Vincent loved his first year in London. His sister Anna moves to London in July 1873, only a couple of months after Vincent's arrival (Letter 26).

Anna has just completed her study of French & comes to London searching for work as a teacher. The van Gogh siblings enjoy going on daily walks together (Letter 28).

Vincent regularly attends St. Mark's in Kennington, London, an Anglican congregation. (Letter 84) He hears sermons from Reverand Edmund Henry Fisher. Years later, Rev. Fisher will become Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Here we encounter a mystery in van Gogh's spiritual life: why did Vincent the Dutch Calvinist attend an Anglican parish? Neither he nor his family expresses disapproval.

Both are Protestant traditions, & Anglicanism went through a brief Calvinist period in the 1550s under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Still, by 1873 they have been distinct denominations for centuries. They have different confessions & councils by Vincent's time.

The van Goghs seem to be tolerant of other Protestant churches, but their reasons for tolerance remain a mystery.

Vincent spends most of his time in London selling other people's art, but he does make some sketches for family & friends. Van Gogh never tried selling these, so some have survived & some have not (See Letter 24 for some examples).

He also writes poems for his brother Theo. His artistic output in London is enough to fill a few sketchbooks.

One surviving sketch from this era is "87 Hackford Road", created with pencil, paper & chalk. Vincent gifts the sketch to his landlady's daughter, Eugenie Loyer, as a token of his affection.

Vincent hopes to marry Eugenie and confesses his love to her in August 1874. Eugenie, however, is secretly engaged to another renter and rejects van Gogh.

Vincent is ashamed & now in an awkward living situation with his landlady. Shortly after Eugenie's rejection, he vacates the Loyers' apartment & moves in with his sister Anna.

van Gogh leaves behind "87 Hackford Road". His gift will sit in Eugenie's attic for a century. Eugenie's granddaughter won't discover it until 1973.

Vincent never mentions Eugenie's rejection in his letters. His pain manifests in other ways. But his first letter after the rejection is the first time he writes to Theo about religion. Letter 28 begins with Vincent reflecting on Mary Magdaline's purity & ends with the news that he is moving in with Anna.

The rejection in August 1874 marks the end of Vincent's happy days in London. Vincent does not discuss what happened, but his character sours, even towards Anna.

By November 1874, Anna tells their parents that Vincent is now somber, unfriendly, judgemental & distant (Letter 28 Note 11).

In response, Vincent's father arranges a job transfer to Paris to get Vincent away from Anna. The transfer causes further sadness for Vincent. In retaliation, he drops communication with his parents while in Paris, although he continues frequent correspondence with his brother Theo.

Vincent transfers to Paris in May 1875. Shortly after he arrives in France, he develops an interest in Christian liturgical art (Letter 40).

Van Gogh particularly appreciates the art in the local Evangelical Calvinist parish, led by Pastor Eugène Arthur François Bersier. Vincent comes for the artwork, stays for the services, & becomes a parishioner.

Pastor Bersier's sermons ignite evangelical zeal in van Gogh, which is easy to see in Vincent's writing because his letters to Theo begin exploding with scripture references.

Before this point, Vincent wrote 39 letters & only cites scripture four times across them all. Three of those citations are in Letter 28, his first letter after Eugenie's rejection. But in Letter 41 alone, Vincent references scripture nine times.

Thanks to Pastor Bersier, Vincent re-commits to his hometown Calvinism. Vincent begins reciting a childhood prayer written by his father.

At first, Vincent's favorite biblical book seems to be Ecclesiastes; he quotes it more than any other book for a few months.

In August 1875, he sends Theo a French Bible & a copy of The Imitation of Christ.

By September, Vincent resolves to rid his library of all secular authors & urges Theo to do likewise. (Letter 50 & 62). Letter 51 is a mini-sermon; it's 90% scripture quotes.

Pastor Bersier inspired Vincent, but that isn't the only reason van Gogh becomes evangelical in his letters. Theo is suffering depression during Vincent's time in Paris.

