Chapter VII: The Seventh Pastorate

_THE REV. COLMER B. SYMES_. 1880—

THE interregnum between Mr. Clayton’s removal and Dr. Leifchild’s arrival extended beyond two years and a half; but breaks in the after history of the pastorate were remarkably short. Two months only elapsed between Dr. Leifchild’s retirement and the commencement of Dr. Vaughan’s labours. Dr. Vaughan terminated his Kensington ministry in May, I accepted a call from the Church in July; Dr. Raleigh’s removal to Kensington was about six months after his predecessor left; Dr. Raleigh died in April, his successor was elected at the beginning of November. The comparative brevity of these intervals, when placed beside the history of many other Congregational Churches, is remarkable, and inspires special thankfulness in a community in this respect so highly favoured. At no period has there been divided feeling amongst the members with regard to a new minister. Rival candidates are unknown at Kensington, and proceedings relative to filling up vacancies have ever been conducted in a spirit of entire harmony and love.

The Rev. Colmer B. Symes, of Exeter, having been strongly recommended as likely to meet the needs of the Church, a meeting was held on the 4th of November, 1880, to decide whether he should be invited as Dr. Raleigh’s successor. The course adopted was the same as on the last occasion. The Church passed a resolution, unanimous and cordial, that Mr. Symes should be requested to accept the pastorship; then the deacons were to convey that resolution, and to urge “the acceptance of the important office to which he had been elected.” The deacons visited Mr. Symes at Exeter, and discharged fully the duty intrusted to them by their fellow members.

The gratifying result appears in Mr. Symes’ reply on the 13th of November, 1880:—

“DEAR CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,—

“In replying to your kind invitation to assume the pastorate among
you, I have at the outset to thank you for the undeserved honour
which you have done me, and to recognise the increased value of your
invitation through the thoughtful delicacy of your deacons, who came
to Exeter that they might present it personally to me.

“It is needless to dwell on the anxiety which your action has caused,
or upon the painful sense of responsibility under which I have
approached the decision of my own course. You will fully understand
that the step which you have asked me to take involves the very
gravest results, both to you and to my beloved congregation at
Exeter. Such a step is a crisis in a man’s life; and the
consideration of it penetrates one through and through with the
conviction, ‘It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.’ To
say then that I have thought much and prayed earnestly over this
question, is only to assure you that I have done what, under such
circumstances, any Christian man of honest purpose _must_ do.

“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.

“When first asked to preach to you in my holidays, I quite understood
the full significance of the visit; but as your request had come to
me when at leisure, and had come so unsought, I felt that I dared not
refuse to take the step which God seemed to indicate; and therefore I
preached to you in August. Since then I have felt that I must
maintain a very passive attitude; and, at every subsequent stage, I
have earnestly prayed that God would allow your action to express His
will to me. I pledged myself to Him that I would say or do nothing
myself, and that I would accept your perseverance or your
discontinuance as the revelation of His will for my life. I am
therefore bound in simple truthfulness to act on your decision, and
to feel at rest on the score of Divine guidance.

“It is, however, a great comfort to me that the judgment of all whom
I have consulted outside my own congregation concur in your decision
and in the response which I have given. May God so generously help
me in my ministry, and in His great condescension use me to impart
unto you such spiritual gifts that you and I shall rejoice together
in the union which we now form; and to Him from whom alone all the
grace must come will we give all the praise.

“As to the future, the less I say the better. It is, perhaps, wise
that a man should _do_ as much as he can, and _talk_ as little as may
be of what he intends to do. I might paint you a picture of what I
mean my ministry to be; but you would see at once that the picture
was painted with the trembling brush of a human purpose, and that it
was scarcely worth your while to examine it. I would rather leave
the light of God to photograph the actual ministry as it shall be
worked out from day to day; and may the picture satisfy your
spiritual perceptions, and, above all, be acceptable to God.

“While, however, it is wise to be silent about all my expectations of
service among you, I will tell you what is clear to me, and is
invested with no uncertainty. I am coming to preach to you the love
and the power of a living Christ, who has expiated the guilt of our
sins by His wondrous death; who mediates for us to-day before the
throne; who now ministers to us through the Spirit with wisest
teachings and gentlest comforts and holiest inspirations; that living
Christ who is the Alpha and the Omega of all that is noblest and
truest in human life, and who will help us to fulfil our purer
purposes until He presents us guiltless and without fault before His
Father’s throne. This will be the burden of my ministry; and may
that Spirit of God, without whom the most truthful, earnest, and
sincere ministry will be powerless, enable you and dispose you to
receive this Gospel from me as the Word of God.

