Rev. Thomas DeWitt Talmage came to Philadelphia during the war, in 1862, and at once attracted much attention and great crowds to the church edifice on Seventh Street above Brown. I was one of the number who was drawn under his influence, and, from patriotic and personal reasons, I took my letter away from the First Independent Church to unite with the Second Reformed (Dutch) Church, of which Dr. Talmage was pastor. I met him in camp when he was a chaplain of the Coal Regiment, raised in Philadelphia during Lee's invasion. No one could ever doubt Talmage's loyalty to the Federal cause. In the darkest days of the war, when it seemed as though the slave owners' rebellion would succeed he uttered a fervent prayer for the Union, winding up with the petition, "Blast the Southern Confederacy". These were the days when on each Sunday, one went to the house of God, expecting to see a new widow in black and freshly made orphans in the congregation.
I saw Mr. Talmage first and heard him speak on the platform in Concert Hall, where also sat John Chambers. I remember how he sent some old ladies home to hunt for "the sixth chapter of the book of Nicodemus". Mr. Talmage quickly found out who were the popular preachers of Philadelphia—Phillips Brooks, Herrick Johnson, A. A. Willetts, John Chambers, and others. He was so struck with Dr. Chambers's position of influence that he made investigation into his methods and hired a man to look over the files of the Public Ledger to make a list of the subjects on which he had preached in previous years. All this was very interesting to Mr. Chambers when told him by his nephew, to whom the facts were communicated by Mr. Talmage himself.
Famous visitors to the church and preachers in the pulpit of the First Independent Church made variety. Some of these sermons heard I can never forget, such as that by the Rev. Dr. Schenck, who set forth the example of Caleb, "faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he". The Rev. Henry Grattan Guinness impressed me more with his fluency than his ideas. Dr. Daniel March, whose Night Scenes of the Bible I read with delight, and who replied so spiritedly to Hepworth Dixon's foolish charges, I met again in Boston, after his tour around the world in the late eighties, and from him I have lately heard in praise of his old theological friend. Dr. Plumer gave us good biblical sermons. So did Dr. Leyburn. Dr. Neill, a Methodist, always pleased and fed us. Professor W. G. Fisher, ever popular, and author of many well-known tunes, was also frequently seen by us.
I have felt free to mention the faults, failings, and defects of the man we all loved so well, partly because he himself instilled early in us the love of absolute truth, and because his career is in itself a mighty lesson to all young men. It is a story that shows self-conquest and mastery of difficulties, for John Chambers was ever rising on stepping stones of his dead self to higher things. Out of his own faults, by God's grace, he made a ladder by which he mounted up to God. It is because his strength was made perfect in weakness that his life speaks even yet so powerfully. Though he has been dead much more than a quarter of a century, his influence is to-day like wave on wave of ever widening circles, and the force of his life is reproduced in scores of other human lives in all parts of the earth.
Even in intellectual edification he "builded better than he knew". When the "higher criticism" came, with its imaginary terrors, as of hoof, horn, and teeth, I for one, felt able to tame, manage, and use it as a faithful beast of burden, both for the history of Japan and of Israel, largely because John Chambers used to say to me: "Will, study the Bible, and don't be afraid of what you find there". Where some see only the chestnut burr, I have found food and sweetness. "Out of the eater has come forth meat, and out of the strong, sweetness," largely because of the atmosphere which John Chambers suffused around my youthful head.
Mr. Chambers's fortieth anniversary sermon on May 14, 1865, was published in a neat pamphlet, with a sketch of the history of the church. He was then in his sixty-eighth year and in vigorous health. About eight or ten of his original parishioners out of the seventy-one who, in April, 1825, had voted to call him to be their pastor, still survived. Despite the subtraction of removals, dismissals and deaths the church rolls showed an active membership of twelve hundred. The church edifice, on a lot seventy-six by one hundred feet, had cost, for building and enlargement, about fifty thousand dollars, all raised by direct subscription. About three thousand persons had been received into membership, nine-tenths on confession of faith. Other statistics are interesting—2,509 funerals, 6,247 sermons, 2,400 funeral addresses, 3,000 addresses on missionary, temperance and Sunday School subjects, and about 28,000 pastoral calls. In forty years, excepting his absence in Europe, he had been out of the pulpit for ill health only three times. In the foulness of strength and prosperity the spirit of this discourse is best set forth as he expressed it, "Oh, to grace how great a debtor" and "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us."
The salary of our pastor, at first very modest, had been increased to $1,500, then to $2,500, and for a few later years, he received $4,000. It was about this time, 1865, that the gentlemen of the congregation presented him with a tea set of silver.
Almost as a matter of course, John Chambers was often approached by pastorless church committees seeking a popular and efficient leader; but never, for one moment, did he encourage the thought of leaving his people for another field. Nevertheless the gossips sometimes imagined otherwise. Concerning one particular instance, which was the occasion of a witty and very remarkable sermon, my fellow-alumnus, Rev. Dr. Robert Maurice Luther, writes me, under date of July 16, 1903:
"As a preacher, Dr. Chambers was, by voice and personal presence most attractive. His voice was indescribably rich, full and sonorous. He was frequently charged with taking lessons from celebrated actors. This he indignantly and most emphatically denied, frequently in my hearing. On the other hand, I more than once heard an actor of some prominence, afterward a teacher of elocution, assert that he was in the habit of attending the First Independent Church, for the purpose of getting hints on the management of his voice, from Dr. Chambers's method.
One sermon, much criticised, I remember distinctly, to-day. It must have been delivered about the year 1856. The occasion was a persistent report, widely circulated, that Dr. Chambers was about to accept a call to a more largely remunerated pastorate in Baltimore. The theme was "The Immortality of the Scandal Monger." The text was, "It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it." Neh., vi, 6. The pastor said that Gashmu had never been heard of before, and did not appear again, yet he was immortal.