On reviewing the appearance of the neighbourhood, compared with what it was years before, changes were visible. Kensington had enlarged, the population had increased; still there were rural spaces between the Court suburb and the neighbouring localities; and people from Paddington, from Brompton, and from Knightsbridge took long country walks to their chosen place of worship. Hence pastoral visitation required much time and some toil; and many were the wanderings in unknown neighbourhoods, taken by the new minister in order to secure an acquaintance with his hearers.
The congregation had become large in the latter part of Dr. Vaughan’s time; and old families who had loved him did not transfer, but rather extended their attachment to the object of their recent choice. Without mentioning names, which would be invidious, there was here an old gentleman who looked well after his pastor’s interests; there an old lady with a large school, who did all she could to bring her pupils under the spiritual influence of the preacher they heard from week to week; and elsewhere a family group outstretching helpful hands for all sorts of good works. The kindness, candour, and forbearance of all were wonderful; and if a few were not reconciled at first to the change which had happened, and naturally sighed at the loss they had sustained, they never evinced alienation, but gradually came to listen lovingly to the pulpit occupant, whom the Great Master, they believed, had sent amongst them. Many new attendants gradually sought sittings on the old spot; some of them long since entered a better world and a better Church, and others still remain, who kindly greet the retired shepherd whenever, happily for himself, he comes in their way.
It may be mentioned that Kensington, on many accounts, has long been a favourite place of residence for artists and literary men, and a few of these became some occasional, others regular hearers. Two Royal Academicians, and one of the editors of Punch, will be remembered by some who read these pages; and an eminent sculptor still remains faithful to his early ecclesiastical attachment. In later days the present President of the Institution of Civil Engineers [73] removed from the north to Kensington, and fully won the confidence and affection of his pastor; others, whom it would be boastful to mention, and some still spared for great usefulness, lightened the load of his cares and increased the sum of his enjoyments.
One most interesting fact should not be passed over. Kensington was remarkable for ladies’ boarding schools, and a number of the pupils attended Hornton Street chapel. Thus the pastor gathered round him a circle in which he took a very lively interest. Friendships were then formed which have since been the joy of his life; and in the evening of his days it is his privilege to regard several of them still with a fatherly affection, to which they faithfully respond.
Curious characters at different periods, it may be added would come into the vestry to have a little chat; a gentleman during the Crimean War gravely proposed to the preacher of peace a clever scheme for blowing up Sebastopol; and at another time one of clerical appearance repeated, with extraordinary rapidity, long passages out of the Greek Testament.
Immediately after the commencement of the new pastorate, important questions arose as to the administration of ecclesiastical affairs—indeed, as to the proper constitution of the Church. The narrative in this volume has shown that the congregation at Hornton Street was originally gathered by Presbyterians; and that though no definite form of polity was adopted, the method of proceedings followed somewhat the Presbyterian model. The institution of elders was proposed, but not carried out; managers, whose office seems to have resembled somewhat that of elders, were at once appointed. For a long time they distinctly and frequently appear in the records of the Society. Moreover, at first mention is made of “communicants,” “members,” and “subscribers”, but the word “Church” occurs only now and then, until the appellation became established in Dr. Leifchild’s time. “Deacons,” too, are mentioned, but not in a way to indicate what were their distinct duties, and in what manner they were chosen. “Managers” continued to administer affairs all the way through; and such persons held office down to the termination of Dr. Vaughan’s ministry. The practice, when he left, was strictly congregational; but still the existence of “managers,” in distinction from deacons, lingered on,—the managers having chiefly to do with the collection of subscriptions and the support of the minister. When the new pastorate opened, it was thought time to put an end to what, on Congregational principles, is an anomaly, and to reduce the administrative power to the scriptural form of bishop and deacons. Hence the office of manager was abolished, and an election of new deacons followed. Those who had been called “managers” were now elected to the diaconate, and new men were added to the number. Altogether they now amounted to seven; their names being Messrs. Newton, James, Hine, Walker, Thurston, Tomlin, and Watson. To give additional importance to this new step in the Church’s history, it was thought desirable to have special services connected with it; therefore, first the pastor, at a special Church meeting, explained the nature of the office, as given in the New Testament, and next Dr. Tidman, at a week evening lecture, delivered an appropriate address to the newly-chosen officers. The Church now, in form as well as spirit, received a decidedly Congregational impress; and so it has continued ever since. From time to time new diaconal elections were held, as vacancies occurred; the ballot being adopted, though the names of suitable persons could be mentioned beforehand, the pastor and those already in office being allowed, not indeed to dictate, but to suggest such as seemed most qualified for the office. The last-mentioned deacon on the list just given—Mr. Robert Watson, of Hammersmith—ought to be specially noticed, for he wrought a practical change in the conduct of Church business little appreciated at the time. Being a most conscientious, methodical, and business-like man, as well as a devout and earnest Christian, he, as secretary of the official staff, conducted everything in the most orderly manner. I have heard him say that Church business occupied the chief time of one of his clerks. The change he introduced into the minutes of proceedings is very striking. Whereas before, entries were vague and irregular, and no clue is afforded to determine when and how members were admitted; after Mr. Watson took office, Church meetings are reported from month to month, with the greatest regularity; and it can be seen at once who were received into communion, and what of a spiritual or secular kind transpired. He and his brethren revised the list of members every year, striking off with inexorable decision the names of such as had ceased to attend the Lord’s Supper. In March, 1848, it was made a standing rule, “That any member being absent from the Lord’s Table for six consecutive months without sufficient cause assigned, shall, after notice to the party and mention to the Church, be considered to have withdrawn from the communion of this Church.” It may be added, that a distinction was made between members in full communion—having a right to vote in the choice of “bishop and deacons,” and on other ecclesiastical questions—and persons only occasional communicants, not adopting Nonconformist opinions, though from spiritual sympathy wishing to unite with the Church at the Lord’s Table. Occasional communion often led the way to complete fellowship; the communicant, however, had to be elected at a Church meeting to a full share in ecclesiastical rights and privileges.
