Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882
Letter to the Second Church and Society
Boston, 22nd December, 1832
TO THE SECOND CHURCH AND SOCIETY.
CHRISTIAN FRIENDS:--Since the formal resignation of my official relation to
you in my communication to the proprietors in September, I had waited anxiously
for an opportunity of addressing you once more from the pulpit, though it were
only to say, Let us part in peace and in the love of God. The state of my health
has prevented and continues to prevent me from so doing. I am now advised to
seek the benefit of a sea-voyage. I cannot go away without a brief parting word
to friends who have shown me so much kindness, and to whom I have felt myself
so dearly bound.
Our connection has been very short. [He became junior pastor in spring of 1829]
I had only begun my work. It is now brought to a sudden close, and I look back,
I own, with a painful sense of weakness, to the little service I have been able
to render, after so much expectation on my part,--to the chequered space of
time, which domestic affliction and personal infirmities have made yet shorter
and more unprofitable.
As long as he remains in the same place, every man flatters himself, however
keen may be his sense of failures and unworthiness, that he shall yet accomplish
much; that the future shall make amends for the past; that his very errors shall
prove his instructors--and what limit is there to hope? But a separation from
our place, the close of a particular career of duty, shuts the book, bereaves
us of this hope, and leaves us only to lament how little has been done.
Yet, my friends, our faith in the great truths of the New Testament make the
change of places and circumstances, of less account to us, by fixing our attention
upon that which is unalterable. I find great consolation in the thought, that
the resignation of my present relations makes so little change to myself. I
am no longer your minister, but am not the less engaged, I hope, to the love
and service of the same eternal cause, the advancement, namely, of the kingdom
of God in the hearts of men. The tie that binds each of us to that cause is
not created by our connection, and can not be hurt by our separation. To me,
as one disciple, is the ministry of truth, as far as I can discern and declare
it, committed, and I desire to live nowhere and no longer than that grace of
God is imparted to me--the liberty to seek and the liberty to utter it.
And, more than this, I rejoice to believe, my ceasing to exercise the pastoral
office among you, does not make any real change in our spiritual relation to
each other. Whatever is most desirable and excellent therein, remains to us.
For, truly speaking, whoever provokes me to a good act or thought, has given
me a pledge of his fidelity to virtue,--he has come under bonds to adhere to
that cause to which we are jointly attached. And so I say to all you, who have
been my counsellors and co-operators in our Christian walk, that I am wont to
see in your faces, the seals and certificates of our mutual obligations. If
we have conspired form week to week, in the sympathy and expression of devout
sentiments; if we have received together the unspeakable gift of God's truth;
if we have studied together the sense of any divine word; or striven together
in any charity; or conferred together for the relief or instruction of any brother;
if together we have laid down the dead in a pious hope; or held up the babe
into the baptism of Christianity; above all, if we have shared in any habitual
acknowledgement of that benignant God, whose omnipresence raises and glories
the meanest offices and the lowest ability, and opens heaven in every heart
that worships him,--then indeed are we united, we are mutually debtors to each
other of faith and hope, engaged to persist and confirm each other's hearts
in obedience to the Gospel. We shall not feel that the nominal changes and little
separations of this world, can release us from the strong cordage of this spiritual
bond. And I entreat you to consider how truly blessed will have been our connection,
if in this manner, the memory of it shall serve to bind each one of us more
strictly to the practice of our several duties. It remains to thank you for
the goodness you have uniformly extended toward me, for your forgiveness of
many defects, and your patient and even partial acceptance of every endeavor
to serve you; for the liberal provision you have ever made for my maintenance;
and for a thousands acts of kindness, which have comforted and assisted me.
To the proprietors, I owe a particular acknowledgment, for their recent generous
vote for the continuance of my salary, and hereby ask their leave to relinquish
the emolument at the end of the present month. And now, brethren and friends,
having returned into your hands the trust you have honored me with--the charge
of public and private instruction in this religious society, I pray God, that
whatever seed of virtue we have sown and watered together, may bear fruit into
eternal life.
I commend you to the Divine providence. May He grant you, in your ancient sanctuary,
the service of able and faithful teachers. May He multiply to your families
and to your persons, every genuine blessing; and whatever discipline may be
appointed to you in this world, may the blessed hope of the resurrection, which
He has planted in the constitution of the human soul, and confirmed and manifested
by Jesus Christ, be made good to you beyond the grave. In this faith and hope,
I bid you farewell.
Your affectionate servant,
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
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