He did well to retire.

But unfortunately this retirement was not consecrated to those exercises which made him so impressive and so powerful an influence in the early years of his ministry.

He set himself to be, not an exponent of the Faith, but the defender of a particular aspect of that Faith.
Here, I think, is to be found the answer to our question concerning the loss of Dr.Gore's influence in the national life.

From the day of the great sermons in Westminster Abbey that wonderful influence has diminished, and he is now in the unhappy position of a party leader whose followers begin to question his wisdom.

Organisation has destroyed him.
Dr.Gore, in my judgment, has achieved strength at the centre of his being only at the terrible cost of cutting off, or at any rate of maiming, his own natural temperament.