“I am, dear Christian brethren,

“Yours in Christ Jesus,
“COLMER B. SYMES.”

A recognition service was held at Kensington Chapel, when I was again invited to preside; and amongst the ministers and friends present were the Rev. Dr. Allon, the Rev. Dr. Hannay, the Revs. J. C. Harrison, Newman Hall, C. E. B. Reed, J. H. Russell, A. Mearns, W. Roberts, Messrs. H. Wright, W. Holborn, and R. Freeman.

It had rarely, if ever, fallen to the lot of a minister after his retirement from a Church to preside on two occasions at the introduction of a new minister. I little thought that I should have to discharge such duty as devolved on me that evening. It seemed, I said, but the other day since they assembled to welcome Dr. Raleigh, and though so long a term of service as had been allowed to his predecessor could not have been expected, it might have been hoped that the former would have survived the latter. “I feel how great your loss has been, and deeply do I sympathize with you in this respect; and I am anxious to say so now, because on account of my being in Italy at the time of Dr. Raleigh’s interment, I had not an opportunity of then tendering in public my sincere condolence. But whilst I mourn over what you have lost, I would rejoice on account of what you gain this evening. I have not yet had the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Symes. I believe I never met him but once, and then he made, during a short space, a much more favourable impression on my mind than I have sometimes received from far longer interviews with other brethren. My heart is filled with gratitude to God for having sent you such a man in the room of him who could not continue by reason of death.”

On this occasion, much additional interest was imparted by the presence of an Exeter deacon, who came to testify the love of the Exeter Church for the pastor who had left them. “God,” he said, “has blessed him very much. We have about three hundred and fifty members, and during Mr. Symes’ short pastorate of five or six years, about two hundred have joined our Church.” “The young especially have rallied round him; and we could point to many institutions showing where his usefulness has been so marked.” “His removal has been a county loss, and will be felt at chapel openings and harvest homes.”

The new pastor followed, saying, amongst other things:—

“I come to preach Christ to this congregation—the living Christ, who
by His sacrifice has expiated our guilt upon the cross, and is able
to free us from the guilt and from the power of sin; the Christ who
is living and acting to-day as our Mediator, and is securing for us
all spiritual blessings; the Christ who is the Lord of our life,
whose will and leadership we, His people, are bound by the most
solemn commands to obey; the Christ whose friendship is the joy of
life, whose teaching settles all the creeds, and who in some
mysterious sense includes within Himself all His believing people in
His renewed life, and vitalizes all as the vine can vitalize its
branches. In preaching such a Christ as this, there need be no
narrowness in the ministry: it will be my own fault if there is.
Christ touches human life at all points. To preach Christ fully is
to raise the most profound intellectual problems, for Christ has
localized the thoughts of men in every race. To preach Him fully, is
to assert His claims, and to press those claims upon every sphere of
human life, the personal and the political, the domestic and the
congregational, the mercantile and the mirthful, the social and the
sacred. Christ touches human life on all sides, and it is mine to
preach Christ fully, and not to furnish a narrow ministry. I come
then, dear brethren, to preach to you the Christ whose love is more
than life to me; who has soothed me when, with broken heart, I have
felt life unbearable; who has sustained me in ministerial work and
trial extending over many years; who has stood by me in every effort
which I have made, and who has most generously succoured me in my
weakness and raised me when I have fallen.”

Confessions of faith on such an occasion are not so common now as once they were; but this admirable summary of truth was volunteered and delivered in a spirit which left nothing more to be desired; and what may not be hoped from a ministry commenced with such evangelical views and such hallowed resolutions?

