74 A Bridge To The Past 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     William Schurman was one of several Schurman men who served as 
     
     elders in this church. Others who were ordained to hold this office were: 
     
     George Lefurgey, Thomas, Hedley and Henry Brehaut, Murdock and 
     
     Donald Ross and Thomas Hall. The office of elder was an important honor 
     
     especially when the church was dependent on a visiting minister. 
     
    
   
   
    
     An excellent article entitled “Church, Minister, and Elders of Forty 
     
     Years Ago” by Flora T. Cameron, appeared in the Prince Edward Island 
     
     Magazine 1899. 
     
    
   
   
    
     CHURCH, MINISTERS, AND ELDERS 0F FORTY YEARS AGO 
     
    
   
   
    
     “It might be interesting to those accustomed to the churches in the 
     
     cities, to know the simple manner in which the early settlers worshipped 
     
     Him whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain, much less a temple 
     
     made with hands. The church was a simple wooden structure with a tower at 
     
     one end. The pulpit was placed on one side of the church with railed-in seats 
     
     for the elders of the congregation. The seats were wooden benches without 
     
     paint or cushions. The men sat on one, and the women on the other side of 
     
     the church. All seats were free, and everybody welcome. Sometimes on 
     
     Sacrament Sabbath, they would not have standing room in the church. 
     
     Then they would have a pulpit constructed of rude boards, beneath one of 
     
     the largest and grandest trees, with the magnificent heavens for a sounding