KENSINGTON CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 1793–1893 BY C. SILVESTER HORNE, M.A. MINISTER OF KENSINGTON CHAPEL WITH FOURTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS London HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW MDCCCXCIII Hazell , Watson , & Viney , Ld. , Printers , London and Aylesbury ....

In placing this volume in the hands of his congregation, as a memorial of the centenary of Kensington Chapel, the writer has one or two words to say to them.  They will easily see that there is here no attempt to supersede Dr. Stoughton’s excellent and well-known history of our Church, entitled “Congregationalism in the Court Suburb.”  For all detail of our work, as well as for most delightful reminiscences of the ministers who laboured here, they are referred to Dr. Stoughton’s book.  The lette

Hornton Street Chapel. From Photo. by Mr. S. Davie There is but little of the romance of history associated with the story of the Nonconformity of the last hundred years.  The Free Churches that arose in England a century ago began with all the advantages of toleration.  Their members were not objects of persecution, and the chapels that formed their local habitations had no longer to be built in obscure courts that testified to the unpopularity, and possibly the irregularity, of their existence

It is interesting to notice that the positive principles uniting the first members of the society were as yet very indefinite.  They had clearly not formulated in their own minds any very distinct doctrine of the Church.  They assembled together because they had a preference for the freer form of service of Nonconformity, and wished to worship God after the manner most consonant with their own feelings.  There were associated in the congregation Dissenters of many varieties of thought, and, no d

Rev. John Clayton It was in the month of May, 1801, that the members of the congregation united in a very earnest call to Mr. John Clayton to become their minister.  As no fewer than a hundred names appear as signatories, we may infer that considerable progress had been made under Mr. Lake’s ministry.  Mr. Clayton was still formally unordained, though he had been assistant minister to the Rev. John Winter at Newbury for one year since leaving college.  He was barely twenty-one years of age when

Rev. Dr. Leifchild If the congregation at Kensington felt that John Clayton acted with something of the rashness and impatience of youth, there was at least no sign that they so regarded it: for after unsuccessful overtures had been made to the Rev. F. Hamilton, of Brighton, to become successor to Mr. Clayton, they turned to another young man fresh from college, whose name was John Leifchild.  After patiently waiting until he had completed the few remaining months of his college course, they wel

Rev. Robert Vaughan. D.D. In the minutes that describe the events immediately succeeding the resignation of Mr. Leifchild, in August, 1824, there are several references to the institution of a Church Prayer Meeting.  Such an anxious period as inevitably follows the loss of a minister is often a valuable discipline to a Church, as tending to throw the members back upon the guidance of the Spirit of God.  That the Church at Kensington had realised the need to consult, not only with one another, bu

Rev. Dr. Stoughton. By kind permission of Messrs. Elliott & Fry The succession of Dr. Stoughton to the ministry of the Church brings us exactly to the middle of our century of history.  In October, 1843, the recognition service was held.  Dr. Stoughton, in his letter accepting the invitation, had feelingly referred to the difficulty of following Dr. Vaughan, “one whose eminence in the Christian world might well provoke, in connection with myself, humiliating comparisons.”  But, indeed, t

Rev. Dr. Raleigh. By kind permission of Messrs. Elliot & Fry A distinguished living preacher once said to his congregation that his work would only be done when he had taught them to do without him.  It is a true test of the soundness of a minister’s work when the congregation does not break up, nor even suffer loss at his withdrawal, but, in the spirit of faith and prayer and counsel, addresses itself to the delicate work of seeking a successor.  A congregation, that for thirty-two year

Rev. Colmer B. Symes, B.A. “ God buries His workers, but carries on His work.”  It is this faith that leads a Church, even under the shock of a bereavement as severe as this one had been, to turn with unabated determination to the prosecution of the work.  The more nearly a Church of Christ attains the standard of the Master, the less it depends on any mere human instrumentality for its success.  It is not the person of the preacher, but the Person of the Christ and the love of His work, that fo

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

C. Silvester Horne. By kind permission of Mr. H. S. Mendelssohn The retirement of a pastor so universally beloved as Mr. Symes left the Church in a position of some perplexity, from which it was to be rescued less by its own wisdom than by the manifest leading of Providence.  For more than sixty years the congregation had welcomed to its pastorate ministers already enjoying reputations acquired in other Churches; and in the eyes of many this practice had acquired the authority of a traditionary

Kensington Chapel (interior) A minister may surely be excused for writing “once more, in conclusion,” after the “lastly” of Chapter IX.  He is, however, quite prepared to see the reader grow indifferent or uneasy, under the impression that the epilogue has been dragged in with the ulterior intention of pointing a moral.  The story has been told; what need can there be to prolong it?  But so hardened has the writer become that he unmercifully proceeds to have his own way—a bad habit, into which a