7 The Presbyterian Witt/76155 Describes the Reception Given to the Rev. Donald

McDonald at a Meeting of the Synod at St. James' Church, Charlottetown, June 30, 1858

Mr. McDonald is a venerable looking man. His head is as white as snow. He looks quite vigorous and well. He speaks with great fluency, though, from a paucity of teeth, his utterance is a little indistinct. He is a man of no ordinary appearance. I did not know him when I met him, having never seen him before, but I was very favorably impressed with his looks. He is not thin but he has none of that carnal fatness which is the death of vigorous thought and exertion and which distinguishes some very temperate men. He is affable and agreeable in conversation and my necessarily brief interview with him excited my curiosity to know more of him and his work.

Mr. McDonald entered the Synod and took a seat just behind the Rev. John Martin " The Moderator then rose and referred to the presence of Mr. McDonald in the most flattering terms. He was a venerable father, a minister of the Church of Scotland- all the churches he had built were in connexion with the Church of Scotland; he (the Moderator) would therefore in the name of the Synod welcome him to a seat in the Synod to assist them with his counsel which would prove of the highest value. He could not give him the right to vote in the Synod but that was a comparatively trifling matter.

Mr. McDonald then rose and with evident emotion

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