The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-07-05
DR. PROVINE RE-
SIGNS Passionate
HAS ACCEPTED IMPORTANT
WORK UNDER THE BOARD or
PUBLICATION AND SUM-
DAY SCHOOL WORK or
THE PRESBYTE-
RlAN CHURCH.
Month OF July Will Close His Work
With The Church Here.-Has
Served Fourteen Years.

J Pastor Or. W. A. Provine, presented
a communication that was source of
deep regret, but was not source of
surprise, as the congregation was pre-
pared in a measure for the news.
This communication was DR.. Provinces
resignation from the pastorate after
faithful service of fourteen years.
During this time DR.. Provine has not
only won the love of his congregation,
but the confidence and friendship of
the people Of the county and his de-
parture will prove a distinct loss.
The communication was as follows:
ITO the Official Board and Members
of the First Cumberland Presby-
terrain Church. Columbia, Tennessee.
Dear Brethren and Church Members: /
The announcements that have ap-
| peared in the local press have no
doubt prepared you for the communi-
| cation that l now address to you. I
| am now serving you in the fourteenth /
year of my passionate, having received
call to become your pastor and en-
tering upon the work on Sunday, the
18th of February, 1894. After an in
teresting, and trust profitable service
to You for these years, have been per-
suaded that it is my duty to surrender
the trust of pastor to you, that it may
be committed to other hands and that
| may be permitted to enter the fur
ther service of our beloved church in
different work. In this, l do not
deem it appropriate to go into the
history of these years of association,
of this | may choose to speak later :
on, | desire only to state a few, of
what seem to be sufficient reasons, for
my taking this step, and which am
persuaded you will appreciate.
list. l have given to you in years
a service that is far above the average
in point of time, in the pastorate of
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
And So far as your own records in
n
dictate, (unless the pastorate of the
sainted Chapman was longer) l have :,
served this congregation in it's longest :
pastorate. In this age of rapid living
and strenuous engagements, length J.
ened term of years represents some
thing more in pastoral service than a s
"a Il nrot fn11 |
Hence the minister of today gives
serious consideration to the calender A.
when he seeks to solve the problem OF
PASTORAL effectiveness
"2nd. The character of the work to G,
which | have received call In this
ase enters into the decision of the TT
uestion of ending the present pastor Of
tie. Your general appreciation of the an
York of the church at large has al
owed me during this pastorate to rem DR.
er to the Assembly and Synod a serv. tic
Re that has widened in its growth an
nd responsibilities until it has he
cached the place where the pastorate tar
as already begun to indicate that it
suffering for closer attention and n,
,ntinuous study, and the time has N.
)me when the pastor must either en-
# wholly into the wider service Of the
or restrict himself to
e narrower but no less important
I'D of the pastorate In deciding
hich work should be followed, feel gar
at it is probable that 1t will be with not
IS difficulty that one can be found the
r the pastorate than for the general cut
)rk to which | have been called did
"3rd. Personal reasons also carry day
Eight in deciding to accept the call Wn'
the Church to its Publication and ina
nday School Work. Being of the
rd generation of a ministerial fam pE
in the Cumberland Presbyterian
urch and a native by birth, rearing
Il service to the center of the
urch heer in the Southland, / have
d opportunities that have enabled N
10 become tamlllar with tne detail mo Il
church life and work as very few 70 =
our ministers have enjoyed This 1ast
Re acquaintance and experience in beor
vice to the general church work mos
naturally led to the receiving OF a a co
| for all my service in the general sum
d. Again, from my childhood days non,
Board of Publication and Sunday mer
lool Work has been the special
crest of the Church that occupied
attention of my family, my father
ing given nearly fifty years of per- III
al service to this Board, hence, dent
urally, the associations OF the past dim,
,e sacred to me this especial inter- tancc
and awaken within me desire aske,