535-03 Page 173Mt. Erin Baptists
100 years of Service
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Mt. Elgin —Beautifully decora-1•
ted with tall standards and bas
kets of pastel shaded gladious,!
with palms and ferns, the Baptist
Church held its 100th anniversary
services last_§iirjilay with perfect
weather, Sepr 10_lgir7
Rev, C. Wright was present to.
assist the guest speakeor, Dr. Hill -
yet, General Secretary of the For-
eign Baptist Mission Fields of To-
ronto, who chose as his text "He
shall be like a tree planted Eby the
rivers of water", and using as his
theme from the poem by Joyce
Kilmer "Trees." "We each have
also hidden resources and should
make the centre of our religion
the Cross. To sacrifice, as we have '
only one right; to suffer for the
sake of our faith, that the mess-
age may go out to others!'
The service of song was sup-
plied by the members of the
Springford Baptist choir, with
Mies Eleanor Wilcox as pianist.
Mrs. Edgar .Pearce sang the solo,
"Bless This House". A chorus of
five girls sang in beautiful har-
mony "Fairest, Lord Jesus", and
the entire choir sang "Victory for
Jesus."
Congratulatory messages of
best wishes were received from
neighboring churches and a for-
mer pastor on the progress in the
!) past and the beginning of a sec-
and century. J
Those greeting guests and the f
ushers were Mr. Walter Davis,
Mr. and Mrs.'Lyle Mansfield, Wil-
fred Mansfield and Harold Neth- '
1 ercott.
At noon vistors and invited
guests gathered in the artistically
idecorated hall where the long .
tattles were set and the ladies of t
the congregation served a delic-
ious meal. The color scheme in
tones of gold and white gladioli,
'mums and the beautiful vases of i
golden rosebuds, with a back- t
ground of palms and ferns, was; b
arranged by George "Bud" Rit-
chie, in both hall and church. „
Guests of honour were seated i
at the head table and grace was S
asked by Rev. C. W. Wright. He s
expressed his pleasure at begin- h
ning his service here as minister, c
this being his second service in r
this church. He assisted Mrs.
Alexander in cutting the lovely C
three story anniversary, cake and
called on Mrs. Bowman of Lon- 1
don, the former Miss Minnie Tay- t
lor, a school teacher here in 1899, a
who was also president of the fr
Young People's Society When the! h
church bell was presented to the =c
church. The bell bears the inscrip $
tion "Regular Baptist Church, Mt. e
Elgin, Ont., C. B. Brown, pastor," g
presented to the church by Bap- th
tist Young People, Miss Minnie d
Taylor, President; Miss Ethel D
Tripp, Vice -President" and a ba
verse of Scripture is inscribed as br
well. (Miss Tripp is now Mrs. Eth-
el Lancaster, Tillsonburg). Mrs. de
Bowman was pleasantly surprised O
to see some of her former pupils th
present and spoke of her memor- ch
lea of former friends and mem- is
bars of the school 'board and their
kindness to her, speaking in par- be
titular to the late Johin Morrison st
and James Campbell to
Mr. John Stubbs of Tillsunburg,
who had lived formerly at Mount
Elgin, as receiver of milk for the
Borden Company and who owned
the Milk Products Plant at that
time, where the Corbett Feed Mill
now stands, also spoke of the ex-
change of Methodist and Baptist
choir voices, when one church
held morning ervice and the other
church evening service and of
how well the arrangement work-
ed. Ile was one of those members
and Miss 'Edith James was organ-
ist at (both churche s for many
years.
Mrs. Alexander spoke of her
pleasure at being present and of
having been present at the 50th
anniversary celebration too. Mrs.
i. McKibbin of Ingersoll, a form-
er member, who is now in her
S9th year, was also present. Mr.
George Nagle of Salford, brought
ui,aetinga from Salford Church,
and as a representative of th c
Dereham Council.
The new church doors, recently
installed, were made possible by
u donation from Mrs. Alice Guy
ant of Waupacce, Wisconsin, in
memory of her sister, the lot.
Mrs. Bertha Shuttleworth, the
former Mrs. Jas. Bodwell, whose
father-in-law had been one of for
Bodwells, from whom the Ian i
was purchased for the church.
At the evening service, Dr. Hill
-
yer again brought an inspiring;
nessage to the capacity filled
church, on "Christianity in Our
Present World". He spoke of the
progress of science, the threat of l
many religions, other than Chris-
tian, but the Christians have the
nfinite resources of a Great God
behind them and of the challenge
Some of the well known family
names of the early years are now,
but a memory. The Morrison fam-
ily of more recent years had many
faithful workers. Mr. John Morri-
son was secretary -treasurer for
15 years and sisters Mary and Is-
abelle were Sunday School teach-
ers. Miss Mary Morrison was also
clerk for 25 years.
Mr. J. "Perry" Harris served
as clerk fr 15 years. Mr. Adam
Fierheller, another name missing
from the community, was superin-
tendent for 15 years.
The church narrowly escaped !
being burned in May 1954, when
the house of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph
Peters was destroyed by fire near-
hy, and only by untiring efforts
of many helpers was the church
s`aved.,j� L..p rjOKyd'_N