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YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
JOHN R. MOTT

LlRRARY OF
john r. Morr_

Q^5<k

E, W. DADSON, B.A., D.D.

THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE.

EDITED BY
JONES H. FARMER, B.A., LL.D.,
Professor of New TestamentGreek in McMaster University, Toronto.

1 By manifestation of the truth commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God." — Paul.

TORONTO:
WILLIAM BRIGGS.
1902.
Yale Divinity Library
New Haven, Conn.

Diaes Xfaz

14

J)
"J

In i

TO
Ube Stu&ents FOR
Ubc Cana&fan Baptist /lOinistrs
IN RECOGNITION OF THE DEEP
INTEREST DR. DADSON ALWAYS TOOK IN THEIR WELFARE
AND IN THE HOPE
THAT HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS MAY HELP
TOWARDS
THE REALIZATION OF THE TRUEST IDEALS
THIS BOOK IS
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.

Very soon after Dr. Dadson's death, Professor A. H.
Newman suggested in the Canadian Baptist that a
memorial volume should be published, and that the one
who now stands sponsor for the completed work should
prepare it. That suggestion was adopted a few weeks later
by the Alumni Association of McMaster University, and
the business details entrusted to a committee consisting of
Rev. S. S. Bates, D.D., and Professors Newman and
Farmer. Professors Cross and McLay have since been
added to the Committee.
For the volume, as it stands, I assume the entire respon
sibility. At the same time, it is a pleasure to acknowledge
my special indebtedness to Rev. Alexander Turnbull, B.A.,
of New York, whose three interesting chapters and many
valuable suggestions have made the work largely one of
collaboration. I am also indebted to Rev. A. P. McDiar-
mid, D.D., Principal of Brandon College, for his vigorous
chapter on Dr. Dadson as a denominational leader ; to
members of the family for the material and information so
freely placed at my disposal ; and to many other friends for
like assistance.
Grateful acknowledgment is also made of the kindness
of the friends whose generous contributions have made the
publication possible. It is the purpose of the Committee
to devote the entire proceeds of the sale of the book
to the establishment of an E. W. Dadson Scholarship in
McMaster University.

VI PREFACE.
The only justification for publishing this book is found
in the exceptional goodness of the man whose memory and
influence it seeks to perpetuate. His life was passed amid
ordinary scenes ; he does not stand as the representative of
any great movement ; and yet, by the strength and nobility
of his character, he won a unique place in the hearts and
counsels of his fellows, and exerted an extraordinary
influence for good on the aspirations and achievements of
his friends. The aim of the book, therefore, has been to
present the man himself as he is revealed in the story of
his life and in his pen and pulpit messages, that he may
minister to us a little longer.
In the First Part many things invited discussion, but
nothing has been admitted except what seemed necessary
to the portraiture of the man. As to Part II., it was felt
that extracts from one correspondence would reveal him in
truest perspective, and that with Mr. Turnbull was the
most complete. The most of the other material is taken
from the columns of the Canadian Baptist. The classifica
tion is mine, as are also the captions of many of the articles.
It is due to Dr. Dadson to say that few of his articles are
given in full. In many cases only the pith has been taken.
This will account for the abruptness that will be noticed
not infrequently. It was no easy task to select the sermons
and addresses for Part III. The sermons chosen are but
little above his average strength ; they do not, of course,
cover his range of thought. It would be easy to furnish
several volumes of his sermons of equal excellence.
No one will be more conscious of the imperfections of
the book than myself ; but if it should, in any appreciable
measure, continue the gracious influence of our beloved
friend, what has been a labor of love would become a
source of permanent satisfaction.
J. H. F.
Toronto, December 3, 1902.

CONTENTS

PART I.— THE MAN.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Early Years ii
II. Conversion and Decision for the Ministry ig
By Rev. Alexander Turnbull, B.A.
III. College Life and Characteristics 26
By Rev. Alexander Turnbull, B.A.
IV. Student Preaching 33
V. Denfield, Ailsa Craig and Strathroy 37
VI. Editorship : Toronto 48
VII. Claremont and Woodstock 55
VIII. Montreal 64
IX. As a Denominational Leader 75
By Rev. A. P. McDiarmid, D.D.
X. The Home Life 81
XI. The Closing Scenes 91
XII. The Man as we Knew Him 100
PART II.— THE WRITER.
I. The Christian Life 115
II. Some Fundamental Principles 136
III. Glimpses of Bible Doctrines 144
IV. Training: Home, Church, College 152
vii

vill CONTENTS.
chapter page
V. The Church : Its Membership, Worship,
Work and Polity i6o
VI. Preachers and Preaching J85
VII. On Problems, Practices, and Opinions of
the Day 199
VIII. Nuggets of Wisdom, and Touches of
Humor 212
IX. Christmas and New Year 218
X. Mr. Dadson as a Correspondent 221
By Rev. Alexander Turnbull, B.A.
PART III.— THE PREACHER.
The Atonement 237
The Empty Tomb of Jesus 250
The Gospel the Power of God 267
Our Motives 281
The Child Factor in Missions 297
God's Workmanship (Baccalaureate Sermon) 313
Educational Address 331
Endure Hardness 345
Affliction and Glory 366

PART I.
THE MAN.

" A bond-servant of righteousness."

CHAPTER I.
THE EARLY YEARS.
An old family Bible, now in the possession of
Mr. Mark Dadson, Toronto, tells of the marriage of
Stephen Dadson to Mary Beachin, at Cranbrook,
Kent County, England, in the year 1834. The bride
was petite, modest, sensible ; the groom, a young
hatter of fine physique and excellent reputation. To
them were given in the course of the years five sons
and four daughters. The youngest son was born on
July 10th, 1845, and received the name Ebenezer,
with a touch of the Hebrew mother's gratitude to
God. Was it also a touch of the prophetic that
inscribed that name in the family list in letters con
spicuously large and legible ?
The story of his first twenty years can be quickly
told. In the spring of 1849 the family emigrated to
Canada, and joined Mr. Dadson's mother at Drum-
mondville, a mile from Niagara Falls. In the autumn
of the same year they moved to Toronto, then a
thriving young city of about thirty thousand inhabi
tants, which, with the exception of a year (1852) spent
in St. Catharines, remained their home until 1857,
when they returned to England. As a rule protracted
residence in America unfits the ordinary man for
settling down again contentedly in the Mother

12 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Country. It was so in Stephen Dadson's case. Weary
ing of Cranbrook he tried the busy city of Birming
ham, but at the end of a year determined to return to
Toronto, and two years later established himself as a
hatter in the Royal City of Guelph. Ebenezer, how
ever, remained for a time in Toronto. A year had
been spent as errand boy in a dry goods store on King
Street, another under Dr. Fyfe in the office of the
Canadian Baptist, and now for eighteen months he
was to serve in the printing office of Mr. A. H. St.
Germain, who speaks of him as the brightest boy he
ever had in his employment. In the autumn of 1861
he joined his father in Guelph, and for the next four
years assisted in the store.
This brief sketch suggests considerable variety of
influences and experiences, which must be noted if the
man in the richness of his resources, as we knew him
later on, is to be explained.
A man's mental furnishing depends in no small
measure upon natural surroundings. Our friend was
favored in this respect. His first acquaintance with
nature was formed in the midst of the rural loveliness
of southern England, and these early impressions were
renewed, deepened and fixed during his later resi
dence there. The picturesqueness of his Canadian
surroundings would at least tend to foster his love of
nature in her quieter moods. And if the sea has such
influence over men's minds as to give rise to the say
ing that no great poet has ever been found far from the
mountains or the sea, it is not unimportant that in
wondering childhood and again in eager, wide-awake
boyhood he received impressions of the might, majesty

THE EARLY YEARS. 1 3
and mystery of the great deep. Imagination and the
sense of grandeur would be further fed by the great
inland sea of Lake Ontario and by Niagara's rapids,
cataract and gorge. How many of the finest creations
of the poet or the orator are but the recrudescence
of impressions received in early childhood !
His only schooling was a fouryears'course(i853-57)
in the Toronto Model School, then under the princi
palship of Mr. Archibald McCallum, a noble Christian
man and one of the finest of the old-time school
masters, who taught because they loved to teach.
The general influence of the school told for good
upon him, but he was so fond of play that he won
little distinction in the class-room.
Outside the school he was a keen scholar. In
manly sports, fishing, boating, swimming, ball, etc., he
excelled. He was a leader, and exceedingly popular,
among the boys. Of nature he was a devoted student.
His knowledge of birds and beasts was quite unusual.
The works of men he studied also. Shipping and
machinery had a fascination for him. General know
ledge of men and affairs was gained in his business
experience and increased by wide and varied reading.
Thus, through his out-door life, his love of nature, and
mingling with men in business, he built up a sound
body, stored up information, sharpened his wits, dis
ciplined his will, gained self-control, and came to
know men and how to deal with them.
The chief religious influence that acted on him was
that of godly parents. The father, brought up an
Episcopalian, converted, and for some time a class-
leader among the Methodists, next advanced to the

