[Picture: Rev. Edward White. From Photo. by Mr. Best]
AT the time of Mr. Symes’ resignation, the present minister of the church
was a freshman at College, and a good deal more occupied with studies and
athletics than with any question of settling in the ministry. It was not
really a surprising thing to those who knew the traditions of Kensington
Chapel, that a Church that had chosen John Clayton when he was
twenty-one, and that had waited for Mr. Leifchild until he had completed
his college course, should elect to wait nearly two years for its present
minister. The course was an unusual one, but it had one conspicuous
advantage. It enabled the Church to enjoy for eighteen months the
ministry of the Rev. Edward White. It is unnecessary to explain to any
one who knows any thing of Congregationalism, or the history of
theological thought during the last half century, who Mr. Edward White
is. There had been a time when he was suspected and misunderstood, for
having interpreted the teaching of Scripture on one point in a sense
different from the majority of his brethren. But we live in happier
days, when our joy is to dwell rather on our substantial unity than on
points of different interpretation. Mr. White has won the recognition of
the whole Catholic Church as a stalwart standard-bearer in the “good
fight of faith”; and great was the satisfaction at Kensington, when one
who was just retiring from an arduous and remarkable ministry at Kentish
Town was willing to give himself to the superintendence of the work at
Kensington, until the minister-elect had completed his college training.
The result of this arrangement was exceedingly happy. We believe Mr.
White was rewarded by the multitude of new friends that he thus made; and
the congregation was abundantly rewarded, not only by the steady advance
in interest that was made during the time of Mr. White’s ministry, but by
the securing for itself of the sympathy and affection of such a friend as
Mr. White has been. The young men remember to-day with the keenest
relish the good times they had in Mr. White’s Bible Class; and, indeed,
he has only to appear among us to evoke the loudest demonstrations of
welcome. But in nothing did his loving and genial spirit appear more
characteristically than in his relations with the one who was appointed
to succeed him in the ministry at Kensington. The writer of this book
records here the lasting debt of gratitude he is under to Mr. White for
tender and helpful counsel and loving encouragement, such as he can never
cease to remember with filial reverence and thankfulness.
The minister of a Church such as ours is always interested in discovering
the “deposit” of well-remembered sayings and stories of the various
ministers and prominent laymen that have been associated with the place.
There grows up in this way a kind of Rabbinical tradition; and you can
often estimate the force of character in a minister by the way in which
people treasure up the memories of what he said and did. Mr. White added
materially to the oral tradition of Kensington. His racy sayings, his
epigrams, his reminiscences, are constantly recalled and repeated. And
his successor has formed a very vivid conception of that genial and
delightful ministry by which Mr. White attached to himself so warmly the
hearts of this congregation.
But one most significant new departure must be remembered. Many are the
strangers who visit us to-day who are greatly impressed with the
successful blending in our service of general audible prayer, with the
more individual prayer by the minister. They share with us the feeling,
that to encourage an outward and audible expression of our worship is to
cultivate the worshipful attitude of heart and soul. Nonconformists have
too long thrown the whole burden of the service on the preacher, and not
sufficiently elicited from the congregation the full expression of their
feelings in prayer and praise. The new warmth that has come to our
services at Allen Street, and the increased heartiness of them, is very
largely due to the introduction of certain simple and comprehensive forms
of worship and prayer, in which we can all unite with heart and soul.
This most admirable system was initiated by Mr. White, who expressed
himself as being quite willing to bear the burden of any temporary
unpopularity of the change. The unpopularity was certainly never great,
and has to-day given way to a very strong and general satisfaction.
Resolutions are apt to read coldly,—indeed, they are apt not to be read
at all,—but when, at a large meeting of the Church and congregation to
say farewell to Mr. White, on the completion of his eighteen months’
ministry, the people unanimously and enthusiastically declared that “he
had been honoured to become the channel of blessings which this Church
would ever acknowledge and keep in memory,” every word was as hearty as
it was true. On October 17th, 1889, Mr. White presided at his
successor’s ordination, and said to the assembled people: “In delivering
up this sacred office, I shall humbly join my prayers with yours for
God’s best blessing to rest on my dear successor, and on yourselves, whom
he will love the more the longer he lives among you, and the more
self-denyingly he serves you.” To which that successor may be allowed to
write his own emphatic declaration that it has been true.