My acquaintance with Dr. Talmage began at a very early period.  During the years 1842-5 his father was Sheriff of Somerset Co., N. J., and resided at Somerville.  While there he and his wife were members in communion of the Second Reformed Dutch Church, of which I was pastor; and from them I heard frequently of their son John, who was then a student in New Brunswick.

He prosecuted his studies in the College and Theological Seminary with zeal and success, and was duly licensed, and then, while awaiting the arrival of the period when he would be sent to join the mission in China, he accepted the position of assistant to the Rev. Dr. Brodhead, who at that time was minister of the Central Church of Brooklyn.  Here his services were very acceptable, and the training under such an experienced man of God was of great value to him.  His course was what might have been expected of one reared in a peculiarly pious household.  His father was a cheerful and exemplary Christian, and his mother was the godliest woman I ever knew.  Her religion pervaded her whole being, and seemed to govern every thought, word, and deed, yet never was morbid or overstrained.  The robust common sense which characterized her and her husband descended in full measure upon their son John.  His consecration to the mission work was complete, and his interest in the cause was very deep, but it never manifested itself in unseemly or extravagant ways.

So far as I can recall, there was nothing particularly brilliant or original in the early sermons or addresses of the young missionary—­nothing of those wondrous displays of word-painting, imagination, and dramatic power which have made his brother, Dr. T. De Witt Talmage, famous.  But there was a mental grasp, a force and a fire which often induced the remark that he was too good to be sent to the heathen, there being many at that time who labored under the mistake that a missionary did not require to be a man of unusual ability, that gifts and acquirements were thrown away on a life spent among idolaters.  Still, while this was the case, none of his friends expected that he would develop such marked and varied power as was seen in his entire course at Amoy.  I remember the surprise with which I heard the late Dr. Swanson, of London, say from his own observation during ten years of the closest intercourse at Amoy, that Dr. Talmage was equally distinguished and efficient in every part of the missionary’s work, whether in preaching the Word, or translating the Scriptures, or creating a Christian literature, or training native workers.  Nothing seemed to come amiss to him; everywhere he was facile princeps.  I suppose that the explanation is found in his thorough and unreserved consecration.  He was given heart and soul to the work.  Whatever he did was done with his whole mind.  There was no vacillation or indecision, but a deliberate concentration of all his faculties upon the task set before him.  Nor did he work