ce to the envelope system, under which
the church has prospered greatly.

The immediate question of the conduct of the church being solved, the
more important one of a permanent successor to Mr. Beecher was taken up
in earnest. I do not think that the possibility of disbanding was for a
moment present in the thought of any, certainly not of the leaders. They
set about the work carefully with a clear realisation of the
difficulties involved, but with a determination to succeed. It is always
difficult to succeed a man of great individuality, and this general
rule was made even more difficult in this case by the peculiar quality
of the personality. The very intensity of the experiences of the past
decade and more had served to create a certain alignment, and search as
they would and did, it was difficult to find anyone to meet all the
conditions.

It was not unnatural that the committee in charge, not, it must be
remembered, of choosing a pastor, but of recommending one, or more, for
the choice of both church and society, should look beyond the sea. More
than one church had done so and with conspicuous success. Broadway
Tabernacle had called Wm. M. Taylor, and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian, John
Hall. Plymouth Church, at that time at least, was not likely to look to
Scotland, nor to Ireland. There was absolutely nothing of the
Presbyterian in its make-up. It was Independent, through and through. To
the Congregationalists of England therefore it must look, if it were to
go beyond its own immediate fellowship.

It seemed as if just the man was found in Rev. Charles A. Berry of
Wolverhampton. A friend of Mr. Beecher, an earnest and very effective
preacher, a man of great evangelistic power, he won the hearts of
Plymouth people, and the recommendation of the committee was followed by
a unanimous and most urgent call to him to become the pastor. How deeply
he appreciated, not so much the honour, though such he esteemed it, as
the token of affectionate confidence, was manifest both in his
correspondence with the church and in the delay in announcing his
answer. That he would have been glad to come is certain, equally so that
he felt that duty to a work of peculiar quality and special need called
him to stay with his own people. They were as dismayed at the
possibility of losing him as Plymouth Church would have been had Mr.
Beecher been called to another pulpit.

Mr. Berry's declination of the call brought Plymouth Church face t