This church has always been to me like a beloved child:  I have given to it thirty years of hard and happy labor.  It is now my foremost desire that its harmony may remain undisturbed, and that its prosperity may remain unbroken.  For a long time I have intended that my thirtieth anniversary should be the terminal point of my present pastorate I shall then have served this beloved flock for an ordinary human generation, and the time has now come to transfer this most sacred trust to some other, who, in God’s good Providence, may have thirty years of vigorous work before him, and not behind him.  If God spares my life to the first Sabbath in April, it is my purpose to surrender this pulpit back into your hands, and I shall endeavor to co-operate with you in the search and selection of the right man to stand in it.  I will not trust myself to-day to speak of the pang it will cost me to sever a connection that has been to me one of unalloyed harmony and happiness.  It only remains for me to say that after forty-four years of uninterrupted mental labor it is but reasonable to ask for some relief from the strain that may soon become too heavy for me to bear.”

The congregation was quite astounded by this unexpected announcement, but they recognized the motive that prompted the step, and acted precisely as I desired.  They agreed at once to appoint a committee to look for a successor.  In order that I might not hamper him in any respect, I declined the generous offer of our church to make me their “Pastor Emeritus.”

As my pastorate began on an Easter Sabbath, in 1860, so it terminated at the Easter in 1890.  Before an immense assemblage I delivered, on that bright Sabbath, the Valedictory discourse which closes the present volume, and which gives in condensed form the history of the Lafayette Avenue Church.

Our noble people never do anything by halves; and a few evenings after the delivery of my valedictory discourse they gave to their pastor and his wife a public reception, for which the church, lecture-room and the church parlors were profusely adorned; and were crowded with guests.  Congratulatory addresses were delivered by Dr. John Hall of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, by Professor William M. Paxton, of Princeton Theological Seminary; and congratulatory letters were read from the venerable poet, Whittier, the Hon. William Walter Phelps, Mr. A.A.  Low (the Mayor’s father), General William H. Seward, Bishop Potter and Dr. Herrick Johnson, besides a vast number of others renowned in Church and State.  On behalf of the Brooklyn pastors an address was pronounced by the Rev. Dr. L.T.  Chamberlain, which was a rare gem of sparkling oratory.  In his concluding passage he said:  “Nor in all these have I for an instant forgotten the dual nature of that ministry, which has been so richly blessed.  I recall that in the prophet’s symbolic act, he took to himself two staves, the one was ‘Beauty,’ while the other was ‘Bands.’