n address.

It is a satisfaction to be kindly treated by the prominent characters of
your own time. I confess to a feeling of pleasure when General Grant, at
the Memorial Services at Greenwood--I think the last public meeting he
ever attended, and where I delivered the Memorial Address on Decoration
Day--said that he had read with interest everything that appeared
connected with my name. President Arthur, at the White House one day,
told me the same thing.

Whenever by the mysterious laws of destiny I found myself in the cave of
the winds of displeasure, there always came to me encouraging echoes
from somewhere. I find among my papers at this time a telegram from the
Russian Ambassador in Washington, which illustrates this idea.

This message read as follows:--

"Washington, D.C., May 20, 1893.

"To Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, Bible House, New York.

"I would be very glad to see you on the 27th of May in Philadelphia
on board the Russian flagship 'Dimitry Donskoy' at eleven o'clock,
to tender to you in presence of our brilliant sailors and on Russian
soil, a souvenir His Majesty the Emperor ordered me to give in his
name to the American gentleman who visited Russia during the trying
year 1892.

"CANTACUZENE."

Gladly I obeyed this request, and was presented, amid imperial
ceremonies, with a magnificent solid gold tea service from the Emperor
Alexander III. These were the sort of appreciative incidents so often
happening in my life that infused my work with encouragements.

The months preceding the close of my ministry in Brooklyn developed a
remarkable interest shown among those to whom my name had become a
symbol of the Gospel message. There was a universal, world-wide
recognition of my work. Many regretted my decision to leave the Brooklyn
Tabernacle, some doubted that I actually intended to do so, others
foretold a more brilliant future for me in the open trail of Gospel
service they expected me to follow.

All this enthusiasm expressed by my friends of the world culminated in a
celebration festival given in honour of the twenty-fifth anniversary of
my pastorate in Brooklyn. The movement spread all over the country and
to Europe. It was decided to make the occasion a sort of International
reception, to be held in the Tabernacle on May 10 and 11, 1894.

I had made my plans for a wide glimpse of the earth and the people on it
who knew me, but whom I had never seen. I had mad