“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.