“While recognising the tie which for various periods has outwardly bound us together in Church fellowship,—we desire ever to continue attached to each other in the bonds of the Gospel, and would gratefully acknowledge the goodness of our heavenly Father in having so long vouchsafed to the Church at Hornton Street His presence and blessing—in supplying it with a succession of faithful pastors, in honouring the preaching of His Word by them, in creating a spirit of activity and desire for usefulness on the part of so many of our fellow-members, and in permitting love and union to prevail in our midst. We pray that these blessings may long be continued to you, and be realized by us in our new connection; that there may be speedily sent to us a pastor, a man after God’s own heart, who shall preach the Gospel fully and freely, deacons who shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and that we and our fellow-members, individually, as well as in our associated character, may be distinguished alike for our humility and piety, and for our activity and devotedness to the cause of Christ.” It is interesting here to remember that, whilst the chapel was being built, the idea arose that the new and the old congregations might remain united under a common pastorate of two or three ministers, they interchanging pulpits with each other from week to week, the communicants in the two places at the same time forming together one organic Church. This would have been very gratifying to the Hornton Street pastor, and would have coincided with his views of primitive municipal Churches; but practical difficulties arose, and the scheme was abandoned. In lieu of it, however, the communicants at Kensington and Notting Hill resolved annually to partake of the Lord’s Supper together, a practice which has since been continued with hallowed and pleasant results. If 1848 was a year of storms, 1851, when the first English Exhibition was opened, will ever be remembered as a year of peace. It seemed as though the millennium had dawned. “No more wars now,” thought many a sanguine spirit, soon to be undeceived in this respect; but the tranquillity and good-will amongst the hundreds of thousands who thronged to the Crystal Palace are undeniable, and the effect of it on the Kensington Independent congregation was manifest in crowded attendances and in animated services, for which the artistic wealth and the manifold associations of the great gathering furnished the pastor with manifold illustrations.