asing
the people who had "cheated the gate" by not paying their toll. John knew
the law and was not afraid to go for them. He went to a private school
under the care of a Mr. Morton at the village of Bound Brook, two miles
from home, and generally stood at the head of his class.

He early became the judge and counselor among his brothers and sisters. In
any little dispute which arose, John's verdict was usually accepted as
correct and final.

During all his missionary career in China, he was an adviser and arbitrator
whom foreigners and Chinese alike sought and from whose advice they were
not quick to turn away.

In the midst of the tumult among the men of Medina when they met to elect a
chief to take the place of Mohammed, who had passed away, the voice of
Hohab was heard crying out, "Attend to me, attend to me, for I am the
well-rubbed Palm-stem." The figure Hobab used represented a palm-trunk
left for the beasts to come and rub themselves upon. It was a metaphor for
a person much resorted to for counsel. John Talmage never called attention
to himself, but the Arab chief must have counseled many, and well, to have
taken a higher place than did this messenger of Christ at Amoy.

By the time John Talmage's school days at Bound Brook were completed he had
determined to prepare for college. Preparatory schools then were few and
far away. They were expensive. John made an arrangement with his senior
brother, Rev. James R. Talmage, then pastor at Blawenburgh, New Jersey, to
put him through the required course. Here he joined the Church at the age
of seventeen. From Blawenburgh his brother Goyn and he went to New
Brunswick, New Jersey, joining the Sophomore class in Rutgers College. John
and Goyn roomed together, swept and garnished their own quarters and did
their own cooking. Father Talmage would come down every week or two with
provisions from the farm, to replenish the ever-recipient larder. Both John
and Goyn were diligent students and graduated with honorable recognition
from Rutgers College in 1842, and from New Brunswick Theological Seminary
in 1845.

John Talmage had made such substantial attainments in Hebrew and Greek,
that when some years afterward the distinguished Dr. McClelland resigned as
professor of these languages in the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick,
he was talked of as Dr. McClelland's successor, and but for the conviction
that he ought not to be removed from the Amoy Mission, his appointment