n should have this aspect of him. He was a plain man in his
tastes and his habits; the impression that he was ambitious for wealth,
I know, was a false one. I do not believe he ever knew the value of
money. The possession of it gave him little gratification except for its
use in helping to carry on the great work he had in hand; and, indeed,
he never knew how little or how much he had. He never would own horses
lest he should give people reason to accuse him of being arrogantly
rich. We drove a great deal, but he always insisted on hiring his
carriages. If he accepted remuneration for his brain and heart labour,
Scripture tells us, "The labourer is worthy of his hire." He was
foremost in helping in any time of public calamity, not only in our own
country but more than once in foreign lands. And when volumes of his
sermons were pirated over the country, and he was urged to take legal
steps to stop the injustice, he said: "Let them alone; the sermons will
go farther and do more good."

Dr. Talmage's opinions were sought eagerly, and upon all subjects of
social, political, or international interest. He was a student of men,
and kept ever in close touch with the progress of events. A voluminous
and rapid reader, he was quick to grasp the aim and significance of what
he read and apply it to his purpose. His library in Washington
contained a large and valuable collection of classics, ancient and
modern; and his East Hampton library was almost a duplicate of this. He
never travelled very far without a trunkful of books. I remember, in the
first year of our marriage, his interest in some books I had brought
from my home that were new to him. Many of them he had not had time to
read, so, in the evenings, I used to read them aloud to him. Tolstoi's
works were his first choice; together we read a life of the great
Russian, which the Doctor enjoyed immensely.

The Bible was ever held by Dr. Talmage in extreme reverence, which grew
with his continual study and meditation of the sacred pages. He
repudiated the "higher criticism" with a vehemence that caused him to be
sharply assailed by modern critics--pronounced infidels or of infidel
proclivities--who called him a "bibliolater." He asserted and reasserted
his belief in its divine inspiration: "The Bible is right in its
authenticity, right in its style, right in its doctrine, and right in
its effects. There is less evidence that Shakespeare wrote 'Hamlet,'
that Milton wrote 'Paradi