14 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Independents, and finally became a Baptist. Years
afterwards, Mrs. Dadson also joined the Baptist
Church. Both were clear and strong in their religious
convictions. Though not given to much talk about
holy things, they were earnest students of the Scrip
tures, held family worship regularly, lived a genuine
Christian life, and carefully guarded the habits of
their children. Mr. Dadson, though tender-hearted,
was rather stern and not as free as he might have
been with his boys. But he was rigidly righteous,
believed in the old doctrines, and " liked strong meat,"
as Rev. Hoyes Lloyd used to say of him. After their
return from Guelph in 1867, they remained quiet but
honored members of Bond, afterwards Jarvis, Street
Church. The father died in 1878, the mother in 1880.
Next to the steady, strong and silent influence of
the home came that of the Sunday-school and church.
Bond Street, during his boyhood, had a noble trio of
pastors in Doctors Pyper, Fyfe and Caldicott. Dr.
Pyper was the one who first had the joy of seeing
that long struggling church advance with rapid strides
— an advance due in large measure to his own earnest,
evangelical ministry, and his strength both as pastor
and preacher. Dr. Fyfe was now serving the church
for the second time, his first pastorate having laid
the foundations on which Dr. Pyper built so suc
cessfully. He was then in his prime, and a superb
specimen of Christian manhood. Those who knew
him were not surprised when the Prince of Wales,
now Edward VII., pronounced him the finest-looking
man he had seen in America. The noble form was a
fitting temple for the great soul that dwelt within.

THE EARLY YEARS. 15
Canadian Baptists have had a goodly array of noble
men and able leaders, but by common consent R. A.
Fyfe stands easily first. There is not a department of •
our organized work that has not felt the touch of his
master-hand, or does not bear the impress of his
genius. It must have meant much for young Dadson to
come into such close contact with this great person
ality as he did both in church and office. That early
contact doubtless prepared him for being still more
deeply influenced during his student years at Wood
stock. May this double experience not explain the:
fact that no graduate of Woodstock more clearly;
showed the mark of the great man's influence by!
reproducing his magnificently sturdy spirit than Mr. !
Dadson ? He was conscious of his indebtedness, and j
next to his personal loyalty to God, perhaps no \
motive worked more steadily in his life than the j
determination to prove worthy of his great teacher j
and friend. In this connection it is interesting to
know that it was Mr. Stephen Dadson who seconded
the resolution that recalled Dr. Fyfe from the United
States to this second pastorate in Toronto.
Dr. Caldicott, too, was a man of large gifts of heart
and head, rich in the grace of God, and endowed with
a spirit of great helpfulness.
Under these noble men Bond Street pulsed with
full and vigorous life. The Sunday-school shared in
the blessing. The record of the infant class from
1851 to 1855 should be an encouragement to all
primary class teachers.* And while anyone who
* See a little pamphlet, " The Sunday School," by Mr. E. O.
VVliite, in which the record of this class is given.

1 6 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
studies the record will recognize the pre-eminent in
fluence of Christian homes, yet Mrs. Dadson was
surely not mistaken when she credited the Sunday -
i school in Bond Street with doing very much to
instruct her children in the Word of God, and bring
them to decision for Christ. It is the combination
of careful teaching in the Sunday-school, with the
living illustration of it in the home, that, under God,
brings salvation to the children.
) Dr. Caldicott " had singular aptitude in attracting
the young to himself, in fixing their attention, in
stamping in their memories and sending home to
their hearts the great central truths of Christianity." *
During the very first year of his pastorate a remark
able work of grace was experienced. Among the
fifty or more who professed conversion and applied
for baptism was Ebb Dadson, then sixteen years of
age. A member of the examining committee, regard
ing his jovial manner as betraying a lack of earnest
ness, counselled delay in his case. Six years passed
before he again made profession. He himself dated
"his real conversion from the latter occasion, the story
of which will be found in the following chapter, from
he pen of the friend who had the honor and joy of
bringing him to Jesus. But unquestionably a very
strong impression was made upon him at the earlier
time. His conduct noticeably changed. There was
more care about religious matters, a deeper sense of
God and increased fear of God. He had taken a
step toward the kingdom, but had not yet entered
it. Recurring thoughts of decision and confession
* Sir John A. Boyd, in McMaster University Monthly, Jan., 1895.

THE EARLY YEARS. 1 7
were checked by the inconsistencies of professing
Christians. When, in 1861, he went to Guelph, he carried this
experience with him. It led him to take considerable
interest in the church. He entered with zest into
their social gatherings, became quite an active helper
in the Sunday-school, but made no profession of
being a Christian. This close association with the
church brought him strongly under the influence of
the pastor, the Rev. George Grafftey. Mr. Grafftey
was a scholarly man, with the instincts of a teacher.
He had a clear vision of the possibilities of young life,
and with enthusiastic devotion sought " to convert
these possibilities into powers." On his death, in
1884, Mr. Dadson paid grateful and graceful tribute
to his memory. That tribute closes with this sentence :
" The writer of this can look back upon a certain night-
school, patiently conducted by Pastor Grafftey, where
some of our ministers and most useful laymen of;
to-day were encouraged to attempt greater things
than otherwise would have been deemed possible."
That class changed his whole career ; for it led
to his entering the Canadian Literary Institute at
Woodstock in 1865. Is it not a beautiful illustration
of the more than poetic justice of an overruling
Providence that in Dr. Dadson 's closing years he
should have ministered to the family of Mr. Grafftey's
son, one of the deacons of Olivet Church? So are
our ways guided by wisdom greater and kindlier
than our own, and so in after days does God recog
nize the humble service of His faithful ones by be
stowing blessings on those whom most they loved.
" His faithfulness is unto children's children."

1 8 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
In Mr. Dadson's tribute to Mr. Grafftey special
mention is made of the latter's sterling integrity and
loyalty to principle. These qualities were prominent
in his parents ; they were manifestly present in Pyper
and Caldicott ; they shone like the sun in the imperial
Fyfe. We need not be surprised that they became
so conspicuous in himself. The persons under whose
influence we chiefly come in early life surround us
with an atmosphere which becomes our vital breath
and determines whether we shall be and live, or only
seem to be and perish.

CHAPTER II.
CONVERSION AND DECISION FOR THE
MINISTRY.
ROOM " number 6 " of the old main building is a
" classical " spot to many a Woodstock student, but
two, at least, will ever hold it sacred as well. It was
there that Mr. Dadson roomed during his entire pre
paratory course, and within its walls occurred the
event that gave character to his whole after life, and
of which this chapter will speak particularly.
By virtue of its strategic position at the head of
the first stair-landing, and by reason of the vigorous
personality of its principal occupant, " number 6" was
the chief centre of all the varied " doings " that form
so large and important a part of college-boy life. It
would, indeed, be wholly aside from the purpose of
this narrative to dwell upon these events in detail,
but to omit all mention of them would be to throw
away the key to much that gave " Ebb " Dadson his
place and influence in the Canadian Literary Institute
of those days.
The writer well remembers his first Sunday at
Woodstock, in May, 1 867, when after morning service
at the church, and dinner in the Hall, the forlorn, home
sick lad of fourteen, was heartily invited to join a lively
group in " number 6 " for an old-fashioned sing ; and
19

