Part 8

“He had himself got to the heavenward side of life. He was as busy as he had ever been, entering fully into the work, thinking and planning about it, as if he were still young, and life all before him, and his interest in public and passing events continued unquenched. Yet, and this is no fancy, a deep peace seemed to have come down upon him, with silent expectancy in it, as if he stood at the meeting-place of the two worlds and took both into his field of vision. The depressions of former years were gone, and but that our ‘eyes were holden’ by a merciful blindness, we might have known that the Master’s coming was at hand.”

The population in South Kensington by this time had enormously increased. The relics of rural life repeatedly noticed in this volume disappeared, and the crowded neighbourhood called for spiritual provision. At a social meeting in January, 1879, a resolution was passed expressive of gratitude for the goodness of God, and of a conviction that the time had come for making a vigorous effort to extend to one of the newly-peopled districts in the neighbourhood some of the privileges which the Church had so long enjoyed; and a year afterwards, at a similar meeting, joy was expressed that a good site had been found in West Kensington, together with a determination to erect on it a chapel worthy of the neighbourhood.

It is sad to record what follows. Dr. Raleigh removed to Kensington at the close of the year 1875, early in 1880 he was laid aside. On the 10th of March he sent to his “Flock and Friends” this touching letter:—

“I must try to write a line to tell you what a great grief it is to me that I am still prevented from meeting you ‘face to face.’ Pain and weariness have been my portion during these last weeks. But God has upheld me by His great goodness, and enabled me to cast all my care upon Him, and to commit all my ways to Him. Indeed, I may say I have but one serious care, the care that arises in my heart when I think of you and of your interests in the Gospel, which I can at present do little or nothing to promote. I know you are being well instructed by other servants of the Master, and that the Chief Shepherd Himself never ceases to have you in His care. Nor can I doubt that this unexpected and undesired illness of your pastor is among the ‘all things’ which may work together for your good. With prayer and patience on your part and on mine it will certainly be so, and our God will supply all our need according to His glorious riches by Christ Jesus.

“I am assured by the deacons, both for themselves and for you, that I may go on in the use of the best means for recovery with a quiet mind, and in the confidence that you will willingly and prayerfully wait for my restoration to strength, and for what—if God graciously gives it—will certainly be to me, even more than to you, a happy return to my work. Of course all waiting of this kind must have reasonable limits; but I think you may be assured that I am not likely to forget them. I thank God that I have so much reason to wish, I hope before very long, to be able to put my hand again to a work which, in some ways at least, has prospered so well. That this our mutual desire may be accomplished, I cast myself with confidence on your sympathy; and still more earnestly I make appeal to you for your prayers, that I may be kept in unfailing trust, and that I may be restored to you the sooner.

“And for you, dear brethren, with all my heart I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. The Shepherd of Israel have you in His care.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

Dr. Raleigh’s last hours are thus described by his wife in her beautiful memoirs of him:—

“Throughout the night of 17th April he was very restless, and said, ‘I have not been able for two days to think any religious thoughts, but I know that I am His.’ When the morning came (Sunday) his countenance wore the changed look we learn to know too well, and he spoke of his departure as at hand, as indeed he felt it was. His wife, wishing as usual to send a message to be read to his people, asked him what it should be. He hesitated, saying, ‘I do not want to alarm them, and it looks as if I were of such importance if I send a message.’ He consented, however, and dictated a few words. Many things were talked over, and last words spoken during the day. The wrench of parting was still hard to him, and the spring sunshine seemed too glad for dying eyes. ‘Everything is as bright as if I were well,’ he said; but looked an earnest assent when reminded that in this lay the hidden promise of a better spring-time. Some food being brought him, of which he tried in vain to partake, he put it gently aside, saying, ‘The Bread of Life is near.’ Again: ‘I should like to go to-day; it is _my_ day.’ His whispered words to his children; his expressed thoughts and cares about their future; his last looks of love and welcome, are laid up in the sacred silence of the heart ‘till the day dawn.’

