The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-06-24
CALL ACCEPTED
BY DR.. SCUDDER
The Members of Central Union
Church Are Notified by
Letter.

Piedcheu at central ~ MON church yes
terday morning, read to the congrega
ton the following letter from Rev
Doremus Scudder, D. D., accepting tn
call to the pastorate:
June 81, 1907
The Members of the Central Uniol
Church, Honolulu, T. III.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
The call extended by you to me to be
come your pastor has been considered
prayerfully by both Mrs. Scudder AM
myself. We realize that in the cam
paign of the Church of Christ in thu
world Central Union holds a strategic
position which is both unique and il
certain respects as important as thai
OF any company of Christians in any
land. This is due to its intimate rela
ton to the missionary history of these
islands, to it's liberal, inclusive ano
non-sectarian nature, to it's large re
sources both in men and women train
ed by their education and experience
for effective service and in the wealth
God has given many of them, to its
consequent capacity for leadership, to
its location in the very center of the
Pacific world, and its sympathy with
peoples of all races, so many of which
are represented in it's membership
Under God there is scarce a limit to
the sphere which this church may not
fill, provided it's members will to serve
its wide constituency and the age as
both of these require.
These considerations, stimulating as
they are to imagination, are very sober
ing to the reflective judgment which
calculates the heavy burden of respon-
sibility and the large demands that
the passionate of such church must
entail. A man of brilliant powers
might well pause in view of this pros
pect, and we, who come equipped so
simply, have found it hardest to ar
rive at decision because of the great
ness of the task that faces US.
There could be but one answer to
your call, if we did not believe that
you are asking US to serve as your
ministers in the common endeavor of
all the members of Central Union to
fulfil its mission according as the
Great Head of the Church unfolds that
mission to us during the coming years.
Together with your invitation there
have been given US repeated assurances
from men, not now active in church
life, that they are determined to de-
vote themselves loyalty to this service.
81 am with you. Call upon me for
that I can do and you may
depend upon my doing it, has been
a message repeated with glad frequency
since your vote of a week ago last
1t is this disposition to
regard this church as a company OF
soldiers, marching under the Great
Captain and ready for active service,
that makes it possible for US to decide
the question proposed by your invita-
tion. IF we all close ranks and move
forward, each resolved to do his part
as our Divine Lord makes evident
what that part is, our church Will fulhl
its manifest destiny. That destiny IS
clearly not to live for itself, not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and
to give its life for many.
With this as the ideal before our
church we are glad to say Eyes to
your call. I therefore accept your IN
yitation to become your pastor on the
terms stated in the letter of your clerk
The ardent labor of the past SIX years
with no real respite necessitates sea
,on of quiet preparation for the change
in reassuming the duties OF
pastorate. We need to go apart and
be a while alone, not only for Physlcai
but, also for spiritual
strengthening. Wherefore it seems
pest to designate the first day of next
october for the commencement OF our
new relation as people and pastor
During the interim let us bear one
another daily to the Throne OF Grace
n our prayers. \ true pastorate mas
much the same nature in the social
calm that marriage has in the sphere
# the family. If this pastorate IS 10
,e real and vital, it must be spiritual
must be registered in heaven. we
ouSt hear with one another, grow to
owe by serving one another and keep
me another faithful by frequent pray
n. If church and minister do TINS
hiring these Introductory days of wait
NO, we all shall be surprised at the
oy and vigor with which we snail
,eoin our work together in the fall.