Pastor Bersier's sermons alleviated Vincent's depression after London fell apart, so Vincent probably hoped penning sermons-by-mail could help Theo's depression too. Vincent wanted to pass on the Good News to his brother.

We are now in the year 1876. By April, Vincent has burned out as an art dealer. His main objection to the job is having to treat masterful art pieces as common commodities.

van Gogh leaves that job & and returns to Britain as a teacher. He finds a new gig on the Southeast coast at a boarding school in Ramsgate. Vincent and two other teachers are responsible for 24 boys, ages 10 - 14.

Vincent van Gogh is now a middle-school teacher.

He finds a local church & continues frequent attendance, now with his students accompanying him.

Theo turns 19 soon after Vincent arrives at Ramsgate. Vincent's birthday present to him is a package of English hymnals.

Ironically, Vincent does not teach art at the Ramsgate school. He teaches mainly French & Bible lessons, alongside some arithmetic, rhetoric, and a little German. (Letters 80, 88, 89). The wage is almost nothing. Vincent gets free room & food but receives only 20 British pounds a year.

Perhaps due to the trivial wage, Vincent considers becoming a pastor. While on a short visit to London in July 1876, Vincent stops by St. Mark's Kennington & asks his former pastor, Rev. Edmund Henry Fisher, to write a recommendation for Vincent's application to King's College theology department.

In June 1876, Vincent's boss moves the boarding school to West London. The new location places them down the street from a school connected to the local Congregationalist parish.

Reverend Thomas Slade-Jones leads both that parish & its school. Before the summer of 1876 is over, Vincent receives a dual-employment offer from Rev. Slade-Jones.

The school offers him a light teaching load, & the parish offers him part-time work running church errands. Vincent accepts the offer & believes it is his gateway to ordination. (Letters 86 & 94)

Sometime in July or August 1876, Vincent determines his real purpose in life is to be a church missionary. van Gogh repents of his art career as "a thorn in the flesh," a waste of time that distracted him from his true calling as God's missionary to the poor. (Letter 85)

He writes more sermons-by-mail to Theo throughout Fall 1876 (Letters 89, 90, 92, 93, 94).

In Fall 1876, Vincent starts attending prayer services every Monday night at a Methodist church. (Letter 94)

Again, the van Goghs see no problem with Vincent's work in Congregationalist & Methodist churches, despite both denominations departing from Vincent's old Anglican parish & the family's traditional Dutch Calvinism.

Vincent is not yet 25 years old, but he has church-hopped between Dutch Calvinism, Anglicanism, Evangelical French Calvinism, Congregationalism, & Methodism. These denominations had bitter, violent disputes with each other before Vincent's time.

With so many Calvinist preachers in the family, there is no way the van Goghs were ignorant of the doctrinal differences. But no one in the family objects to Vincent's church-hopping.

The van Goghs were tolerant towards many Protestant denominations. But history has yet to discover why they were so tolerant.

The preacher van Gogh gives his first sermon in November 1876, first delivered at his Methodist church, then delivered again at the Congregationalist church two weeks later.

Letter 96 preserves the entire sermon. Vincent displays incredible knowledge here; his first sermon contains 77 references to scripture, Christian authors, & popular hymns. Vincent van Gogh had no formal Bible training, yet his first sermon obliterates what passes for a sermon today.

Van Gogh proclaims the world is a toilsome pilgrimage, but he urges the faithful to take heart because God gives peace in this life & rewards in the next. Our future embrace by the Trinity makes all suffering in this life meaningful.

Thanks to Vincent's impressive preaching debut, Rev. Slade-Jones' Congregationalist parish hires Vincent for full-time work within the month.

By the end of November 1876, Vincent is a Congregationalist Sunday School teacher. Word spreads about Vincent's first sermon, & the Methodist chapel at Petersham invites him to deliver their Sunday sermon.

Demand for the Preacher Vincent Van Gogh increases, and he spends his nights writing sermons. (Letter 98)

A year later, Vincent van Gogh will be a theology student, studying to be the next Pastor van Gogh.

This series to be continued...