Rev. Calvin McQuesten
Greeting,

Dear brother, on the occasion of your first appearance in the Presbytery of Hamilton as a representative of the Kirk Session of McNab Street Congregation, I wish you Grace Mercy and Peace, from God our heavenly Father. From the Lord Jesus Christ and from the Spirit of all Grace. One God with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, making you rich in all the measures of His grace & the fullness of His Loving favour and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit. That thus anointed of God's Spirit, clad with power from on high and endured with Divine wisdom, you may be fully filled and equipped for all the duties devolving on you and any trust committed to you in the wider sphere of work and service on which you are now entering and that in that new sphere in the Providence a long and honored term of service may lie before you and a close and constant fellowship with the Master and abundant Joy, may the reward of all your work of faith and labor of love.

Your letter came to hand this morning. Your note to Mr. Leckie came to him on Saturday. We had all our arrangement made to be present, with you today, but the state of the weather, especially this morning made it impossible for us to leave home. I should have been exceeding glad to accede to your request to move your acceptance to the membership of the Presbytery of Hamilton. Inasmuch as I remember the esteemed faith that dwelt in your Grandfather, in your father, and I am persuaded in you also. True Apostolic Succession is not confined to the Anglican Church. It is now forty-three years since your Grandfather and I were Co-Presbyters in the Presbytery of Hamilton. All my recollections of your Grandfather are grateful memories. He was a man of fervent Piety. A Christian Gentleman, Courteous, genial and kindly in his manner yet steadfast to his convictions of right and forbearing to those who differed from him. It was both pleasant and profitable to Co-work with him. Our last official action was when Dr. Ormiston, Rev. Mr. Porteus, your Grandfather and I once set out for Ancaster to settle a serious difficulty that had had [sic] arisen in the Congregation there. We succeeded in bringing the matter to a final close. Your Grandfather, his tact and kindly manner, bore no small part in the decision arrived at. He was generous in his hospitality to members of Presbytery on meeting days concerning which the writer speaks from personal knowledge and experience. The revival of these long gone by memories and association kindles in the heart the glee and fervour of the youthful days now far away, as it seems in place as well as in time.

And now as you are coming on the scene and I am passing from it, my weight of Eighty-five years, Cataract on both eyes, tell me that my Presbytery Meeting days are nearly over. I hope and pray that you may always enjoy these meetings and the Christian fellowship of your Co-Presbyters and though in the convene [?] business there may often be much that is not directly Spiritual in its nature, yet they always were to me a spiritual uplift. They always gave me more freedom at a throne of grace, a wider outlook on the world, a deeper sympathy with the work of the Church and with those who were seeking to do her work far and near, and I ever returned to my own work at home with a purpose of renewed diligence and with a deeper sense of my own insufficiency that drove me nearer to the source of all strength and all Sufficiency so that the very sense of insufficiency and of weakness became a source of strength to me by drawing me to Christ alone for help and Strength. Standing with one foot on the threshold of the unseen I have a deep sympathy for those who are just entering the arena when I remember my own failings and shortcomings. That makes the Blood of Christ more and more precious. And now the Lord Himself make you steadfast and unmovable always abiding in the work of the Lord. Inasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Finally I commend you to God and to the work of His Grace that is able to build you up and give you [?] among all those who are Sanctified in Christ Jesus. I hope I have not wavered. I remain, your fellow laborer.

Robert McQueen