MR JOHN ROBERTS AND MR C. MANN. - South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) - 26 Apr 1845 (original) (raw)

MR JOHN ROBERTS AND MR C. MANN.

Gentlemen. —In your paper of the 19th

instant you have a long letter from Mr C.

Mann respecting Independents and their

cause in Adelaide: and there can be no doubt

that by many it was considered, as to its

literary production, a "gem of the first

water"; but it appears to me that some

men have the gift of saying a great deal,

but to very little purpose. Indeed, from

his own showing, he knew nothing of the

business he had taken in hand, excepting

from " hear-say.*' What! Is it come to

this. that Mr Stow could not confide his

case to any one but an individual who is only

an occasional hearer, or to a few anonymous

What can Mr Mann, who is not a mem-

ber, know of the discipline of the Church,

or what can he know of the way in which

things have been carried on there for the

last seven or eight years ?

During the eight months that we were

members, I never saw Mr Mann inside the

chapel doors; so much for his respect for

Mr Stow's excellent ministry; more, I can

not find one person who recollects seeing

him in chapel (during his sojourn on the

Torrens oftner than once or twice a year.

The plain truth is, Mr Stow has kept his

Members at arms-length, and his deacons

(save his old-tried friend) have been mere

nonentities. There has been very little love,

and far less confidence subsisting between

them; hence it is that the Independent

cause in this colony, instead of being the

most flourishing, has dragged on a miserable

existence ever since the new chapel has been

erected ; and any one could see this in the

small number who attended last Sabbath.

Is there any member of the Church that

can conscientiously say that things would

not now have been in a far more prosperous

condition, spiritually as well as temporally,

had there been a man placed over them de-

voted to his work—one who cared for their

souls—and who, consequently, lived in the

hearts and affections of his people; but

I saw enough at the church meetings, if

they can be called church meetings (scarcely

ever exceeding a dozen male members) to

convince me that God was not there; and

as to their deacons' and minister's meetings,

tell it not in Gath ; publish it not in the

Mr Mann tells you that I declined to

prove what I had affirmed regarding the

"lax discipline of the church"—"one

member living in adultry"—and another

having a bastard child; he might have

added and Mr Stows' inattention to his

pastoral duties, &c., &c. I must flatly

Mr Stow sent an open note on the Sab-

bath after we resigned our connexion with

his church, requesting particulars of the

adultery and bastardy cases, both true, and

which I delivered for him at Mr Barclay's

before nine o'clock the following morning.

Perhaps the best way, as I have copies

of the whole correspondence, will be to

publish them with other letters of Mr.

Stow's which have come to my hands;

the the public will see who is rght and

determine whether I was not justified in

telling the society at home "that it was

a waste of British benevolence to support

such a missionary," whose neglect of his

flock was proverbial for a long while be-

fore we came into the colony; and as to

his indiscretion and improvidence, his

poor deacons are obliged often "to bear

much" when collecting the pennies and

sixpences per week towards the support of

himself and family. I have been a mem-

ber of the Independent Church for nearly

twenty years, and I never heard of a mis-

sionary sporting his phaeton before, nor

entangling himself with the affairs of this

life, seeking his own pleasure. But more

In conclusion, I would just observe that

A. B., one of Mr Stow's partizans, has

the honour or rather the dishonour of be-

gining this painful controversy. I will

take time to consider how I shall further

act, and beg to subscribe myself,

Maesbury-house, Kensington.