voted against Jackson, but lived long enough to wish we had another just
like him; remembered when the first steamer struck the North river with
its wheel-buckets; was startled by the birth of telegraphy; saw the
United States grow from a speck on the world's map till all nations dip
their flag at our passing merchantmen. He was born while the
Revolutionary cannon were coming home from Yorktown, and lived to hear
the tramp of troops returning from the war of the great Rebellion. He
lived to speak the names of eighty children, grand-children and
great-grand-children. He died just three years from the day when my
mother sped on.

When my father lay dying the old country minister said to him, "Mr.
Talmage, how do you feel now as you are about to pass the Jordan of
death?" He replied--and it was the last thing he ever said--"I feel
well; I feel very well; all is well"--lifting his hand in a benediction,
a speechless benediction, which I pray God may go down through all the
generations--"It is well!"

Four of his sons became ministers of the Gospel: Reverend James R.
Talmage, D.D., who was preaching before I was born, and who died in
1879; Reverend John Van Nest Talmage, D.D., who spent his life as a
missionary in China, and died in the summer of 1892; Reverend Goyn
Talmage, D.D., who after doing a great work for God, died in 1891. But
all my brothers and sisters were decidedly Christian, lived usefully and
died peacefully.

I rejoice to remember that though my father lived in a plain house the
most of his days, he died in a mansion provided by the filial piety of
his son who had achieved a fortune.