20 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
how, after his own melancholy was dissipated by the
charm of the hour, the discovery of a boy who still
sang alto was hailed as an important addition to the
choir of male voices. It was this mutual interest in
music that drew us together at first, and as acquaint
ance progressed, the discovery of other kindred tastes
and the pursuit of studies in common, soon strung and
tuned the harp of friendship, whose sweet notes were
destined to be prolonged for almost thirty-three years
without a single discord.
We were not room-mates at this time, but soon
became so intimate that the important event of the
year following seemed to come as the natural and
necessary outgrowth of the feeling that but one thing
was needed to complete the character of this beloved
friend ; for he was not yet a Christian.
Mr. Dadson had been strictly and religiously trained
from his earliest years by godly parents and faithful
pastors and teachers ; but just at this time, while
reverent in spirit and respectful towards all consistent
Christian profession, he was, owing to some unfortun
ate experiences, strongly inclined to take a critical,
if not a sceptical, attitude towards the subject of
religion. This was a source of perplexity to many
who knew him well, and the cause of deep solicitude
to one especially, who thought and prayed about it
until that memorable Sunday in May, 1868, when in
a very passion of love and longing he was led to press
the matter of personal surrender to God upon his
friend, and experienced the unutterable joy of seeing
him turn to the Lord that very hour. It happened
on this wise. Just after dinner, walking arm-in-arm

CONVERSION AND DECISION FOR THE MINISTRY. 21
through the halls, the proposition was made to go
upstairs and have a chat in " number 6 " ; but Mr.
Dadson announced that he was, just then, deeply
interested in the subject of the " Tides," and intended
to spend some time reading up on it in the library.
But quiet persistence caused him to change his plan,
and when we had gone into the room and " shut to
the door," this is what occurred, as described in his
own words : " I recall the ' Tides ' and No. 6 on
the afternoon of that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday.
I go over again our long chat, our kneeling together
by the trunks, my resolution to cast all upon Jesus,
and the sudden removal of all clouds when we arose ;
my deep and solemn joy at finding myself a converted
boy. All is before me visibly, and as I write my heart
is uplifted in thankfulness to God."*
Note. — It is with some hesitation that the veil is drawn aside
from so sacred a scene, and only that his own words may
answer some questions that have been raised regarding the
time of his conversion, and fix the hour when the great decision
was made that proved the turning-point in his life, and gave it
the direction Godward, from which he never swerved in all
the varied and often trying experiences of over thirty years.
The news of Mr. Dadson's conversion soon spread,
and the boys came hurrying from all quarters to join
in a service of praise and prayer that made " old
No. 6 " seem like an " outpost of heaven," and gave it
a new and crowning distinction in the eyes of most of
those who frequently gathered there. Shortly after
ward Mr. Dadson was baptized into the fellowship of
* Extract from a letter written by Mr. Dadson from Ottawa,
July 9th, 1872.

22 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the Woodstock Church by " Father Bates," as we loved
to call him, and thus began his Christian career in
the very place where he was destined to render the
largest and, in many respects, the most important
service of his life to the cause of Christ.
' Closely connected with his conversion was the
>' decision to enter the ministry. If he had been slow
' in yielding to the claims of Christ, so complete was
his surrender to the will of the Lord that he soon
l found himself confronted by the question, " How can
, I best serve Him who has saved me by His grace ? "
It was not in many respects an easy question for
/ him to answer. He was now twenty-two years of
j age, and, although a good writer, manifested no
special aptitude for public address — indeed, on the
contrary, he had a deep-seated and almost ludicrous
aversion to much that was included in that thought.
Moreover, the question of ways and means was a
pressing and serious one, and a decision to pursue
the only course he could regard as a fitting one for
: the ministry meant years of hard, self-denying work.
But there was the question, and he was not the man
to dodge it, or to be daunted by the difficulties that
i mustered thickly in his path. At length, after serious
; thought and earnest prayer, it was settled, and only
God knows how much that choice for the ministry
' meant. True he did not lack the loving sympathy
and help of friends during his course ; but much as
he valued and appreciated them, his sturdy self-
reliance led him over many a rough spot before the
f goal was attained. Considering what he endured and
| what he overcame before he reached the point when

CONVERSION AND DECISION FOR THE MINISTRY. 23
the dignity and power of his ministry impressed all
who heard him, there are few things more worthy of
record about Mr. Dadson' than that he steadfastly
cherished high ideals of the ministry under most
trying conditions, and nobly attained despite all
adverse circumstances.
It may not be amiss here to give some extracts
from his correspondence bearing on this subject, as
the best means of illustrating and confirming these
statements. In his earlier ministry he frequently
wrote in this strain :
" I get up trembling in every joint, and my tongue
almost cleaving to the roof of my mouth. Yesterday
in the city (Ottawa) pulpit I was so scared that I
could not see the Bible, but I read on and nobody
was the wiser — it happened to be a familiar chapter,
that is, familiar enough to make out."
" I don't know what I shall do for a sermon next
Sunday. I preach in the city again. I'm dry, too.
Have told all I know."
" I don't know where I can get another sermon. I
have told all I know. I am in real distress about it.
But hope above."
Yes, it was that " hope above " that sustained him
and transformed weakness into strength, so that his
" profiting appeared unto all " in due time.
The fact, too, that he wrote and read closely all his
early sermons, often exposed him to the unkind
criticism of hearers prejudiced against that form of
address, and added to the trials and discomforts
of missionary labor, already sufficiently exacting.
But patiently, hopefully, courageously he persisted in

24 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
his determination, first of all to prepare and give
something that would be sure to instruct and profit
his hearers ; and then, if possible, to remove prejudice
while continuing in the course that he was convinced
would work most for his own and their good.
One other point may also be noticed, for it furnished
the best test of his sincerity and steadfastness in hold
ing to the ministry. The criticism of prejudice may
annoy, but that which comes from well-informed,
keen people, is much harder to bear. Here is his
answer to a criticism of the latter class which inci
dentally reveals the depth of his conviction on the
whole subject of the ministry :
" Now about  's remark — ' The pulpit is not
my sphere.' This has been said regarding me by
several individuals now. I am very glad my friends
let me know their opinions so freely. A little while
ago that remark from  would have floored me, as
I respect his opinions upon things generally ; but I
am beginning not to expect good words from every
body, and to trust this particular matter to God,
rather than to those who know little of my character.
If I know my own heart, I love God supremely. It
is my greatest desire to work for Him in whatsoever
way He sees fit to use me. After long hesitation, as
you know, and much prayer, I at length decided to
enter the ministry. Now should I leave what I think
God has shown me because people will talk ? " *
It should be remembered that these were not the
utterances of inexperienced youth. Mr. Dadson was
* Extract from a letter written July, 1872.

CONVERSION AND DECISION FOR THE MINISTRY. 25
now twenty-six years old, had seen a good deal of
the world, and, possessing a ripened judgment
quickened by excellent powers of observation, was
not at all inclined either to wait on the opinions of
others, or to be controlled by them when expressed.
And while he was conscious of his spiritual imma
turity, and sometimes appeared to lack the gravity
and dignity that are often demanded of young minis
ters, and too frequently affected by them, yet one had
only to know him and share his confidence to become
aware of the strong undercurrent of piety and genuine
consecration in his life, that made it like the stream
whose surface may be ruffled by the breezes, and
fretted into eddies and rapids by the irregularities of
its channel, but which is yet flowing on steadily and
with gathering volume and power to its appointed
destination. It is but yesterday since " he was not,
for God took him " ; yet are we confident that the
passing years will only add fresh and weighty testi
mony to the influence and power of the life he lived
so faithfully and ended so worthily, because " all its
springs were in God."