“As the evening drew on he became restless with the restlessness so common at the approach of death. The weary spirit, finding home no longer in the dissolving body, was struggling to break the chain and enter into the life of liberty. The eyes, always so responsive to the light, grew dim, unconsciousness fell gradually over him, and before we knew it he was away beyond reach of loving word or touch of ours; but we believe he was not beyond the reach of higher ministries. As the long night passed, and the slow dawn found him still waiting at the gate, perhaps there came to his spirit the first whispers of heavenly fellowship. Perhaps ‘Jesus Himself drew near and went with him.’ Shortly after noon on Monday, 19th of April, 1880, he entered calmly into rest.”

It was the first time that Death had laid his hand on any of the Kensington pastors until after their removal from the neighbourhood, and the new visitation was keenly felt. This was testified in many ways, especially by the public funeral on the 24th of April, 1880. A service was held in the chapel, attended by a large concourse of ministerial and other friends. The Rev. J. G. Rogers delivered a funeral oration, dwelling upon the character of his deceased friend and fellow-student. The procession afterwards wound its solemn way to Abney Park. “When the _cortége_ approached, all were hushed to silence and many an eye was wet with tears. The line of spectators stretched from the Church Street entrance gates, past the open grave, and overlapping but not surrounding it. Hardly a sound was heard but the grating of the footsteps of the bearers of the coffin and the procession on the gravel. Preceded by the Rev. Henry Allon, D.D.; the Rev. J. Guinness Rogers; the Rev. Mr. Glyn, Vicar of Kensington; and the Rev. W. M. Statham; and followed by all Dr. Raleigh’s children (except the eldest) and other members of his family, and various friends and delegates, the coffin, literally covered and re-covered with flowers, was borne to the tomb. Then Dr. Allon conducted the solemn service, in which the Rev. Mr. Glyn took part; after which all who desired had an opportunity of taking a last look at the grave, and many deposited there their offering of flowers—their symbol of affection. Presently the earth would be covered in, and all would be over.”

Funeral sermons were preached at Kensington Chapel on the following Sunday by Dr. Allon and Mr. Rogers.

* * * * *

To resume the mode of expression adopted in the earlier portion of this volume, and only dropped in describing the pastorate preceding that of Dr. Raleigh, I shall ever deeply regret that, through absence from England, I was unable to take any part in these solemnities. I was not aware of his serious illness until the fact was communicated to me in Rome, and scarcely had I received the sad intimation when the news of his death arrived; and I was shocked to find that the dear Kensington Church was again destitute, and that I had lost an honoured friend.

VII. THE SEVENTH PASTORATE. _THE REV. COLMER B. SYMES_. 1880—

THE interregnum between Mr. Clayton’s removal and Dr. Leifchild’s arrival extended beyond two years and a half; but breaks in the after history of the pastorate were remarkably short. Two months only elapsed between Dr. Leifchild’s retirement and the commencement of Dr. Vaughan’s labours. Dr. Vaughan terminated his Kensington ministry in May, I accepted a call from the Church in July; Dr. Raleigh’s removal to Kensington was about six months after his predecessor left; Dr. Raleigh died in April, his successor was elected at the beginning of November. The comparative brevity of these intervals, when placed beside the history of many other Congregational Churches, is remarkable, and inspires special thankfulness in a community in this respect so highly favoured. At no period has there been divided feeling amongst the members with regard to a new minister. Rival candidates are unknown at Kensington, and proceedings relative to filling up vacancies have ever been conducted in a spirit of entire harmony and love.

The Rev. Colmer B. Symes, of Exeter, having been strongly recommended as likely to meet the needs of the Church, a meeting was held on the 4th of November, 1880, to decide whether he should be invited as Dr. Raleigh’s successor. The course adopted was the same as on the last occasion. The Church passed a resolution, unanimous and cordial, that Mr. Symes should be requested to accept the pastorship; then the deacons were to convey that resolution, and to urge “the acceptance of the important office to which he had been elected.” The deacons visited Mr. Symes at Exeter, and discharged fully the duty intrusted to them by their fellow members.

The gratifying result appears in Mr. Symes’ reply on the 13th of November, 1880:—

“DEAR CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,—

“In replying to your kind invitation to assume the pastorate among you, I have at the outset to thank you for the undeserved honour which you have done me, and to recognise the increased value of your invitation through the thoughtful delicacy of your deacons, who came to Exeter that they might present it personally to me.

