In addition to his academic career, Talmage authored several books on religion, the most prominent of which are Jesus the Christ and Articles of Faith which remain classics in Mormon literature more than a century after publication.
[1]: 490–401 Neighbors and local clergy did not like the Talmage family's membership in the LDS Church or their innkeeping business, which included serving alcoholic beverages during the temperance movement.
Shortly after Talmage's birth, his family moved into a cottage in Edington, where most of his ten younger siblings were born.
[1]: 491 At the age of twelve, he graduated from elementary school, passing the Oxford Diocesan Association exam for a second-class certificate.
Talmage received a distinguished primary education and was named an Oxford Diocesan Prize Scholar after six years of schooling.
[5]: 9–10 In Provo, he studied the Normal Course at BYA, with Karl G. Maeser as one of his teachers; he graduated in 1879 at the age of seventeen.
[6]: 3 Talmage's early predilection was for the sciences, and in 1882 and 1883 he took selected courses in chemistry and geology at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Shortly before taking office as a member of the city council, Talmage had a lab accident that nearly cost him his sight.
[5] In 1889, the Salt Lake Stake Academy was renamed LDS College and Talmage continued as its head until 1892.
[5] One of Talmage's first tasks as principal of LDS College was to write a science textbook for the youth in the school.
[5][11] In 1891, Talmage published a work entitled Domestic Science at the urging of Wilford Woodruff and the other members of the First Presidency.
[5] In April 1889, Talmage was appointed a member of the examining board for all schools of LDS Church, along with Maeser and Joseph M. Tanner.
[5]: loc 1601 He continued lecturing on scientific subjects at LDS College through the end of that academic year.
[14] In 1909, while Talmage was serving as the director of the Deseret Museum, he went to Detroit, Michigan, in November of that year to participate in diggings connected with the Scotford-Soper-Savage relics craze.
[16][17] In 1911, after becoming a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, his son, Sterling Talmage, replaced him as curator of Deseret Museum.
His main goal was attending the meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society where he gave a lecture on the Great Salt Lake and its brine shrimp.
Koyle had allegedly prophesied that the mine would offer the LDS Church resources during times of crisis.
[20]: 205–207 Talmage was the author of several religious books, including The Articles of Faith, The Great Apostasy, The House of the Lord, and Jesus the Christ.
They requested he compile his lectures about the life of Jesus Christ into a book that would be widely available to church members and other readers.
[33][34] Before he became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Talmage was an alternate high councilor in the Utah Stake of Zion.
[35] He became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on 7 December 1911, after Charles W. Penrose was appointed as second counselor in the First Presidency.
His views on science and religion are demonstrated by this statement: "Within the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is room for every truth thus far learned by man, or yet to be made known.
Roberts, a scientific scholar and LDS Church leader, presented a 700-page manuscript to the First Presidency which attempted to completely align theology and science.
Joseph Fielding Smith, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, made a statement against what was written about evolution in the manuscript prepared by Roberts.
[5]: 56–57 Soon, he applied for citizenship and received his naturalization papers and although he was uninterested in political involvement aside from necessity, Talmage went on to serve on the Provo City Council as an alderman, and as a justice of the peace.