bestowed upon those who remained. There only remains to add that, after years of hard and discouraging labour, the new Church appears to be slowly and steadily rooting itself, and to be destined to become a spiritual power in the locality. Uneventful years followed. Those who best know the character of modern Kensington are best able to appreciate the difficulty there is of gathering a strong evening congregation. With his previous successful experience at Exeter so fresh in his memory, it is no wonder that Mr. Symes felt, even more acutely than many do who are called to minister in the West of London, this grave discouragement to the preacher. Many of his expedients to meet the difficulty were for a time successful. Largely-attended evangelistic services were periodically held; but the permanent evening congregation did not grow. Still more serious a problem to one of Mr. Symes’ intensely earnest temperament was the decline in the number of those who were led to public acknowledgment of a change of life. He could not reconcile his own conception of what justifies a ministry in any place with the absence of this note of success; and hence, in a characteristically beautiful letter to the Church in March, 1887, he placed his resignation in their hands. The remarkable meeting at which the congregation presented to Mr. Symes a large portrait in oils of himself, and an illuminated address, was the occasion of a demonstration of the affection and regard in which he was universally held. There have been resignations of ministers who have been determined in their action by a variety of considerations that have led them to give the preference to one sphere of labour over another. But surely the highest of all considerations is contained in so deep a sense of the spiritual mission of the minister, and in so lofty an ideal of his work, that even a qualified response to the public and private ministrations suggests that a continuance of the ministry may cause the interests of the Kingdom to suffer. The Kensington Church had had many lessons before this time, from those who had made great and cheerful sacrifices for its interests; but such a lesson was never taught it with more of real Christian dignity and chivalry than when Mr. Symes laid down the office of minister; thus ending a six years’ pastorate for which very many of the congregation to-day continue to thank God. IX—A NOTABLE INTERVAL—REV. EDWARD WHITE [Picture: Rev. Edward White. From Photo. by Mr. Best]