“It is needless to dwell on the anxiety which your action has caused, or upon the painful sense of responsibility under which I have approached the decision of my own course. You will fully understand that the step which you have asked me to take involves the very gravest results, both to you and to my beloved congregation at Exeter. Such a step is a crisis in a man’s life; and the consideration of it penetrates one through and through with the conviction, ‘It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.’ To say then that I have thought much and prayed earnestly over this question, is only to assure you that I have done what, under such circumstances, any Christian man of honest purpose _must_ do.

“As the result of such thought and prayer, of a simple surrender of my movements to the guidance of a higher wisdom than my own, and of earnest effort to interpret that guidance, I now accept your invitation to the pastorate as cordially as you have given it; and while utterly unconscious of any fitness, mentally or spiritually, to achieve a true success, I am confident that God has called me to work at Kensington, and for that work ‘my sufficiency is of God.’

“When your deacons showed me that, although I had felt obliged to present passive resistance to your previous kind advances, God had led you to an unanimous decision, I felt that my duty was written in letters of light, and I could have given an immediate reply. That reply has been delayed a week, partly to correct or confirm what might have been a hasty judgment, and partly that I might rise to the level of that Apostolic charge, in which we pastors are urged to take the oversight of the flock of God, ‘not _by constraint_, but willingly.’ A week ago I was conscious of Divine coercion, the compulsion of duty. I did not like to pass before you as a captive dragged in triumph behind the chariot of a Divine regal purpose. I would rather come before you as the willing herald to announce the presence of the King amongst you, and to describe to you the joys of His royal rule.

“You will not, I am sure, be pained at this allusion to past unwillingness. I should be unworthy of the love I hope to win from you, if I could callously cut those living nerves of loving friendship which, during the past four years, have thrilled again and again at the touch of as tender a sympathy as a pastor could wish to enjoy. I am asked to leave an earnest, warm-hearted, united, and useful congregation, who have laid me under the deepest indebtedness by their sensitiveness to my ministry, by their love in my deep sorrow, by their unbroken harmony, and by their zealous fellowship with me in all service to Christ. I have never received one harsh word or one cold look from them; and I should be less than human if I could part with such people painlessly. Still I do feel very distinctly that the unanimity of your judgment in offering to me the splendid opportunities of service to Christ, which your neighbourhood presents—confirmed as that judgment has been by impartial advisers on all hands, to whom both you and I have appealed for counsel—may be accepted as the tones of a Divine call; and with _gladness_ and _thankfulness_ for the honour of service to Christ among you, I accept the pastorate.

“When first asked to preach to you in my holidays, I quite understood the full significance of the visit; but as your request had come to me when at leisure, and had come so unsought, I felt that I dared not refuse to take the step which God seemed to indicate; and therefore I preached to you in August. Since then I have felt that I must maintain a very passive attitude; and, at every subsequent stage, I have earnestly prayed that God would allow your action to express His will to me. I pledged myself to Him that I would say or do nothing myself, and that I would accept your perseverance or your discontinuance as the revelation of His will for my life. I am therefore bound in simple truthfulness to act on your decision, and to feel at rest on the score of Divine guidance.

“It is, however, a great comfort to me that the judgment of all whom I have consulted outside my own congregation concur in your decision and in the response which I have given. May God so generously help me in my ministry, and in His great condescension use me to impart unto you such spiritual gifts that you and I shall rejoice together in the union which we now form; and to Him from whom alone all the grace must come will we give all the praise.

“As to the future, the less I say the better. It is, perhaps, wise that a man should _do_ as much as he can, and _talk_ as little as may be of what he intends to do. I might paint you a picture of what I mean my ministry to be; but you would see at once that the picture was painted with the trembling brush of a human purpose, and that it was scarcely worth your while to examine it. I would rather leave the light of God to photograph the actual ministry as it shall be worked out from day to day; and may the picture satisfy your spiritual perceptions, and, above all, be acceptable to God.