In the second year of Mr. Symes’ ministry the foundation stone of the West Kensington Congregational Chapel was laid. On the 2nd of November, 1882, a large number of friends assembled to witness the ceremony performed by the venerable and catholic-spirited Earl of Shaftesbury. Mr. Wright gave a statement of the circumstances which had led to the gratifying event of the day. He said that,—

“In January, 1880, at a meeting held at the house of Mr. Edward
Spicer, and attended by the late Dr. Raleigh, the deacons of the
Church, and other ministers and laymen, it was resolved that a site
should be secured for the erection of a Congregational Church, and a
fund was started to which Dr. Raleigh subscribed £50, and six other
gentlemen present £250 each; £250 was also promised by an absent
deacon. After protracted inquiries and negotiations the present site
was purchased. The London Congregational Union had voted £1,600
towards its cost, and the London Chapel Building Society £1,000
towards the erection of the church. The progress of the work was
arrested by the lamented decease of Dr. Raleigh, but when the Rev. C.
B. Symes entered on his ministry he gave new impetus to it, and
liberally subscribed £250 toward the fund. The building to be
erected was from the design of Mr. J. Cubitt, and the work had
received the approval of many friends not connected with the
district, two of whom had subscribed £500 each, and another noble
citizen of London £200. The gifts by individuals ranged from £1,000
to five farthings from a little boy not quite eight years old! In
that work they were trying to solve the problem how to penetrate the
population with the spirit of true religion, and the building would
be dedicated to the service and worship of Almighty God and His
blessed Son, with the prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ might be the
master of the house, the King of the people, and the Shepherd of the
flock which might be gathered there. It would be a Free Church,
independent of all external support and control; the worship would be
free and spiritual, and the ordinances would be sustained by the
free-will offerings of God’s people. It was not undertaken in
hostility to any existing church in the neighbourhood, and there was
nothing to hinder its promoters saying, ‘Grace be with all them that
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.’”

In the evening of the same day a meeting was held at the Vestry Hall, Kensington, when Mr. John Kemp Welch presided, and Messrs. James Spicer, J.P., H. Wright, J.P., Dr. Hannay, the Rev. C. B. Symes, Mr. J. H. Fordham, Mr. Robert Freeman, Mr. William Holborn, and Messrs. H. and E. Spicer supported the chairman. The sum of £14,190 was required, and before the close of the meeting no less than £12,084 was subscribed or promised. The following appeared in the report:—

“Dr. Stoughton said he would like to tell those present a little of
what had been done in days gone by, when a considerable movement
began in 1849, resulting in the erection of five new chapels in the
space of ten years. They were not all connected with Allen Street
Church, but they all sprang out of the operation of the voluntary
principle, and the Kensington people had something to do with all of
them. It began with the erection of Horbury Chapel, Notting Hill;
and was followed by Kensington Chapel; Oakland’s Chapel, Shepherd’s
Bush; Edith Grove, Brompton; and Cravenhill chapels. Those chapels
could not have cost less than thirty or forty thousand pounds, and
the liabilities were all undertaken during those ten years. If they
added another ten years for paying off those debts, they would see
that £30,000 or £40,000 was expended in chapel building work during
that period. The fathers were not quite asleep, and the sons had
very grateful recollections of what they did in days that were past.
He referred to it as an example for them to emulate, and to go on
during the next ten or twenty years as their predecessors did. If
they laid out £30,000 or £40,000 outside their church, it would be a
noble thing. The debt on Allen Street was paid off five years after
it was opened, and he was then very anxious to see a new chapel
spring up in South or West Kensington, where there was much vacant
land which he knew would in time be covered with houses. A variety
of circumstances, however, prevented his realising that desire; but
now that streets and squares had been built, and the name changed
from North End to West Kensington, they had done nobly and wisely in
setting to work to build the contemplated edifice. He heartily
congratulated them upon their present position, and on the
relationship existing between pastor and people. Mr. Symes was doing
work which had not previously been done, and was laying hold of young
people brought into the neighbourhood; the speaker looked most
hopefully upon these circumstances and trusted that the Church in
Allen Street would go on as prosperously as ever.”

Here I must bring my narrative to a close. The ninety years’ history now recorded exhibits the continuity, the development, the increase, the augmented resources, and the advancing power of the Kensington Congregational Church. Religious progress has followed, though not with equal steps, progress in other respects, visible throughout the Court suburb, and its vicinity. The _duplication_ of the ecclesiastical body, if so the movement at Horbury about thirty years ago may be termed, is now, thanks to our Heavenly Father, being repeated; but gratitude to Him for this renewed inspiration of zeal is mingled with regret that the effort has been so long delayed. May it now be carried forward with ardour, in the spirit of faith, love, and prayer, and may other similar operations follow in years to come,—the activity and self-sacrifice of Kensington Christians keeping pace with the wants of the neighbourhood! The results at Notting Hill ought to be combined with those at Kensington, in order to estimate the value of what was done more than thirty years ago. The congregations, the members, the contributions since, should be reckoned together in a sum total; and a proportionate increase continued through coming days will secure an aggregate most blessed to contemplate, illustrating the true law of progress in Congregationalism. It will be God’s building, God’s husbandry, a working together with Him and under Him: ministers and people being one with the Church’s Lord. What purity of communion, what brotherly love, what self-sacrificing zeal, what achievements of benevolence, what noble family lives, what numerous conversions to Christ may be anticipated in consequence of aims and endeavours such as are now suggested! If the Church be a Divine garden, growth, fruitfulness, beauty ought to be expected. Rich abundance will crown a field which the Lord hath blessed. The most prosperous Churches in Christendom only exhibit what may be called, in the highest sense, a _natural_ result of His superintendence and blessing. What spiritual wonders may be looked for, what earnest, humble work should be attempted, what encouragement under heavy responsibility, what comfort amidst trials and disappointments will assuredly come in the garden of our toils, our hopes, our joys,—“supposing Him to be the Gardener!” {127}

