The Celebration began on Sunday October, 16th. The people met in the
Church, many of them the descendants of the Freemans and Blacks, and
others who constituted the first church. The Rev. J.H. MacDonald,
D.D. a former pastor, in a well delivered discourse, filled with the
great ideas of the Master, and of God’s approbation of Him, the
beloved Son in whom he was well pleased—opened the services. The
lesson was clearly set before us of His obedience and sacrifice, and
the deduction was followed all the way through that His followers in
a similar way, in this Church, as far as poor mortals can, had
devoted themselves to the Lord. It was an inspiring occasion.
CENTENNIAL SERMON BY REV. J. H. McDONALD, D. D.
Rev. Mr. MacDonald said in part: Heaven’s Commendation of a Century
of Church Life and Service, was the theme of the Centennial sermon.
The text was “There came a voice from Heaven,” Matt 3:17; 17:5; Jo.
12:28. The preacher found Heaven commending the Son of Man for three
things, character, truth and sacrifice, and then proceeded to point
out that if the Amherst Church during its century of life and
service commended itself to Heaven it must have been because
character was formed, truth appreciated and proclaimed, and
sacrifices made.
“Whatever the Amherst Church may have achieved during the last
hundred years, and it has achieved much, it has nothing in which to
glory save in Him who is its Head and the character of the men and
women it has produced. I think we can safely say today that under
its influences there have been developed men and women of godly
lives and that it has made its contribution to the Kingdom of God
upon earth, which is first, righteousness, and after that “peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost.” It has directly or indirectly elevated the
standard of life. It has shamed and rebuked the bad and made the
good better. It has caused society to be permeated with a new
leavening influence. It has sent its purifying streams to the ends
of the earth. You remember those who lived among you, those who are
still here whose lives were a continual inspiration, men who could
die, but who would not lie. Like King Arthur’s knights they revered
their conscience as their king. In their presence, impurity hid its
face, and the unseemly word died unspoken on the tongue. Aye, and
women too, some of them lived, speaking after the manner of men,
commonplace lives, but every day they walked with God and were
transfigured, and when you saw them you thanked God that all the
angels were not in Heaven. And all this they were because He dwelt
in them and they in Him. If after a century of life and service this
Church has the approbation of Heaven it is because there have grown
up within its fold men and women of goodness. For those who are
still with us in the flesh we render grateful thanks to Him, whose
workmanship we are, and
“For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, Jesus, be forever blest. Allelujah!”