MR McGOWAN AND MS. MOIR.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2591, 31 October 1867, Page 3

MR McGOWAN AND MS. MOIR.

(to the editor of the independent.) Wellington, Oct. 29, 1867. Sib, — I trust you will allow me room in your paper for & few words in reference to Mr McG-owan' s " Rejoinder" to ray " Statement." I do not propose anything like an answer to what he has written, and that for two reasons, one reason is that the " Rejoinder" is full of bitter abuse, and the other is that ib is wholly void of sound or manly argument. If Mr McQowan has a good cause, why does ho not defend it in a calm and Christian way ? There is one little matter in which I fancy I hare been mistaken. I said that Mr McG-owan had boasted of having his pocket full of names. 1 was, I assure him, informed that such words were used by him. I accept, however, his denial, and withdraw the allegation. I have no desire to misrepresent Mr McGtowan in any way. None of the main facts contained in the statement I made are in the least affected by what Mr McGfowan has written. He does try to modify them, but wholly without success. Ho first denies and then he has to admit substantially the tiling ho lias denied. 1. Ho cannot deny that some of my people urged me to receive a eolleague ; that this matter was cordially arranged between them and me at a congregational meeting ; and that this agreement was afterwards violated by those who first proposed it. 2. Ho cannot deny that the Presbytery refused to collegiate the charge in Wellington, and proposed in the most direct terms my resignation of office as a minister. It was Mr McG-owan who proposed this, and lie ought not to take it amiss when the fact is recorded. He said in express words, "We must endeavor to persuade Mr Moir to resign his charge," and gave certain reasons for being of this opinion. He afterwards proposed ruy resignation in a formal motion, which was, however, withdrawn, and another a little more circuitous adopted in its room. I hesitate not to say that Mr McQ-owan has been the main instrument of the present unhappy state of matters between me and those who have lately left my ministry. Had he seen it his duty to have acted in a different way, we should have "still been a. united people. He hn.s been tho means, in a great degree, of one of the cruellest wrongs that any minister ever received at the hands of another. But he "3aw it his duty" to act as he has done, and ho meant only my comfort and the good of my congregation ! I am. truly sorry that his views of duty were not different ; and I would earnestly entreat him never to seek to promote my comfort again. Mnny a man Ims seen it his duty to burn his neighbor at the stake, and indeed a delusive sense of duty has. usually sustauwd the minds of the cruellest persecutors. 3. He does not deny that the Presbytery agreed to divide my congregation, at a time of excitement brought on by the action ol the Presbytery, and when I could not be present, either to consent unto, or protest against their proceedings. He does not, and cannot deny any of these facts, and they include nearly ull that I stated at the late public meeting. There aro several charges in Mr MeGtowan's letter, to which I must in a sentence or two refer before I close this letter : — 1. Ho blames me for not oboying the mind of the Presbytery, as in duty I am bound to do. He should remember that obedience to the Presbytery has its limits. If a Presbytery acts unconstitutionally, it ought not to bo obeyed. I maintain that the Wellington Presbytery ha3 acted towards me in an irregular way, and so I can- ' not follow it? wishes. It had no right to raise the question of resignation, or to aim at my resignation in any way whatever. And hencu the Presbytery is responsible for the painful results of its perverse procedure. Tho party who doe3 the wrong deed, and persists in a wrong course of action, is the stubborn party, and not he who, like myself, is compelled to sillier the ill effects of other men's misconduct. 2. There is no complaint in my statement with respect to money or terms of resignation. Mr McG-owan misrepresents the fact whon ho says I complain on any such account. 3. I am charged by Mr McG-owan with the sin of being an old man — with "growing eenility." Let me assuro him that, if I am old, it is not my . fault. My young friend, Mr MoG-owun, ought to remember that being old is a dofectf which I have not been able to avoid, and am not able to repair. A youth like Mr McG-owan should not insult me on thnt account, but rather should obey St. Paul's instructions to his son Timothy, when he says, " Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father." 4-. Ho blames those frionds of mine in Welling- , ton who have shown me sympathy iu a time of great trouble and suffering. Ho scorns to be of ' opinion that tho man whom the thieves left robbed and wounded by tho wayside should have . been left to perish without help. Of course the 5 priest and Levito who passed by without aiding him wero in tho right, while the Samaritan who 1 pitied and helped him was guilty of meddling . with strife that did not belong to him. Mr MeGtowan also assures my brethern who have come to support mo in my time of need with ' acting like a man who taketh a dog by the ears. In this charge I cannot help thinking there iB a i considerable portion of truth. They have caught hold of Mr^MeGtowan, and if that is to take a dog by tho ears, I would only remark of their encounter, that they have got a '' towsie tyke," as Scotch people say, to deal with. John Moie. [We trust the reverend gentlemen who are engaged in tkiß conti'oversy will see the propriety of closing it. The case, so far as the factß went, was exhausted by tho publication ,of Mr.Moir's stutoment and Mr MeGtowan's rejoinder. Still wo did not wish to refuse Mr Moir the insertion of this last letter, and we shall in the same impartial spirit allow Mr MoQ-owan, if he requires it, a final rejoinder. After that, we vrill close our columns to a controversy which is fast degenerating into personality. It is sad to see old ladies pull caps; it is eadder still to see divines pull gowna.— EdWX] „ * — i^h