i 5 8 



MINISTRY AT WARRINGTON. [Chap. IV. 



" Meditations " with some of the prayers he had added in his 

 cheap edition (p. no), "You must on no account print any 

 names to the prayers, which ought never to be thought of in 

 connexion with persons," he says : "I have put it to the 

 people over and over again whether they would give me my 

 dismissal in order to save the great folk,* but they have never 

 yet let me go, as the Stand folk did : and yet the Stand folk 

 (humanly) loved me far more; for I have always been here 

 as a stranger and a pilgrim : and yet the Lord has never let me 

 go. As soon as ever He does, I have not the grain of a wish 

 to stay. You need not be at all anxious about me, or trouble 

 yourselves with sympathy, etc. When people have gone 

 through great things, they don't care much for small ones. 

 I am so completely devoid of any will of my own in these 

 matters, that any trouble is simply physical weakness, and He 

 appoints that as other things ; and as long as He keeps me 

 going from day to day, it is all I ask for. And you, dear 

 people, give me most rest by not fretting or sympathizing more 

 than you can help about me. Of course, I should like to 

 go to America and do a little for Anti-slavery ; but if the Lord 

 has anything for me to say for the New Life among Unitarians, 

 He will keep me here, strengthen me while I am here, and 

 open out my dismissal in His own time and way. I have no 

 doubt about its being right to stay at present. To increase 

 the power and dissensions of worldly men by going, would be to 

 desert the little flock of sheep over which I have been forced 

 into a position of power I don't at all like. Nolo efiiscopari, 

 even over a bishopric of a hundred people." 



Since Philip viewed the matter in this light, it was obvious 

 that all attempts to remove him were in vain. The possible 

 withdrawal of subscriptions was to him a matter of the smallest 

 consequence. He made a large pecuniary sacrifice in going to 

 Warrington ; he was prepared to make a similar sacrifice to 

 remain there, if he thought it his duty. When a congregation 

 is in a state of warfare, many painful things will be said and 



* Many of the leaders of the congregation, however, were Philip's 

 warmest friends. 



