adelphia unless God made it very plain that I
was to go and where I was to go. An engagement to speak that night in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, took me to the depot. I got on the train, my
mind full of the arguments of the three committees, and all a
bewilderment. I stretched myself out upon the seats for a sound sleep,
saying, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? Make it plain to me when I
wake up." When I awoke I was entering Harrisburg, and as plainly as
though the voice had been audible God said to me, "Go to Brooklyn." I
went, and never have doubted that I did right to go. It is always best
to stay where you are until God gives you marching orders, and then move
on.

I succeeded the Rev. J.E. Rockwell in the Brooklyn Church, who resigned
only a month or so before I accepted the call. Mr. Charles Cravat
Converse, LL.D., an elder of the Church, presented the call to me, being
appointed to do so by the Board of Trustees and the Session, after I had
been unanimously elected by the congregation at a special meeting for
that purpose held on February 16, 1869. The salary fixed was $7,000,
payable monthly.

In looking over an old note-book I carried in that year I find, under
date of March 22, 1869, the word "installed" written in my own
handwriting. It was written in pencil after the service of installation
held in the church that Monday evening. The event is recorded in the
minutes of the regular meetings of the church as follows:

"Monday evening, March 22, the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage having been
received as a member of the Presbytery of Nassau, was this evening
installed pastor of this church. The Rev. C.S. Pomeroy preached the
sermon and proposed the constitutional questions. Rev. Mr. Oakley
delivered the charge to the pastor, and Rev. Henry Van Dyke, D.D.,
delivered the charge to the people; and the services were closed with
the benediction by the pastor, and a cordial shaking of hands by the
people with their new pastor."

The old church stood on Schemerhorn Street, between Nevins and Power
Streets. It was a much smaller church community than the one I had left
in Philadelphia, but there was a glorious opportunity for work in it. I
remember hearing a minister of a small congregation complain to a
minister of a large congregation about the sparseness of attendance at
his church. "Oh," said the one of large audience, "my son, you will find
in the day of judgment that you had quite enough people for whom to be
held a