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 accountable."

My church in Brooklyn prospered. In about three months from the date of
my installation it was too small to hold the people who came there to
worship. This came about, not through any special demonstration of my
own superior gifts, but by the help of God and the persecution of
others.