The Sunday School.
In 1899 a number of the young men purchased the lot of land adjoining the church property on Germain street—50 x 190 feet—at a cost of $1,680. This they transferred to the Trustees to the Church for the purpose of ultimately erecting a Sunday School building thereon.
In the same year Deacon T. S. Simms resigned as superintendent of the Sunday School—a position which he had filled most acceptably for the long period of twenty-five years. Upon his retirement, W. C. Cross was elected as superintendent, and has held this office since that time. At present our Sunday School is in a very flourishing condition. In the main school, the enrollment shows 8 Officers, 28 Teachers and 270 Scholars. A feature of our Sunday School work has been the large amount raised by the scholars for Missionary purposes, at least $100 per year having been contributed by our Scholars during the last seven years to the Glendinning Fund.
In 1900 Brothers W. H. Colwell, S. H. Davis, and W. C. Cross, were elected deacons.
Resignation of Dr. Gates.
At the end of 1900 Dr. gates tendered his resignation of the pastorate he had so acceptably filled for the previous fifteen years, and the Church was reluctantly compelled to accept it, Dr. Gates feeling that it was his duty to accept the call from the Windsor Church. A proposition made by the ladies, and heartily supported by the entire Church, was for Dr. Gates to take a year’s rest from the pastorate, and at the end of this time again take up his work here—the Church to provide for supply. All efforts however, to induce him to reconsider the matter were in vain, as he had accepted the call from Windsor immediately after tendering his resignation.
In closing his farewell sermon Dr. Gates said: “There is no spot in the Old World of the New so dear to me as the City of the Loyalists, by the side of old Fundy. I love its streets, its bracing air, and the push and energy of its citizens. There is no better place in the world for a man who loves the work, and no city on the continent where the great heart of Christianity beats truer for what is good and pure and holy. I do not know why I am going, but I have said I am going and I expect to go. They say that a tree which has been long rooted in one place will not grow in a stranger soil. If this be so, maybe I shall return. I am doing what I feel I ought to do, and who can oppose God’s leading?”
One of the city papers referring to Dr. Gates said: “As a preacher he is unsurpassed by any in the city, and as a citizen his personal popularity extends far beyond the bounds of his Church and Denomination, and his departure will be keenly felt.” An address, engrossed on parchment by T. H. Belyea, and bound in Morocco, was presented to Dr. Gates by the Church; and a purse towards fitting up his library by the ladies.