h exquisite tenderness seeking to draw his hearers to
Him who is Saviour and Brother. He never failed to think and speak as much
about temptation as about sin. It was a real feast to attend the English
service when it was conducted by him. And during all my time in Amoy,
there was always a large congregation when Dr. Talmage was the preacher.

He was not all tenderness. He would only have been a one-sided man if this
were all. He was as strong as he was tender; a keen and powerful opponent
in discussion. And we often had very warm and keen discussions; keener and
warmer than I had ever seen before I went to Amoy, or have ever seen since.
We had to discuss principles and methods of translation, hymnology, Church
work, Church discipline, and many other subjects. And there was no mincing
of matters at these discussions. Foremost amongst us was Dr. Talmage,
tenaciously and persistently advocating the view he happened to have taken
on any question. There were men of very strong individuality among us, and
these gave as good as they got. I can recall these scenes, but I cannot
recall a single word he said that involved a personal wound or left a barb.
When it was all over he was the same loving brother, and not an atom of
bitterness was left behind. By us, the brethren of the English
Presbyterian Mission, he was looked up to as a revered father, just as much
as he was by the brethren of his own Mission. This will be seen more fully
further on, and a simple statement of the fact is all that is necessary
here.

There is another and most sacred relation--his position as the head of a
family,--the veil of which it seems almost sacrilege to uplift. But it
must be said, and it is only a well-known fact, that few happier homes
exist than his home was. He was there what he was elsewhere, the man of
God.

Dr. Talmage was not perfect. He was essentially a humble man, and he would
be the first to tell us that of every sinner saved by grace, he was the
most unworthy. And when he said it, he felt it. And he had not the very
most distant idea how great a man he was. Sometimes one fears that this
very modesty pushed to an extreme prevented others who did not know his
life and his work from accurately gauging his real work. Better perhaps,
he would say, that it should be so; better to think of the work than of the
workers. To hold up Christ and to be hidden behind Him is the highest
privilege of those engaged in the service of this King. An