Pastoral work has always been my passion.

It has been my rule to know everybody in this congregation, if possible, and seldom have I allowed a day to pass without a visit to some of your homes.

I fancied that you cared more to have a warm-hearted pastor than a cold-blooded preacher, however intellectual.

To carry out thoroughly a system of personal oversight, to visit every family, to stand by the sick and dying beds, to put one's self into sympathy with aching hearts and bereaved households, is a process that has swallowed up time, and I tell you it has strained the nerves prodigiously.

Costly as the process has been, it has paid.