CHAPTER III.
COLLEGE LIFE AND CHARACTERISTICS.
ENOUGH has already been said to indicate some of
Mr. Dadson's more characteristic traits, but to fill up
the outline and show clearly what manner of man he
was, it will be essential now to deal with his college
days. The elements that establish a boy's primacy in a
school are many and varied. If the tone of the insti
tution is low, it may be possible for one of vulgar
tastes and indifferent character to dominate its life ;
or if the showy and superficial are sought after, to
make it possible for shallowness and superciliousness
to take the pre-eminence. But in the strong, healthy
atmosphere of the Canadian Literary Institute, under
the control of Dr. Fyfe, there was no chance for
anything of that kind to occur. Straightforwardness
and manliness ; honest work and good reputation ;
ability in class and society, as well as prowess in the
athletics of the day, all were needed to establish a
claim to leadership ; and to say that under these
conditions Mr. Dadson had it and held it, is enough.
And withal, there was no shadow of self-assertion or
selfishness accompanying it, only the genial good
nature and easy rule of the admitted leader of our
26

COLLEGE LIFE AND CHARACTERISTICS. 27
little realm, whose affairs moved on happily from day
to day with a remarkable freedom from many of the
petty jealousies and troubles that mar so many schools.
For most of the impromptu meetings and miscel
laneous gatherings of the boys, " number 6 " was the
favorite rallying point, and Mr. Dadson invariably
the good genius of these occasions.
As host or guest, presiding or participating, he was
the life and soul of each " rally," and delighted in
drawing out whatever of talent in speech, song or
story might be possessed by the diffident " new boy,"
or the more seasoned " old timer." It may be remarked
here that Mr. Dadson's naturally happy disposition,
and the rapidity with which he frequently passed from
" grave to gay," and vice versa, often led those who
saw him in these moods, or only knew him slightly,
to misunderstand his real character. To them he was
a mere jester or fun-maker, but those who saw more
of him soon discovered the substratum of strong
commonsense and solid character that really domin
ated him and became so conspicuous in his ministry
and later years. And as in a social way, so in the
class-room and literary society, he was prominent
because of good work and high standing. His parti
cipation in the meetings of the Adelphian Society was
confined almost wholly to pen work, and many of his
contributions to the papers and essays read in public
gatherings will be remembered as valuable features
of those occasions, while his skill and helpfulness as
" critic " were universally recognized and emphasized
by his frequent election to that office.
Allusion has already been made to his natural

28 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
aversion to public speaking and declamation exercises,
and the faithfulness with which he recited, time after
time, his one piece, the " Death of Moses," and intro
duced his one stock gesture, will be remembered as
the occasion for hilarious applause from the boys,
especially when the late Prof. Wells would inquire
suspiciously, " Mr. Dadson, have we not had that
piece before?"
After his conversion Mr. Dadson was the same
genial companion and friend of all the boys, but with
this difference that he now sought not only to brighten
but also to bless their lives ; and while there was still
the good fellowship and happy mood, there was also
the kindly admonition and earnest plea that directed
their minds to higher things.
J Mr. Dadson left Woodstock in 1869 as one of the
| first company of students that went from Woodstock
to pursue the Arts Course of University of Toronto.
As he lived at home and only attended lectures at the
college, the element so important at the Canadian
Literary Institute was practically wanting. Still he
was ever the same cheery, congenial companion, and
made friends with all the students with whom he
came in contact- in the lecture rooms or on the
campus. He joined heartily in the games, and was
a member of the University Company of the " Queen's
Own " during the four years of his course.
He studied faithfully and diligently, taking the
Pass Course, in which he did good work and profited
greatly by it, reading extensively along various lines,
especially in history and general literature, and re
ceived his Bachelor's degree in 1873. His knowledge

COLLEGE LIFE AND CHARACTERISTICS. 29
of music and fondness for singing made him very
helpful in college and church entertainments, where
he was always ready to lend his aid. The delightful
social evenings, too, spent in many Baptist homes,
cordially thrown open to the college boys during
their course, and the songs in which he was always
leader, will be remembered by many Toronto friends.
The most noteworthy feature of his college life, f
however, was the religious work in which he partici
pated with the late Prof. J. C. Yule and others, at
York Mills, north 0/ Toronto. There every Sunday
afternoon during term time he taught in the Sunday-
school, helping materially to revive that almost ex
tinct organization. He also took part frequently in
other missionary service, and was one of the original ;
members of the University College Y.M.C.A., among '
the earliest organized in the country. His member
ship was transferred from the Woodstock Church to
Bond Street, now Jarvis Street Church, with which
his parents and other members of the family had
long been connected, and he regularly worshipped
there in the morning, usually attending Alexander j
Street, now Immanuel, Church in the evening.
It was also during the summer of 1872, preceding
his final year at Toronto, that he began his work in '
the ministry, assisting Rev. A. A. Cameron in Ottawa
and vicinity, gaining much valuable experience and
rendering most effective service.
Mr. Dadson's return to Woodstock in 1873, to'
pursue his theological studies, was to him the be
ginning of a new and most joyful experience. The
love for the old place where so many happy days

30 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
had been passed rekindled, and since he was now
engaged in direct preparation for his chosen life-work,
his studies were pursued with greater avidity. He
also preached during term time, and continued to do
missionary work during the summer, laboring unsel
fishly and earnestly on several hard fields, rejoicing
most of all when he was permitted to gather some
fruit to the glory of the Master.
Old " number 6 " was exchanged at this time for
" number 21," a retired room that has disappeared in
the changes that have since been made in the building,
but which became in some respects equally dear, and
to which he clung despite a good deal of pressure,
when it was proposed in his final year to gather all
the " Theologues '' into the new building specially
erected for their use. It would be a delightful task
to enlarge upon the happiness of these our last years
together, but space forbids. A few concluding ex
tracts from the correspondence that ensued after the
writer left Woodstock for a year at Newton Theolo
gical Institution, will best furnish an insight into the
character of his closing year, and the feelings with
which he went forth to the work of the ministry.
As a senior theologue he now occupied a new posi
tion in the eyes of the boys. " It's lonely business
here. Nobody knocks. I listen to footsteps — they
don't turn my way. Moreover I don't knock any
where, but pass and repass through the halls, ' grand,
gloomy and peculiar.' The boys draw back as I
approach, their playfulness ceases till I am in the dis
tance." But he was nevertheless held in high esteem
by all ; was elected "Critic " of the Adelphian Society,

COLLEGE LIFE AND CHARACTERISTICS. 3 1
and maintained his hold of the boys to the last. He
made frequent excursions to the Theological building
to stir up his confreres, and was in turn visited by
choice companies of the students, whom he enter
tained and enjoyed as he was so thoroughly capable
of doing. Their experiences, as chronicled in his
letters of that period, furnish some of the raciest and
brightest epistolary literature, the writer has ever
seen. The graduation exercises in 1876 were largely
crowned with success, because he threw himself so
heartily into the preparation of the programme,
directing the choir in singing selections from Mozart's
Twelfth Mass, and working untiringly to perfect its
every part. Well might he say, " I feel quite elated
over the success of the meeting. I never expected to
do so well. You will be glad, I know." And again,
" It's all over, and my first pleasure as no longer a
student is to record the fact to you. My room is
' chuck ' full, so I'm snatching these few minutes
chatting and writing at the same time."
At length the college days were over and his '
ministry at Denfield began. As he wrote a few
weeks later, " Yes, I fiave entered upon my life-work.
I never felt the responsibilty of my position as I did
when the church met and asked God's blessing upon
' our pastor.' I think God has shown me my strength. ,
Your motto is ever before me : ' In God I do trust' " j
VALEDICTORY.
As I lift my eyes from this page to the face that
looks down in thoughtful serenity upon me, and think

32 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
of all that he was, all that he became to me, I am
constrained to write this final word : Thank God for
every good man He gives to the world, and above all
for the gift of a true friend. If you are thus blessed,
count yourself rich though all other earthly good be
wanting, for " love never faileth." " Faith, Hope and
Love, these three abide ; but the greatest is Love."
So thanking God, through whose love our friendship
was begotten, for this His great grace to me, I say,
" Dear Friend, farewell ! for a little while, farewell !

CHAPTER IV.
STUDENT PREACHING.
THE plan that has been in operation among
Canadian Baptists for student mission work has much
to commend it. In details it has changed somewhat
during these forty years, but in principle it has ,
remained essentially the same. Particulars need not
here be given, but the aim of the educational authori
ties has been to guard the good character of the
ministry, and, in co-operation with the Home Mission
Board, to open fields of labor and assure such
remuneration as would enable an economical young
man to pursue his course without break. This has
been the most admirable feature of the plan, for
good work has been done, the independence of the
student has been conserved, and the scriptural prin
ciple that, if a man would not work, neither should
he eat, has been carried out. There has been this;
further advantage, that few, if any, have ever come to .
the day of graduation without having had consider
able experience as pastors and preachers.
It was so in Mr. Dadson's case. It is not necessary
to enter at length into the story of his student
preaching. Glimpses of his own feelings and ex
periences have been given in the last chapter. It
3 33

