alas! a milk train always leaves at the trying hour of 4 a.m. Once
we had to ride on a special engine; and frequently the caboose of a
freight train served our desperate purpose. I began to understand
something of the loneliness of the Doctor's life in experiences like
these.

I insisted upon sitting in the front row at every one of Dr. Talmage's
lectures, which I soon knew by heart. He used to laugh when I would
repeat certain parts of them to him.

Then he would beg me to stay away that I might not be bored by listening
to the same thing over again. I would not have missed one of his
lectures for the world. These were the great moments of his life; the
combined resources of his character came to the surface whenever he went
into the pulpit or on to the platform. These were the moments that
inspired his life, that gave it an ever-increasing vigour of human and
divine perception. The enthusiasm of his reception by the crowds in
these theatres keyed me up so that each new audience was a new pleasure.
There were no preliminaries to his lectures. Frequently he had time only
to drop his hat and step on to the stage as he had come from the train.
After every lecture it was his custom to shake hands with hundreds of
people who came up to the platform. This was very exhausting, but these
were to him the moments of fruition--the spiritual harvest of the
Christian seeds he had scattered over the earth. They were wonderful
scenes, dramatic in their earnestness, remarkable in the evidence they
brought out of his universal influence upon the hearts of men and women.
Everywhere the same testimony prevailed:

"You saved my father, God bless you!" "You saved my brother, thank God!"
"You made a good woman of me!" "You gave me my first start in life!" In
these words they told him their gratitude, as they grasped his hand.

On these occasions the Doctor's face was wonderful to see as, with the
silent pressure of his hand, he looked into the eyes that were filled
with tears. Sometimes people would come to me and whisper the same
truths about him, and when I would tell him, his answer was
characteristic: "Eleanor, this is what gives me strength. It is worth
living to hear people tell me these things."

Dr. Talmage's instincts were big, evangelical impulses. I often used to
urge him to relinquish his pastorate; but he would reply that after all
the Church was his candlestick; that he must have a place to hold his
candle while he preach