I am here to serve you...

Samuel Longfellow gave the sermon I have been posting upon assuming his pastorate in Brooklyn, Oct. 30th 1863.  Here are his beautiful words of conclusion to "A Spiritual and Working Church."
 
"Remember, friends, and do not let me forget, that I am here to serve you. Do not fail to give me the opportunities. Let your urgency keep alive my faithfulness. If ever in hours of doubt and unbelief you have longed for a friend whose faith might strengthen yours; if ever, baffled and perplexed in the search of truth, you have longed for guidance; if, amid vague aspirations and hopes and desires after religious life and moral earnestness and true fidelity, you have yearned for a sympathy that might give definiteness and direction and vigor to your fleeting emotions and unfixed aims ; if amid moral weakness, indifference, or deadness, you have felt the need of one to arouse you with the clear word of duty; if, amid a life of frivolity and surface, you have felt a restless sense of dissatisfaction and longed to hear sincerer, deeper words, and reach down to realities ; if, enslaved by unworthy habit, you have needed a brotherly encouragement to nerve your weakened will to set itself free; if, in the darkness and loneliness of sorrow, you have needed one whose experience could comprehend yours, and assure you of the hidden light to be revealed in the cross, and lift your trembling, shattered heart to fix itself on God ; and if, in any of these needs and experiences of life, I can help you, believe that it will be my truest satisfaction, as it is my most earnest desire. I dare not promise that I can always meet these needs. I know how often I shall feel my own insufficiency. But I know that behind and above me is God, an infinite strength, light, love, peace; a guide and keeper, and defender and inspirer. To Him we will go together, and He will hear our prayers."
Blessings