FRASER, Samuel, Rev., M.A. (1844-1914)
Assembly memorial minute 1914
“The Assembly places on record the expression of its deep sorrow at the death of the Rev. Samuel Fraser, M.A., of the Thomson Memorial Church Terang, which has removed from its converse and its work a man greatly beloved and greatly trusted.
Mr. Fraser was a native of Alness, Ross-shire, Scotland, and was successively educated in the Tain Academy, King’s College, Aberdeen, and New College, Edinburgh. After a distinguished university and college career, he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Free Church Presbytery of Stirling, in June 1869.
Having heard the call for workers in Australia, he landed in Melbourne in March 1870 with a commission from the Free Church of Scotland. On July 1st 1870, he preached his first sermon in Terang, and receiving a unanimous call he was ordained and inducted there, and for the long period of 44 years he proved a faithful messenger of the gospel to that congregation, which has so prospered and solidified that it is now one of the strongest country charges in the Presbyterian Church of Victoria.
It would be impossible in this minute to enumerate all those features of his life and ministry which under God conduced to his success. The Assembly would, however, record his long years (some 37) of arduous work as Clerk and Treasurer of the Mortlake Pesbytery. Punctual, methodical and businesslike in every department of his work, his loss is a great one, not only to the congregation of Terang and the Presbytery of Mortlake, but also to the Presbyterian Church of Australia as a whole.
Faithful in the discharge of all his duties, he paid special attention to the education of the young in Biblical knowledge, and for many years the Terang Charge held a leading position at the annual competitive examinations under the Allan Bequest and the Higher Christian Education schemes. In his long years of teaching the Scripture Classes in the State School, in his advocacy of Temperance Reform, and in many other ways, he helped forward the interests of the Kingdom. The building up of the Noorat Charge, which formerly belonged to Terang, the erection of the Thomson Memorial Church, and of the Terang Sabbath School Hall, stand as memorials to his faith, his influence and his energy.
Mr. Fraser was married to Miss Hamilton, daughter of the late Rev. Wm. Hamilton, of Mortlake, and the Assembly in this minute would express its deepest sympathy with Mrs. Fraser and her sorrowing sons and daughters in their great loss, humbly commending them to God and to the Word of His grace.”
Gender
- Male