BENEDICTION.
Call to Rev. F. S. Porter.
On June 5th, 1910, was extended a call to Rev. F. S. Porter, of Liverpool, N. S. In accepting the call, on June 14th, Brother Porter wrote: “I deem it a peculiar favor to serve the historic Germain Street Church and to follow in the footsteps of the mighty men of God who have served you in the capacity of spiritual overseers. May their fervency and self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of truth be perpetuated in the coming pastorate.”
Brother Porter enters upon his labors with us on the 3rd Sunday of September with the assurance of the unanimous and hearty support of the membership of the Church, upon what we earnestly pray and confidently expect may be a very successful pastorate.
Rev. F. S. Porter was born in Fredericton, N. B., where his father, Rev. T. H. Porter, was pastor of the Brunswick Street Baptist Church. He received his elementary and business education in that city. Having decided to devote himself to the ministry, he entered Acadia University from which in 1906 he graduated with honors, the following year obtaining his M.A. Degree in course. He pursued his theological studies at Rochester Theological Seminary, graduating from that institution in 1908 and receiving his Degree of B.D. the following year. He was ordained at Woodstock, N. B., July llth, 1907. He supplied a. number of pulpits in New Brunswick during his summer vacations, and was called to Liverpool Baptist Church in 1908. Married May 20th, 1908, to Miss Edith W. Spurden, of Fredericton, N. B. After a successful pastorate of over two years, during which he was instrumental in the paying off of the debt of $1,500, he has been unanimously called to the pastorate of this Church.
Thus has this Historic Church completed the span of its first One Hundred Years as a witness for the Master. From small and insignificant beginnings, God has seen fit to graciously extend our borders to the present enlarged sphere of influence as the Premier Baptist Church of our City. With grateful hearts we review the past with loyal confidence in God we anticipate the future:
O backward-looking son of time,
The new is old, the old is new,
The cycle of a change sublime still sweeping through.
But life shall on and upward go;
Th’ eternal step of Progress beats
To that great anthem, calm and slow, which God repeats.
God works in all things; all obey
His first propulsion from the night:
Wake thou and watch!—the world is gray with morning light.
—John Greenleaf Whittier