Circumstances which tested character, ability, and attainments brought me into intimate relations with Rev. Dr. John V. N. Talmage.  The impressions I received are these:  He was eminently of a sunny disposition.  A smile was on his face and laughter in his eyes almost all day long.  He was conspicuously cheerful and hopeful.  The strength of his character was unusual and would bear victoriously very severe tests.  Mental and moral ability of a very high order marked his participation in public exercises and his demeanor in social life.  It seemed to me that in mind and heart there were in him the elements of greatness.  Greatness he never sought, but avoided.  Still, from the time succeeding the opening years of his ministry, he was a leader among men until seized with the long illness which terminated his useful life.  Those who knew him appointed him one of their chief counselors and guides, and in any assembly where he was comparatively unknown he was accepted as a leading mind as soon as he had taken part in its discussions.  A wide range of knowledge was his.  It was surprising how he had maintained an acquaintance with the research and discovery of his day while secluded in China from the life of the Western nations.  With all this his intercourse with men was marked by modesty and the absence of ostentatious display.  The deference with which he treated the opinions of others and of his manner in presenting his knowledge and convictions to an audience was extraordinary.  He was courteously inquisitive, seeking from others what they knew and thought, and this oftentimes, perhaps habitually, with men much his inferiors.  Such a man would be expected to be tolerant of the opinions of others, and this he was eminently, although his own convictions were clear, strongly held, earnestly presented and advocated.  How often we heard him say, “So I think,” or “So it seems to me, but I may be wrong.”

Accuracy in statement was sought for by him constantly, sometimes to the detriment of his public addresses.  When we who were familiar with him were humorous at his expense, it was almost invariably in relation to this constant endeavor to be accurate, which led now and then to qualifications of his words that were decidedly amusing.  He was animated, earnest, and strong in public addresses.  His mind was active; apt to take an independent, original view, and vigorous.  His sermons were often very impressive and powerful.  Few who heard in whole or in part his discourse on the words, “The world by wisdom knew not God”—­an extemporaneous sermon—­will forget the terse, vigorous sentences which came from his lips.  It was, I believe, the last sermon he prepared in outline to be delivered to our churches in this country.  It was full of power and life.

Dr. Talmage was a Christian and a Christian gentleman everywhere and always.  It seemed as natural to him to be a Christian as to breathe.  Conscientious piety marked his daily life.