It may be mentioned further that young people, before they reached an age which would justify their giving a vote respecting Church affairs, were allowed to partake of the Lord’s Supper, their subsequent full admission to fellowship depending upon their election in the usual manner. That “manner” was in accordance with the usual practice in Congregational Churches half a century ago. A candidate first had an interview with the pastor; then he or she was proposed to the Church; one of the deacons generally, but not always, had conversation with the individual; and at the next Church meeting, after a report of eligibility, the election followed by a show of hands. [77]
That all particulars relating to the constitution of the Church may be disposed of at once, it remains to be remarked, that when a new trust deed of Church premises had to be made, instead of the Assembly’s Catechism being recognised as a standard of belief, a short general statement of evangelical doctrines was employed.
The year 1845 completed the first half century of the Church’s existence, and it was deemed fit that the jubilee should be celebrated by a special service. Accordingly,” a commemorative discourse” was delivered on the 13th of April by the pastor, and it appeared in print at the request of the congregation. Two passages may be introduced:—
“With devout gratitude it should be remembered that the past half century has been marked with peace. While some Churches have been torn with intestine strife, or wrecked by schisms, or reduced to a mere shadow by heartless formality, the communion of the faithful in this place has been a practical illustration of the Psalmist’s words, ‘Behold! how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity;’ while at the same time they have exemplified the principle that progress is the law of spiritual existence in societies as well as in individuals. It has not been the peacefulness of death, but the peacefulness of life which has reigned over this spot; not the calmness of the stagnant pool, but the smooth and gentle flow of living waters; not the stillness of the rocky desert, where all is desolate and bare and cold, but the silence of the garden and the grove, where vitality gushes through many a channel, and proves its presence and power by abundance of foliage, flowers, and fruit.
“Every Church should be a kind of missionary station for its whole vicinity, a centre of exertion and influence telling on the surrounding sphere; a lighthouse built on a rock, lifting aloft the lamps of truth, warning, and invitation; or, rather, a floating light moving in the person of its members through the adjacent district, to illuminate the benighted, to guide the wanderer, and to save the soul from moral shipwreck. Happily, the obligation to exemplify an active Christianity is now acknowledged by our Churches in general; and an apparatus adapted to the evangelization of the bordering territory is held to be essential to their completeness. We feel the obligation ourselves, and, by the Divine blessing, we have much of the religious machinery of the day at work upon this spot. But still, does it not admit of question whether, as the advocates of a system which boasts of its untrammelled freedom of action, and its vigorous voluntary power; as those who believe that our cause, to use the words of Dr. Doddridge, is ‘the cause of evangelical piety’; as those, especially, who profess to be under everlasting and infinite obligation to Him from whom we have received our light and salvation;—I repeat, does it not admit of question, whether we are doing all that might be fairly expected of us, for the diffusion of the truths we so much value throughout the neighbourhood where we are located; whether our energies are put forth to the full for the extension of the cause in a place which numbers its 27,000 inhabitants, nearly four times the number of the population fifty years ago, when this chapel was built; whether we have provided all the means of Christian education we might and ought, especially for those of our neighbours who are lying around in vast masses, covered with the gloom of spiritual ignorance, and paralysed, to an awful degree, by moral insensibility? While there is much, very much, already done, which should encourage our hearts and fill us with gratitude, is there not much, very much, yet to be accomplished, to which Providence seems most urgently to bid us put an earnest, steady, persevering hand.”