The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-05-01
TWENTY YEARS
AS ITS PASTOR
CELEBRATION IN PROVIDENCE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
At the Morning Service Special
Sermon Was Preached by the Rev.
George E. Guild, in Which He Gave
a Short Review of His Pastorate,
Which Has Been Crowned with
Great Results in Sacred, No Less
Than in a Material Way.

twenty years ago yesterday, the
Rev. George T.. Guild became pastor of
the Providence Presbyterian church, on
North Main avenue, and since that
time the church has had a marvellous
growth
Yesterday, in honor Of the successful
termination of the term, special SER
vices were held and the pastor preached
historical sermon at the morning SER
vice. Rev. S. c. Logan, d. D., assist
ed at the service and the choir sang
two anthems.
In the evening, DR.. Logan spoke in
review of twenty years in the church
work in this city and referred specially
to the Providence church Rev. Mr..
Guild also made a few remarks. The
auditorium and pulpit were prettily
decorated with flowers and plants.
Tonight the annual session of the
| congregation will be held and at its
conclusion an informal reception will
| be rendered the pastor and his wife at
the church and friends are cordially
| invited. The sermon preached at the
morning service in part is as follows:
1t is needless to comment upon the
| fact that memory is always busy at an
anniversary season, the important thing
| - Nut iIldltTldl Wlln WHICH IeUlOlN uttilSs
| II life Is viewed by us merely as "A sue
| cession of events If memory is con-
| cerned only with the journal of each
| days doings, or gains, or pleasures, or
| disasters, it has unlimited possibilities
| of sadness, indeed it is more likely to be
| sad than joyful Sad because the world
| must pass away and is passing away,
| friends must die and are dying, fortunes
| must change and are changing. and sor-
| rows are inevitable. But you observe
| that the Psalmist's retrospect though 1t
| touches facts of change and loss, 1t new
ertheless is not centered in them. The
| great fact in his review of the past and
in his outlook into the future is God.
| BROUGHT OUT MORE SHARPLY.
| That substantial fact is brought out
| more sharply by his sorrow, just as the
| overcast of the sun often throws prom
| inent object into clear outline. Hear
David speak, MY soul is bowed down
within me, therefore will l remember
Thee from the hills" 1t is God in the
foreground of memory and God in the
foreground of future expectation. Wheth-
er he looked backward or forward,
whether he gazed into the past. or tried
| to pierce the future, verify his lips blos-
| somed out into that wonderful utterance
There is none like unto the God Of
Jeshurum who rideth upon the heavens
| in thy help, and in his excellency on the
sky, the eternal GCd is thy refuge and
underneath are the everlasting arms,
and he shall thrust out the enemy from
| before thee"
Dear friends today concludes a period
Of twenty years of our relation as pas
tor and people, and it is eminently proper
so 1t seems to me that we should unite
in making it a halting place where we
may see God and Christ, in the fore
ground of memory. and the same eter-
nal God and Father, and his Son Jesus
Christ, in the foreground of the future
days. Yes, may God make it Bethel
place, not altogether like that of old
when Jacob was on his way seeking sue
cess and God gave him vision of steps,
joining earth and heaven and of heaven
ly ministers going up and down between
himself and men.
| 1t is not only fitting that we make
this review, not only our privilege, but
is 1t not a bounden duty now and then
to make a halt in our hurrying, rush
ing, crowding church lives, and think Of
Gods mercieS and Gods blessings, re-
count Gods goodness and sum up the
multitude of Gods favOrs, all of which
have been so bountifully shOwered upon
us as a church, that we are constrained
to borrow the Psalmst's words: "If 1
should count them they are more than
| the sands"
If we review these years of our mutual
relation in the service of the Master,
merely as a succession of events, If to-
day, memory is only concerned with a
journal Of each days doings, or gains, or
losses, or pleasures, or disasters, more
| than likely in that case, this day would
be not a joyful one, as it ought to be,
but sad and painful one instead.
HIS CALL TO THE CHURCH.
/ first heard of the Providence Pres
Ibyterian church of Scranton through the
Rev. DIR. Charles S. Dunning, then of
Honesdale, who in January, 1879, wrote
me while in Union seminary, n. ", that
If / should be invited to preach a Sab
bath in the Providence church, he would
advise me to go there and supply the
pulpit. In response to a very cordial in
; vitation written by Mr. James w. Gil.
3 lespie at the request of the church,
{ came to Scranton, a perfect stranger
, and preached in the old church, morn.
ing and evening the last Sunday in Jan,
uary, 1879, and then again the second
Sunday in February. During the second
e week in the following March received
Y the invitation subject to the will of Pre-,
bytery to become the pastor of III,
| church.
Immediately upon the reception of this
invitation, i wrote my honored and de
: voted friend, DR.. Dunning about it, alst
telling him ] had in my possession
T call to the First Presbyterian church o
Il Oxford, N. Y, and adding that the OK
[ ford church was the largest of the two
located in a beautiful NewYork state vii
lage and that the salary was a littl
larger than that of the Providenc
church. Among other things. this i
what he wrote me in reply: IF yo,
5 want an easy pastorate so to oxford.
you want hard work, where hard worl