34 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
will be sufficient to supplement that with the impres
sions made upon others.
His first field was the Ottawa mission, where he
spent the summer of 1872.
"His rare gifts as a preacher," says Rev. A. A.
Cameron, then, and now again, pastor of the First
Baptist Church, Ottawa, "came under culture and
inspiration. He told the writer he considered his
I experience in Ottawa as a testing of his call to the
ministry. One day he came to the study and opened
his heart on the subject. ' I have not made up my
1 mind whether I can preach or not. I am beneath
| my ideal as to matter and delivery. Cameron, I
i can't grow enthusiastic' ' Preach for me next Sunday
; morning,' I answered, ' and I'll be part audience.' He
consented on condition that I would take note of
every point where criticism could come in. We
seldom met in after years but he would remark,
' Cameron, do you remember my trial sermon in
/ Ottawa ? Ah, man ! ' he would say, ' when I finished
that morning, how the perspiration flowed ! ' That
sermon, as I told him, gave the promise and potency
of his future career. The people in Ottawa and
Chelsea never forgot that season's ministry among
them. They discovered that piety was consistent
with a joyful spirit."
Nor has he been forgotten in the other fields he
served as student pastor — Buckhorn, Clarence, and
Haldimand. When, in 1898, Haldimand determined
to celebrate its centennial, they invited him to preach
the centennial sermon and give a special address — a
service he gladly consented to render. When, how-

STUDENT PREACHING. 35
ever, the day came he was at the bedside of his dying
wife. The writer, who was called in to fill the gap,
remembers well with what words of affection and
esteem the older members referred to his life and
ministry among them in 1875.
During the college sessions he supplied occa
sionally at different places. From Paris comes this
interesting reference to his preaching, from the
journal of a school-teacher who was destined, though
neither knew it then, to form a large part of his life.
The first date is October 12th, 1873. " He did
very well, indeed. Was very earnest. His voice is
very deep, yet soft and sweet. It has great power,
yet he did not make it so effective as he might have
done. His manner was rather constrained. But he
felt rather nervous. With practice, I think, he will
make a very good speaker, much superior to  or
any of the students whom I have heard." In January,
1874, he preached in Paris for the second time, and
the same journal comments thus : " His sermons were
good, very earnest, indeed. This morning he ad
dressed sinners very plainly, and I thought he looked
at me particularly. I felt guilty, and knew that his
remarks applied to me, whether meant or not. . . .
I like to listen to him better than to almost any one
else I ever heard. I never thought of being tired. It
seemed even too short." Other Paris friends shared
this favorable opinion.
The general feeling of his fellow-students seems to
have been that he was one of their most promising
men. And in point of intellectual strength, as shown
in ability to grasp the difficult questions with which

36 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
theology deals, Dr. Fyfe put him down as one of the
ablest men who had passed through his hands,
classing him with John Torrance, who succeeded Dr.
Fyfe in theology at Woodstock, and D. A. McGregor,
who later became Principal of Toronto Baptist Col
lege. On the campus and in the halls he enjoyed an
acknowledged leadership. But he gave no equal sign
of leadership in spirituality. His bubbling fun and
humor hid his more serious self, except from the
innermost circle of friends.

CHAPTER V.
DENFIELD, AILSA CRAIG AND STRATHROY.
DURING his final year in Woodstock, Mr. Dadson
twice supplied the Baptist church in Denfield, Ont.,
which had been left vacant the previous autumn by
the resignation of that cultured and consecrated vete
ran, Elder D. W. Rowland. The result of these
visits was that the church extended him a call, which ,
he accepted.
It was with no lightness of spirit that he entered
upon the regular pastorate. To him it meant most
serious business. It involved the solemn responsibil
ity of undertaking to live and speak in that commu- :
nity as the servant of Jesus Christ. Yet mingled with
that seriousness was a holy joy which only those can
feel who have consciously passed from the sense of
condemnation to that of justification through faith in
Jesus, and find themselves charged with the inspiring
task of telling the good news to others.
These feelings were at their height the day of his
ordination, May 25th, 1876. To him the concern of
that day was not so much what his brethren might
think (though he certainly would not underestimate
that) as that he should be truly offering himself to
God. If with mind and tongue he was dealing with
37

38 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
men, his heart was baring itself before God. That
was the life habit he sought to cultivate, and such an
occasion as this he was sure to face with special care
in that respect.
It seems but a few short years since then, yet one
is reminded of the scythe Time bears as he looks over
the names of those who took part in the ordination
service, and notes that only two of them are left.
Dr. Cooper, the saintly scholar, then of London, was
Moderator, and gave the charge to the candidate.
Elder Rowland was clerk, and offered the ordination
prayer. A. P. McDiarmid, then pastor of Strathroy,
now President of Brandon College, Man., read the
Scripture and offered prayer. R. B. Montgomery,
who, ten years later, baptized Diaz, the Apostle of
Cuba, in Brooklyn, N.Y., gave the charge to the
church ; and Daniel Baldwin, the hand of fellowship.
The usual sermon was omitted.
Ordination is usually followed closely by marriage.
In our friend's case this latter event did not take place
until August, 1877, when he was married to Miss Julia
French, of Paris. Of her character and influence, as
well as of their home life, something will be said in a
subsequent chapter.
The new pastor's first sermon, based on Zech. 9:12,
" Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope,"
was an index of the general character of his ministry
in its joyous message of hope for men. To the steady
business of winning them to that he settled down. It
was natural for him to begin without blare of trumpets.
No great promises were made, no wonderful expecta
tions excited. The Lord was in the still, small voice

DENFIELD, AILSA CRAIG AND STRATHROY. 39
rather than in earthquake or storm. He preferred
patiently to bring the truth of the gospel to bear upon
men's consciences rather than to make a bid for
curious crowds and immediate popularity. His com
ing was always quiet as the dawn and his pathway
that of the just, " which shineth more and more unto
the perfect day."
No part of his duty was neglected. Careful survey
was made of the whole work before him, and plans
laid accordingly. Sermonizing was regarded as of
prime importance. He was well aware that if he
was to be a wise and resourceful instructor and main
tain freshness in his preaching, he must continue to
be a student and, more thoroughly than was possible
in college, familiarize himself with the Bible and the
main lines of theological thought. In the early years
at Denfield, accordingly, he held himself to regular
work in these lines, though not to the extent of
neglecting general reading. Later in this pastorate
we find him devoting less time to the former and more
to the latter. In a diary which he kept for the first six
months of 1882, is this entry for January 30th :
" I try to do as much as possible, odd moments, in
general literature, but I find I am rather neglecting
my proper theology. I must get at it again pretty
soon now."
Within the first three months the diary makes
mention of the reading of seventeen different books,
ranging from Carlyle's " French Revolution " 10
' The Hoosier Schoolmaster." Occasionally brief but
characteristic comments occur. Of Cromwell he
says : " A righteous, bloody man was Oliver." " Be-

40 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
came quite worked up over ' King Lear.' " " Wife
and I read ' Homer' together. The little girl quitetaken
up with it." The " Hoosier Schoolmaster " was read
" if not with much profit, yet with considerable amuse
ment." " Enjoyed ' Tom Brown ' just as thoroughly
as when a boy. ; Manly tone running through it,
especially the Rugby book. The Oxford volume is
rather disappointing." " The Abbot " he " enjoyed
thoroughly." " A very well conceived book," though
" not up to his usual standard. Ronald should not
be the hero, but Queen Mary." The " French
Revolution " was " a right spicy picture book, startling
in its vividness, wonderful in its minuteness."
Mr. Dadson, however, was far from being a mere
bookworm. On the contrary, he was exceedingly
practical, as we might expect from his early experi
ence. The daily round of chores was taken as a
matter of course. If wife or children were sick, he
could be housekeeper or nurse, and do it as cheerfully
as if no other duty pressed. The garden was a yearly
delight. In it he found both recreation and profit of
more than one kind. When busy there he looked like
any common gardener, and chatted and joked with
,the neighbors in boisterous glee. He was one of the
people, mixed freely with them, and identified him
self with their life. And there was no feeling of con
descension in it. That, to the self-respecting man, is
just as unwelcome as exclusiveness or haughtiness.
About him there was not the slightest trace of pedant,
prig or aristocrat. Self-respect he had in abundance,
and true dignity ; but these were based on that which
is found in man as man, which commands respect

