withering. Many sav that for real instruction and food for thought he has not been surpassed in Lexington."—The Transylvan-ian.
"After he had finished his lecture he had to re¬spond to an encore."—Louisville Commercial.
GEORGIA
"For an hour and a half Dr. Peters held his au¬dience literally spellbound, and mingled laughter and applause rippled over the audience from be¬ginning to end."—The Augusta Herald.
FLORIDA
"Madison C. Peters' lecture stood above all others like a Mount Washington. Never was a speaker listened to with more rapt attention than he."—The Daily Breeze, De Funiak Chautauqua.
TENNESSEE
"The largest audience of the season gathered last night to hear Madison C. Peters (the Mont-eagle Chautauqua.) He interested his audience intensely. He came with a message. He is a thinker, an orator, and aggressive without being offensive."—Nashville American.