Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/573

 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 547 I The late Rev. George Stonehouse ''p^HE work and chanicter of the late Rev. G. Stonehouse, for many years a pastor in the X Baptist Church, are enshrined in the memory of old residents of South Australia. He was of the school of scholarly ministers, and he put his whole energy into his task. The Rev. George Stonehouse was born in Kent, England, on July i, 1808. He was, so to speak, cradled in the ministry, for he was third in a line of Baptist pastors. His education was imparted at Newport Pagnell College - a Union College for Baptists and Independents — where the eminent Dr. Bull was his tutor. For five years he remained at this institution, and when 25 or 26 years of age, he received a call — his first — to Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, where he remained for several years. His labors in this circuit were inspired with enthusiasm, and his influence was so great that 30 years afterwards — a few weeks before he died — he received a letter from its contemporary pastor and four deacons, most of whom W(^re boys under his ministry, couched in words of kindly sentiment, concluding with the following : — " May we entreat an interest in your prayers, such as we believe you have in the prayers of many who remember your ministry here, some of whom, though you knew it not while you were with us, are your spiritual children, and hence cherish your memory with much affection." Such expressions, after .so long an interval, must have given consolation to the last days of the aged minister. PVom Middleton Cheney Mr. Stonehouse was removed to a larger charge at Chip[)ing Norton, Oxfordshire, where he remained for seven years. In 1841 he was admitted as a titular member of the African Institute, and received his diploma with a highly complimentary letter from the then Secretary of State. His zeal and earnestness