DENFIELD, AILSA CRAIG AND STRATHROY. 41
for others as well as for one's self, and forbids all
pride and contemptuousness. This genuine regard ;
for others made his good-fellowship easy and natural.
Being a good athlete (it is safer then, for leaders), he
joined the young men at their games, and won and
held their friendship and respect. Social gatherings,
in which he took hearty delight, were always made
more joyous by his presence. Wherever he went he
diffused a spirit of good cheer. Yet all was so simple
and natural, his character so transparently genuine,
his purpose to win men to God so steady and domin
ating that, to quote Rev. W. R. Park, the present
Denfield pastor, " he created and maintained a rever
ence for holy things " in those among whom he moved,
and exerted great influence for good in the whole
community. " He was a living sermon."
The riches thus gathered from wide reading and
close contact with the people and practical life was
poured into his sermons. That sermonizing was not
always easy work for him is manifest from many brief
entries in his diary. To the writer who had got a
different impression from the easy grace and racy
naturalness of his productions, and from facts known
to him indicative of very rapid work in later years,
these notes were quite comforting. They may be
equally encouraging to others who know what it is
at times to toil by the hour apparently with no result.
The striking address on " tidvtjHe MXinno^' de
livered before the Alumni at Woodstock on April
1 8th, 1882, is a good illustration. His references to
it begin March 9th, and nine distinct entries indicate
that more than a month passed before light dawned

42 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
and he could say that " the oration will now soon be
mastered." As in most other cases, hard work was the
explanation of his later achievements.
In the early part of his pastorate he wrote carefully
and acquired great facility. This was discontinued
after a few years, and in the journal for February 25th,
1882, is found this remark : " I have got entirely out
of the way of written sermons, and, when I now
attempt to write, it is with no facile pen as it was of
yore." That the danger incident to such a change
befell him seems clear from the frequency with which
he speaks of being " in a stew over his sermons " on
Saturday. It was this probably that drove him back
to his early practice, for he wrote many sermons in
later years, and read them, too. In the first months
of his Woodstock pastorate he read both sermons,
and made no attempt to hide the fact ; indeed, he
carried the manuscript into the pulpit in such plain
sight that he seemed anxious to eschew any attempt
at secrecy. After a few months the evening manu
script was abandoned, and by and by occasionally the
morning one as well. But writing he did not abandon,
so that in his last ten years or so he combined with
increasing success the advantages of careful writing
with free delivery.
Pastoral work was attended to with equal fidelity.
From what has been already said it is clear that he
had many of the qualifications for success in it —
knowledge of men and affairs ; abounding joy in life
and in the gospel of grace ; kindness of heart and
pervasive sympathy ; unaffected cordiality, and ease
of approach ; a spirit that thought no evil and was ever

DENFIELD, AILSA CRAIG AND STRATHROY. 43
eager to help. The journal abounds in evidence of
his deep interest in the welfare of the community. In
all their afflictions he was afflicted, in all their joys he
shared. His great heart gives and receives continu
ally as he moves among them. And how he appre
ciates them ! He believes all things, and hopes all
things good of them. Not that he is undiscriminating.
The blunt word of severity occasionally occurs as
when he says, " Her husband is a brute," of one who
meanly opposed his wife's desire to follow Christ.
But according to Pastor Dadson's estimate of his
Denfield people they were a worthy folk. And in
his intercourse with them he kept the main aim be
fore him. Again and again the diary tells of faithful
conversations with men, men specifically, about their
personal salvation. A marked feature is the persist
ence with which he followed up one case after another.
There was equal fidelity and frankness in his dealing
with church members whose walk was unworthy.
Thus on he toiled, neglecting nothing that made for
real effectiveness. He studied God and man, and
labored unostentatiously to bring them together in
the gospel of Christ. This is the kind of work that
requires patience. There is nothing sensational about
it. Nor does it lend itself readily to newspaper para
graphing. Only the men who live unto God in the
eternities have grace enough to do it. But their
reward is sure though it may linger. It will come
— partly here, fully hereafter.
Mr. Dadson's first year brought no visible results.
In faith he plodded on. The fruit began to appear
in the second year, and souls were saved. The first

44 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
was Mr. Edward Rosser, now clerk of the church ;
the next, Mr. Anson Matthews, now superintendent
of the Sunday-school. A goodly number were added
to the church during his six years' pastorate ; and,
with a single exception, all have stood true and the
church has been the better ever since. A purer
membership, stronger Christian character and more
consistent life have been influencing the community
and reinforcing the preachers' messages through all
the intervening years.
In the last year or so of his stay in Denfield, Ailsa
Craig formed part of his charge. This meant more
trying work, much driving over bad roads (and that
spring was marked by an uncommon " monotony of
mud and dirt " ), and frequent absences from home.
Mrs. Dadson's health was not good, and the two lads
who had come into the home were frequently sick ; so
that his absences were keenly felt, and all the more
because he was so merry a soul in the home, and so
ready and resourceful for every need and emergency.
It was probably these facts, combined with the feeling
that his own growth and usefulness made a change
desirable, that began to give rise to a feeling of
restlessness. An indication of it is found in an entry
in his diary : " The problem with wife and me is,
shall we leave Denfield, where we have been so long
and so happy, or shall we be still content and do the
Lord's work in our usual quiet way, unseen, unheard,
except by Him whom we serve?" His name had
been suggested to a church in New York State by an
old fellow-student, then a pastor in the States. But
his feelings were too strongly Canadian to view with

DENFIELD, AILSA CRAIG AND STRATHROY. 45
any satisfaction a call to the other side, and he had a
hearty aversion to candidating. He was not a minis
terial coquette. That unholy type he abhorred with
all his soul. And there was no need for him to go
seeking pastures new, for his reputation was growing
steadily. Though modest to the core and the last
man to thrust himself to the front, he could not be
hid. The strong work he was doing on his own
fields, the fine quality of his addresses at Associations,
Sunday-school conventions, and in the Scott Act
Temperance campaign, and the richness of his own
genial and sturdy personality were continually adding
to his fame.
It is not strange, therefore, that when the pastorate
of the neighboring town of Strathroy became vacant
through the resignation of Rev. J. E. Trotter, the
church should look to him. The call came on March
29th. The 31st was " a day of anxious thought. My
affections are here at Denfield, but duty points else
where." The following day he writes : " Heavily
depressed over the change. Saddest day since com
ing to Denfield. My dear people, I am afraid, will not
be able to understand my motives. God knows I have
no selfish end in view." Two days later, this : " The
thought of leaving these good people tries me sorely.
But I must not give way. If God points me to
Strathroy, I must go, and that is all." It has not
been without some hesitation that these quotations
have been given, for, unhappily, similar things are
sometimes said where not very much is meant. But
those who knew Dr. Dadson will recognize that with
him, when the test came, there was a real conflict

A.6 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON,.
between heart and head, and that the call was
accepted simply because his cool judgment told him
then, as it had begun to tell him before any definite
call had come, that his largest life usefulness de
manded that a change be made. In this invitation
he recognized God's call without, answering to the
call within.
His decision to leave them was a great grief to
the churches. The farewell meeting was "a sorrowful
time and a tearful time." But the people rose to
the occasion and showed by the gift of a beautiful
parlor set of furniture that they could understand his
motives, and that comforted him. So it was " good
bye to a kind people " ; and on the first Sunday in
May he entered upon his duties in
STRATHROY,
a town of some 4,000 inhabitants, twenty miles west
of London.
The Association met with the Strathroy church in
June, and the pastor was Moderator. His address on
the Sunday-school work was so well received that its
publication was called for. The comments in his
diary on the various addresses are quite in keeping
with one of the marked traits of his character — his
generous appreciation of his brother ministers —
" Grant gave us a good sermon," " Johnson's doctrinal
sermon was practical and helpful," "Cunningham
preached a good sermon on the power of God unto
salvation." Here again there was discrimination.
At his prayer-meeting one evening " Mr. J  ,
McEwen's troublesome evangelist, was present, and

DENFIELD, AILSA CRAIG AND STRATHROY. 47
howled most fearfully, and delighted some of them
beyond measure.'' At the Association he was ap
pointed to preach the sermon for the following year
— a duty he had already performed at Forest in 1 879.
The new pastorate was scarcely well begun when a
letter was received from Rev. J. W. A. Stewart, in
reference to his possible appointment to the editor
ship of the Canadian Baptist. The opportunity " is
a grand one," but he doubts whether he would
be free to accept it if the position were formally
offered him. The offer was made soon after and
accepted, and his brief pastorate in Strathroy ended
in the autumn. But it was long enough to show the
Strathroy people what a treasure they were losing,
and to surround his going with heartfelt regrets and
cordial good wishes.

