In the interval between 1845 and 1875 the number of charges had increased from twelve to twenty and steady advance was made in consolidating the various congregations, in the erection of churches and manses and in providing for the wants of a continually growing population.”96

18. FAITHF UL SERVANTS OF GOD

“The ministers were without exception splendid specimens of the Christian and the gentleman, and some of them like Doctor Snodgrass and Rev. G.M. Grant, played no inconspicuous part in the upbuilding of the national life of Canada, while the others within the more limited sphere of this province, showed that goodness is

incalculably diffusive.

Space forbids any more than the mention of such names as the Reverends Thomas Duncan, J.M. McLeod, Isaac Murray, George Sutherland, James Allan, Alexander Munro, Alexander MacLean, Neil MacKay, Allan Fraser, W.R. Frame and John G. Cameron. There was a host of others, noble self-sacrificing men, all of them, each of whom lived the motto ‘I am a man and I think nothing human alien to me’. They were leaders in education, temperance, evangelism, and while they en- countered opposition and met with many discouragements yet they were loyal to the Christ and true to their own high ideals.”"7

“One thing that must strike the reader of the annals of the church is the patriar- chal age, a wise and fair old age, which was attained by many of the pioneer ministers, notwithstanding the rigor of the winters, the extent of country over which they had to travel, and the amount of hard work they had to undergo. Marvellous it is beyond expression that so many of these hard-worked, ill-paid men lived far beyond the three score years and ten.

It is not too much to repeat at the close of this brief history that the story of Presbyterianism in Prince Edward Island is the record of the lives of devoted men, known and unknown in the ranks of the clergy and laity alike. They were faithful as stewards of the mysteries of God. They were deeply conscious of their office and work; their responsibilities never lay lightly upon them nor the work by which they sought to discharge them. All of them, ministers and laymen, were men of pure and elevated character who drew to themselves the respect and admiration, if not the af- fection, of those who were brought into contact with them. They were brave and true as the day, full of all generous instincts, resolute and courageous in the face of difficulties, scornful of all baseness, yet simple, gentle and tenderhearted as children, men in a word, who revealed the spirit of the cross and kept themselves unspotted from the world.”98

96 Fullerton, op. cit., p. 312A. 97 Fullerton, op. cit., pp. 310A-311A. 98 Fullerton, op. cit., p. 313A.

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