When I received your communication of the 28th ult. I did not hesitate in my decision, but I have delayed giving you a formal reply, in order that I might confer with my friends in this place, whom it becomes my painful duty to leave. I accept your invitation; but wish it to be provided that our connection may at any time be dissolved, by either party giving notice to the other of a desire to that effect, six months before such a separation is to take place. It is now nearly a year since I began to preach at the Melodeon. I came at the request of some of you; but I did not anticipate the present result. Far from it. I thought but few would come and listen to what was so widely denounced. But I took counsel of my hopes and not of my fears. It seems to me now that, if we are faithful to our duty, we shall in a few years build up a society which shall be not only a joy to our own hearts, but a blessing also to others, now strangers and perhaps hostile to us. I feel that we have begun a good work. With earnest desires for the success of our common enterprise, and a willingness to labor for the advancement of real Christianity, I am, Faithfully, your friend, THEODORE PARKER. _West Roxbury, 12th Dec., 1845._ * * * * * On Sunday, January 4, 1846, REV. THEODORE PARKER was installed as Pastor of the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society in Boston. The exercises on the occasion were as follows:-- INTRODUCTORY HYMN. PRAYER. VOLUNTARY ON THE ORGAN. The Chairman of the Standing Committee then addressed the Congregation as follows:-- By the instructions of the Society, the Committee have made an arrangement with Mr. Parker, by which the services of this Society, under its new organization, should commence with the new year; and this being our first meeting, it has been set apart for such introductory services as may seem fitting for our position and prospects. The circumstances under which this Society has been formed, and its progress hitherto, are familiar to most of those present. It first began from certain influences which seemed hostile to the cause of religious freedom. It was the opinion of many of those now present, that a minister of the Gospel, truly worthy of that name, was proscribed on account of his opinions, branded as a heretic, and shut out from the pulpits of this city. At a meeting of gentlemen held January 22, 1845, the following Resolution was passed:-- "_Resolved_, That the Rev. Theodore Parker shall have a chance to be heard in Boston."