CHAPTER VI.
EDITORSHIP: TORONTO.
In some respects the new field of labor was excep
tionally inviting. Toronto was the home of his boy
hood. Some members of the family were still living
there, and not a few of his former fellow-students.
Many other friends he might expect to meet from
time to time. To one of his capacity for friendship
that would be an exceeding joy.
But the serious responsibilities he was undertaking
were enough to temper that joy. During the eighties
the Baptist denomination in Ontario and Quebec
passed through some of the most momentous changes
in its history.
Up to 1 88 1 their educational interests had been
concentrated in the Canadian Literary Institute in
Woodstock, where for twenty years literary and
theological work had been combined. In that year
Toronto Baptist College, built and equipped by the
Hon. William McMaster, was opened under the pre
sidency of the wise and gracious John H. Castle, D D.,
who had resigned his successful pastorate of Jarvis
Street Church to undertake these new duties. This,
of course, involved the closing of the Theological
Department at Woodstock ; but the literary work was
48

EDITORSHIP : TORONTO. 49
continued there under the principalship of Rev.
Newton Wolverton, B.A., with gratifying success, the
religious influence remaining apparently just as strong
as before, and the scholastic standing just as high.
About the same time the Canadian Baptist was
bought out by Senator McMaster, and a Book Room
established, both being vested in a joint-stock com
pany of leading Baptists and managed in the interest
of the denomination, under the business name of the
Standard Publishing Company. It was by this Board
that Mr. Dadson was appointed to the editorship.
The " Editor's First Words " so well reveals his own
feelings, character and purposes, that the article is
given here in full :
"It is fitting that I say a few personal words now as I
assume the position which the proprietors of this paper have
induced me to accept. I need not endeavor to establish my
fitness to occupy this chair by referring to anything in the past
as a claim to the confidence of my readers. I should certainly
fail in any such attempt. Hitherto I have occupied an obscure
place in the denomination. Beyond the bounds of the Associa
tion, where, until now, all my ministerial labor has been
expended, I suppose I am comparatively unknown ; therefore,
by way of commending myself, I have simply nothing to say.
According to the wisdom of those who know me best and accord
ing to the wisdom of those who have both financial and heart
interest in this paper, I am here. And now at the outset I
sincerely ask those of my brethren who may doubt the wisdom
of this appointment, if any such there be, to forego for a little
their opinions until results have been seen. At this moment I
beg to place myself among the doubting ones. I confess inex
perience as to the manifold duties and responsibilities of this
office ; I confess ignorance as to my own ability ; and here let
me say : should the, looked-for results manifest the wisdom of
those who regard this .appointment with disfavor, no one will
4

JO LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
more cheerfully hail the appointment of a new editor than
myself. '' Meantime, while I occupy this position, I propose to do my
best towards making the Canadian Baptist influential in the
folloypng directions :
" i. Its business shall be to promote evangelical Christianity.
In this age of newspaper reading, the spoken word, once in seven
days, 15 more than ever not sufficient. Heedless men forget so
soon. They do well who recall an outline of the Sunday's ser
mon at the end of the week. There are so many things which
tend to obliterate all traces of it. Among others, noticeably,
the newspaper plays its part. It is read daily. It is the thought-
food of the great majority of our people. If it be Christless, the
weekly gospel cannot stand before it ; hence the necessity of
constantly placing in the hands of those who will read the silent
ambassador of Jesus Christ ; hence the necessity of pleading
| with sinful men on paper. The aim of this paper shall be to
' preach the gospel to every creature.' It shall be to so set forth
the bread and water of life ' that those who read may run.'
Upon this the greatest theme given by God to His servants, I
do not presume to think that, unaided, I shall be able to make
this paper speak effectually, but I am greatly encouraged from
the fact that many faithful and well-tried men have promised me
all the assistance which lies in their power to give.
" 2. The business of this paper shall be to promote and defend
the principles of the Baptist denomination. We are pronounced
among the various bodies of Christianity in respect to certain
doctrines which we regard as fundamental, in respect to certain
ordinances which we deem imperative. It is proposed that in
advocacy of these doctrines and ordinances — necessary to be
emphasized in these days of uncertain thought — this paper shall
give no uncertain sound. Upon the threshold of this ground,
which certainly demands careful stepping, I should be inclined
to hesitate, if not retire altogether, were it not that the directors
of the enterprise have secured for me the assistance of those
who,, from their well-known scholarship and experience, are
fully competent in these particulars to speak and advise with
authority.

EDITORSHIP: TORONTO. 5 1
" 3. The business of this paper shall be to foster a taste for
pure literature among our people. Nothing need be said as to
the desirability of this object. One need not go far to discover
the evil effects of literature of the contrary sort. The gospel in
its purity surely is the better proclaimed by speech in its purity.
Good news and good words ought not to be disassociated.
Hence it is proposed that in the columns of the Baptist gospel
and slang do not go together, controversy and ill-temper be
divorced, and personalities have no place. I do not presume
to think that, unaided, I shall be able to maintain always
the desired purity of thought and expression which only
is fitting in the pages of a Christian newspaper. I have, how
ever, the satisfaction of knowing that men of eminent literary
culture propose to render all assistance which may be required.
to further this object.
" Having now faithfully declared my weakness and the sources
of my strength as editor of this paper, I have nothing further to
say. This only, I earnestly ask for the sympathy of our people,
and for their prayer that God may make the Canadian Baptist
all that He would have it to be. E. W. Dadson."
It was well for the whole denomination that a man
of such candor, independence, integrity and wisdom
was at the helm for the next few years. For the
changes already referred to were the precursors of
others equally, if not more, important in denomina
tional organization and educational policy. Formerly,
the various departments of work were carried on by
Societies composed of subscribers to their funds and
managed by Boards elected by the subscribers in
Annual Convention. These Societies gave place to
a Convention composed exclusively of representatives
of the churches.
As to education, Mr. McMaster's purposes were
steadily broadening. In 1 884 he offered to establish
a Literary College in Toronto. in affiliation- with -the

52 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Provincial University. That plan was abandoned by
our representatives in 1886, and, largely owing to the
influence of Dr. Theodore H. Rand, it was resolved
to develop Woodstock College to the full status of an
independent University. After Mr. McMaster's
death in 1887, however, both questions — federation
and location — were reopened, and at a special Con
vention held in Guelph, in the following March, it was
finally decided " that McMaster University should
be organized and developed in Toronto as a perma
nently independent school of learning with the lord
ship of Christ as the controlling principle."
The evenness with which Mr. Dadson held the
scales during that stormy period was of incalculable
service. Confidence in his integrity and the convic
tion that they had fair play in the paper, and that the
decision expressed the views of the majority of the
denomination, did much to reconcile the vanquished
to their defeat.
At the same time he had not the all-round aptitude
for newspaper work that he had for the pastorate.
Pure, strong, spiritual and scriptural, the paper was ;
it covered thoroughly and discussed wisely the many
phases of church and pastoral work ; but it lacked
somewhat the freshness and variety that come from
quick touch with the rapid movements of thought in
the world. Moreover, he had little relish for the
business side of his duties. So that, on the whole,
he does not seem to have had the abounding joy in
this service that he had in the ministry. This made it
the easier for him to relieve the Board's financial strain
in 1886 by dropping part of his responsibilities and

EDITORSHIP : TORONTO. 53
uniting with his less exacting tasks the pastorate of
the Claremont Church.
Two years later he resigned, and soon afterwards
accepted the call to the church in Woodstock. Into
his new sphere he carried the confidence and esteem
of both the Board and the Convention. His own
feelings are well expressed in his valedictory. It
reads as follows :
" Over six years ago I assumed editorial control of the
Canadian Baptist. During that period of time our denomina
tion has experienced many changes. Old institutions have
passed away^or have merged into new. Our methods of work
have been improved upon or changed. Questions of policy and
organization have been discussed with absorbing interest. The
fathers of that day, many of them, have passed away, and new
blood has come to the front. Amidst all these changes, neces
sitating, as they needs must, differences of opinion, and at
times intense feeling, it will be conceded that the position of
editor of our denominational paper imposed a responsibility
second to none in the gift of our churches. In view of that
responsibility I have conscientiously striven to do right. In
looking back now over my work I am conscious that the glory
of Christ and the well-being of the churches have been my first
consideration. There have been many imperfections in my
service as no one knows so well as I, but there have been
honesty of purpose and a sincere desire for the furtherance of
the cause of Canadian Baptists. An editor is placed in special
contact with men ; with opinions ; with the peculiarities of the
different sections of his constituency, and with the questions
which engender strife. Whatever may be thought of the
ability displayed amidst such surroundings, I have this to say :
I have not been careful to propitiate any man or any body of
men. " My six years' service has been in many respects a labor of
great pleasure and satisfaction ; generous sympathy and appre
ciation have never been lacking ; my brethren in the ministry

54 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
have given me cordial support. So that now, in saying this last
word to many readers, I cannot but do so regretfully. In view,
however, of the responsibility now lifted — responsibility which
cannot be lightly regarded, and which, from present circum
stances, I am unable to meet — I lay down my pen with no
little satisfaction. E. W. DADSON."
During his residence in Toronto he worshipped
with the Alexander Street Church, of which Rev.
Joshua Denovan, then in his prime, was pastor. They
were both men of rugged exterior and tender heart ;
and though they differed on some important questions
of doctrine and polity, each was great enough to
appreciate and speak warmly of the other's strength
and goodness.