“While, however, it is wise to be silent about all my expectations of service among you, I will tell you what is clear to me, and is invested with no uncertainty. I am coming to preach to you the love and the power of a living Christ, who has expiated the guilt of our sins by His wondrous death; who mediates for us to-day before the throne; who now ministers to us through the Spirit with wisest teachings and gentlest comforts and holiest inspirations; that living Christ who is the Alpha and the Omega of all that is noblest and truest in human life, and who will help us to fulfil our purer purposes until He presents us guiltless and without fault before His Father’s throne. This will be the burden of my ministry; and may that Spirit of God, without whom the most truthful, earnest, and sincere ministry will be powerless, enable you and dispose you to receive this Gospel from me as the Word of God.

“I am, dear Christian brethren,

“Yours in Christ Jesus, “COLMER B. SYMES.”

A recognition service was held at Kensington Chapel, when I was again invited to preside; and amongst the ministers and friends present were the Rev. Dr. Allon, the Rev. Dr. Hannay, the Revs. J. C. Harrison, Newman Hall, C. E. B. Reed, J. H. Russell, A. Mearns, W. Roberts, Messrs. H. Wright, W. Holborn, and R. Freeman.

It had rarely, if ever, fallen to the lot of a minister after his retirement from a Church to preside on two occasions at the introduction of a new minister. I little thought that I should have to discharge such duty as devolved on me that evening. It seemed, I said, but the other day since they assembled to welcome Dr. Raleigh, and though so long a term of service as had been allowed to his predecessor could not have been expected, it might have been hoped that the former would have survived the latter. “I feel how great your loss has been, and deeply do I sympathize with you in this respect; and I am anxious to say so now, because on account of my being in Italy at the time of Dr. Raleigh’s interment, I had not an opportunity of then tendering in public my sincere condolence. But whilst I mourn over what you have lost, I would rejoice on account of what you gain this evening. I have not yet had the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Symes. I believe I never met him but once, and then he made, during a short space, a much more favourable impression on my mind than I have sometimes received from far longer interviews with other brethren. My heart is filled with gratitude to God for having sent you such a man in the room of him who could not continue by reason of death.”

On this occasion, much additional interest was imparted by the presence of an Exeter deacon, who came to testify the love of the Exeter Church for the pastor who had left them. “God,” he said, “has blessed him very much. We have about three hundred and fifty members, and during Mr. Symes’ short pastorate of five or six years, about two hundred have joined our Church.” “The young especially have rallied round him; and we could point to many institutions showing where his usefulness has been so marked.” “His removal has been a county loss, and will be felt at chapel openings and harvest homes.”

The new pastor followed, saying, amongst other things:—

“I come to preach Christ to this congregation—the living Christ, who by His sacrifice has expiated our guilt upon the cross, and is able to free us from the guilt and from the power of sin; the Christ who is living and acting to-day as our Mediator, and is securing for us all spiritual blessings; the Christ who is the Lord of our life, whose will and leadership we, His people, are bound by the most solemn commands to obey; the Christ whose friendship is the joy of life, whose teaching settles all the creeds, and who in some mysterious sense includes within Himself all His believing people in His renewed life, and vitalizes all as the vine can vitalize its branches. In preaching such a Christ as this, there need be no narrowness in the ministry: it will be my own fault if there is. Christ touches human life at all points. To preach Christ fully is to raise the most profound intellectual problems, for Christ has localized the thoughts of men in every race. To preach Him fully, is to assert His claims, and to press those claims upon every sphere of human life, the personal and the political, the domestic and the congregational, the mercantile and the mirthful, the social and the sacred. Christ touches human life on all sides, and it is mine to preach Christ fully, and not to furnish a narrow ministry. I come then, dear brethren, to preach to you the Christ whose love is more than life to me; who has soothed me when, with broken heart, I have felt life unbearable; who has sustained me in ministerial work and trial extending over many years; who has stood by me in every effort which I have made, and who has most generously succoured me in my weakness and raised me when I have fallen.”

Confessions of faith on such an occasion are not so common now as once they were; but this admirable summary of truth was volunteered and delivered in a spirit which left nothing more to be desired; and what may not be hoped from a ministry commenced with such evangelical views and such hallowed resolutions?

In the second year of Mr. Symes’ ministry the foundation stone of the West Kensington Congregational Chapel was laid. On the 2nd of November, 1882, a large number of friends assembled to witness the ceremony performed by the venerable and catholic-spirited Earl of Shaftesbury. Mr. Wright gave a statement of the circumstances which had led to the gratifying event of the day. He said that,—