human
Wait before you applaud me, said the Nonconformist.
gpt
I have said nothing that calls for applause. I have something more to tell you--more novel than what I have been saying. I am going to leave Carlingford. It was you who elected me, it is you who have censured me, it was you last night who consented to look over my faults and give me a new trial. I am one of those who have boasted in my day that I received my title to ordination from no bishop, from no temporal provision, from no traditionary church, but from the hands of the people. Perhaps I am less sure than I was at first, when you were all disposed to praise me, that the voice of the people is the voice of God; but, however that may be, what I received from you I can but render up to you. I resign into your hands your pulpit, which you have erected with your money, and hold as your property. I cannot hold it as your vassal. If there is any truth in the old phrase which calls a church a cure of souls, it is certain that no cure of souls can be delegated to a preacher by the souls themselves who are to be his care. I find my old theories inadequate to the position in which I find myself, and all I can do is to give up the post where they have left me in the lurch. I am either your servant, responsible to you, or God's servant, responsible to Him--which is it? I cannot tell; but no man can serve two masters, as you know. Many of you have been kind to me--chief among all, said Vincent, turning once round to look in Tozer's anxious face,
human
He don't mean it; he's not going for to leave us; he's in a little pet, that's all, cried Mrs. Brown, loud out. Phoebe Tozer, forgetting all about the text and the evergreens, had buried her face in her handkerchief and was weeping, not without demonstration of the fact. Tozer himself grasped at the minister's shoulder, and called out to the astonished assembly that
gpt
The minister had almost to struggle through the group of remonstrant deacons.
human
You don't mean it, Mr. Vincent? said Mrs. Tozer;