Clergy -- England -- Biography; Stoughton, John, 1807-1897
spontaneous gift of a purse containing £3000.”
Besides others who were present on the occasion, as noticed in _The
Times_, let me mention my excellent friend and neighbour the Rev. J.
Philip Gell, formerly Vicar of St. John’s, Notting Hill. He referred to
the well-knit efforts of pastor and people, which had constituted the
strength of the Church at Kensington, and remarked that it was little
known how the force of public opinion acts and reacts on the life of a
large permanent congregation. “The love which was thrilling that night
was the Church’s strength, and so long as that lived and flowed on the
part of the people, and was sustained by the pastor’s wisdom, so long
would the Church live and prosper.”
Dr. Morley Punshon, President of the Wesleyan Connexion, travelled from
Leeds, where he had preached that morning. He trusted that the Church
would be Divinely guided in choosing a successor. It was encouraging to
witness such a presentation as that just made, the like of which many
present had never seen before.
The years I spent at Kensington were very happy. I can say from
experience that the life of a Congregational minister, in connection with
a large and liberal Church—when full play is given to the social
affections, elevated and purified by culture as well as religion—is an
enviable lot, and calls for the devout gratitude of any one who has
enjoyed it.
The friendships formed with many of my flock, a very few of whom are
still living, have been amongst the choicest privileges afforded me by
Divine Providence. Loving memories of them linger in my heart, amidst
sweeping obliterations of names and faces incident to an age of fourscore
and more, and those who survive me will, I trust, accept an
acknowledgment of obligations deeply felt as these lines are written. I
took special interest in some, now goodly matrons, who were school girls
at Kensington in my time, and whose happy fortunes I have sympathetically
followed through life. If they read these lines, they will understand
the fatherly feeling with which they are written. Their parents, now at
rest in the eternal home, were no small joy to me, and as they passed
away, one after another, they left blanks not to be filled up in this
world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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