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Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

FOOTNOTES

{9a} “Historical Recollections of Hyde Park,” by Thomas Smith, p. 39.

{9b} “Environs of London,” iii. p. 196.

{11} Hervey’s “Memoirs,” ii. p. 189.

{12} Faulkner’s “History of Kensington,” p. 317.

{13a} Faulkner’s “History of Kensington,” p. 170.

{13b} Mr. Leifchild, in the “Life” of his father, says that Saunders contributed _thirty pounds annually_. No mention of this appears in the records of the Church.

{17} In Faulkner’s “History of Kensington,” p. 318, it is said that “the first minister who officiated at Hornton Street Chapel was the Rev. Mr. Hall, of Edinburgh, who was not, however, ordained over the congregation.” No notice is taken of this in the original records of the Church, which are imperfect.

{23a} Isaiah li. 9.

{23b} Nichols’ “Anecdotes,” ix. p. 681.

{24a} “History of the London Missionary Society,” by W. Ellis, i. p. 8.

{24b} _Ibid._, p. 15.

{25} Faulkner’s “History of Kensington,” p. 318.

{28} Church Book. 27

{29} “The Clayton Family,” by Dr. Aveling, p. 180.

{37} “Memoir of John Leifchild, D.D.,” by his son, p. 41.

{38a} “Memoir,” p. 40.

{38b} “Remarkable Facts,” by Dr. Leifchild, p. 271.

{40} Church Book.

{47} Leifchild’s “Remarkable Facts,” p. 124.

{49} “Memoir,” p. 47.

{51} “Memoir,” p. 85.

{52} “Memoir,” p. 80.

{54} “Church Book.”

{55} He died in 1862, aged 83. He did not receive the diploma of D.D. until after he left Kensington.

{61} Faulkner’s “History of Kensington,” p. 319.

{68} They were no other than the Rev. John Clayton and Dr. Redford, son of my senior colleague.

{73} James Brunlees, Esq., F.R.S.E.

{77} These details, though they may now seem superfluous, may in years to come be found important and useful.

{81} After references to several discussions on the subject, the Church record at Horbury states:—“It was not, however, until 1847 that any combined effort to carry out the object was made; but on the 20th of October in that year, five friends connected with the Church at Hornton Street (_i.e._ the Rev. John Stoughton, the pastor, Messrs. Walker, Robert Watson, and Robinson, three of the deacons, and Mr. Shepheard, also a member of the Church) met, and forming themselves into a committee, resolved, ‘That it was desirable an Independent Chapel should be built in the neighbourhood of Notting Hill.’ Two of their number were deputed to look out for ground; and, after much difficulty and delay in selecting a suitable site for the building, the present very eligible piece of ground was secured at a price of £630, on lease for eighty-eight years, at a peppercorn rent.” The freehold was subsequently purchased. “The name of Horbury Chapel was given to the building as a mark of respect to the treasurer, Mr. Walker, who, by his liberality and exertions, so largely contributed to the success of the undertaking, the village of Horbury, in Yorkshire, being his birthplace.” The small committee formed in October, 1847, was soon enlarged by the addition of several other members of the Kensington Church. The Rev. W. Roberts was publicly recognised on the 17th of April, 1850, when the Rev. Dr. Morison, the Revs. J. Stratton, J. H. Godwin, and J. Stoughton took part in the service.

{88} They were joined afterwards by Mr. Thomas Wilson.

{127} See a striking sermon on these words by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, in the _Tabernacle Pulpit_, for January, 1883.