CHAPTER VII.
CLAREMONT AND WOODSTOCK.
HIS pastorate inClaremont, a village on the Can
adian Pacific Railway, thirty miles east of Toronto,
was begun October 3rd, 1886, and ended in November,
1888. The conditions there were much as they had
been in Denfield, and his manner of life similar. The
additions were more numerous but not quite so sub
stantial. Thirty-two were baptized, six of whom
proved unworthy. This may have been due to the
fact that his duties in Toronto divided his attention
and made it impossible to follow up cases with the
same care as before. If so, it is a fresh illustration of
the vast importance of careful gathering and wise
shepherding. " While here," writes the clerk of the Claremont
Church, "he endeared himself to all of us by his
kindly and gentle manner, and all speak kindly of
him." Others in Claremont bear testimony to the
instructive and edifying character of his preaching.
That the affection of the people for him was heartily
reciprocated was apparent to those of us who first
conferred with him about the possibilities of his
coming to Woodstock. Later on there came to be
in Muskoka a standing testimony to the permanence
55

56 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
of that attachment in Claremont Point, where Deacon
Joshua Bundy and Dr. Dadson dwelt side by side to
their mutual joy.
It is certain that it was not because he was weary
of Claremont, or deemed it unworthy of his abilities,
that he went to Woodstock. As before, he was the
sought, not the seeker. And when he came to Wood
stock to talk it over, though the opportunities in
Woodstock seemed to us, as they actually were,
incomparably greater, yet the writer remembers very
vividly the impression made upon him as the good
man expatiated upon the peculiarly strong influence
which the country pastor might exert. There the
pastor had the people more to himself — the distrac
tions of city life were largely absent, and so the
hearts of young and old offered to the gospel seed
much more favorable soil. It is quite clear on com
paring that conversation with a letter written to Mr.
Turnbull in March, 1882, that his stay in Toronto
had tended to magnify in his thought the opportunity
of the country pastor. It is quite doubtful whether
Woodstock town alone would have secured him. It
was the College, for which he had an inextinguishable
affection, and the unsurpassed sphere for influence it
offered, that turned the scale.
Pastor Dadson liked to meet his people for the first
time in the prayer-meeting. In that way he began
in Woodstock on November 28th, 1888. His opening
sermon was on Acts ii. 48. The thought then
pressed home has been, at least to one hearer, a
practical help on many occasions since. He had
been called on his record without any trial sermon

CLAREMONT AND WOODSTOCK. 57
and the call was not quite unanimous. Two criticisms
had been made when his name was first proposed in a
deacons' meeting. The fear was expressed that he
was too cold and distant. Others objected to read
sermons. But within a single month his conquest of
the situation was complete, and with commendable
willingness the doubters confessed that they had been
mistaken. The pastorate thus entered upon was the '
best of his life, and one of the most fruitful and
influential in Canadian Baptist annals.
Many things crowd upon one in connection with
that period of abounding labor and exuberant joy.
The aim of this memoir will be best served by allow
ing another to give us his impressions. Mr. N. S.
McKechnie, B.A., of the College Faculty, was one
of his deacons, and conditioned, as few were, to
estimate the value of his ministry. I quote some
jottings from his pen :
" He gave himself up to the service of the church in order
that through that institution the lost might be saved and his
Divine Master honored.
"He preached the Gospel day in and day out, week in and
week out, as if every fibre of his being believed in it, and as if
he felt, ' Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' His physical
and mental energies strongly impressed his congregations, but
these were sanctified by an earnestness and intensity of spirit
that carried conviction to every heart.
"With him social and every other reform were best pro
moted by the preaching of the Cross/
" No unsaved man who ever heard him preach could charge
it against him that his lost estate was not plainly revealed to
him, and the way of escape pointed out at the same time.
" His visits were a benediction in every home. His life and
manners were simplicity itself, but so tenderly sympathetic.

58 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
He was able to do mu'ch visitation, because he lost no time in
idle talk. When he visited a home he soon asked for a Bible,
read a short selection, and then, in simple words, lifted the
interests of the home to God's throne, and was gone. It does
not seem too much to say that half the homes of Woodstock
were touched and helped by his life. So many of other
denominations heard him, at least occasionally; from his own
pulpit, and hundreds gladly heard him on other platforms, and
especially during the Week of Prayer, of which he availed him
self to the utmost. Brother ministers of all denominations bore
willing testimony to the godly grandeur of his life.
" His relations to the College were almost sacred. He loved
the college and its interests as his own child, and nothing more
delighted him than to spend an hour among the boys.
" Woodstock saw in his pastorate the man and preacher at
his best, and seven years of such service as any church might
well covet.
" The baptisms in seven years and seven months, the period
of his pastorate, totalled 235 — an annual average of over thirty."
An important result of the enlarged membership
was the founding of the Oxford Street Church. Of
this enterprise Professor Wolverton was the principal
promoter, but it had also the hearty endorsement of
the First Church pastor. The East End Mission was
carried on at the same time with increased vigor.
If there was any point of weakness in Mr. Dadson's
ministry, it was probably in the realm of finances.
Not his own — for he managed his affairs with dis
cretion, lived within his means, and gave generously.
But the liberality of the church did not, it has been
asserted, keep pace with its growing numerical and
financial. strength. That, if true, was due not to any
failure in the regular course of his ministry to press
upon them the duty of giving and the motives that
should prompt it ; that he did frequently and forcibly.

CLAREMONT AND WOODSTOCK. 59
It was due rather to failure to give information and
work up systematically the business side of church
beneficence. It was easier, too, for him than for most
men to believe that his people were doing the best
they could. Having declared the duty he left it to
themselves. This latter characteristic showed itself
also in other ways. His large-hearted charity thought
kindly of other men, and even when grievous wrong
was done, he was more likely to be moved with pity
than with indignation.
Several other sidelights on his spirit and methods
should be given here. Unhappily, from early life he
had been addicted to the use of tobacco, and for
years he does not seem to have had any scruples
about it. When, however, his responsibility for his
own boys, and for others, came home to him and
made it a matter not of mere personal "taste, but of
-right or wrong, he became convinced of the wrong
of it. That for him necessitated action, and he
dropped it, though not withoutmuch struggle.
Another incident throws light on his determination
to do right. Once in a time of denominational stress
when good men conscientiously differed, he and
another minister were walking and. talking together.
The latter had just remarked, "We can't afford to J
split the denomination," when Mr. Dadson turned,
faced him, and said, " My brother, there's something
greater than the denomination." "What's that?"]
said the other. "Righteousness," was the tremen-'
dously emphatic reply.
His modesty was a subject of frequent remark.
Many of us felt that he would have accomplished

60 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
more if he had done violence to it, and more fre
quently expressed himself in Conventions. When
remonstrated with on this account, his answer was,
" I usually find that if I wait long enough, some
one else will say what I wish said." It did not occur
to him that his saying it would give it a weight
which another's words might not:
He loved reality, and had courage to do the
unusual thing which dislike of the unreal is sure
to suggest. For example, one Wednesday evening,
early in this pastorate, he opened the meeting as
usual, gave a brief address, and then, turning the
meeting over to the members, left the platform and
took a seat among them. When three-quarters of
the hour had passed, there was a long pause. He
stepped to the platform, and in the most simple and
matter-of-fact way said : " Since you are done praying,
brethren, let us be dismissed."
For his pulpit preparation and general mental
furnishing, good use was made of the College library.
Like Spurgeon, he revelled in the strong doctrine of
the old theologians. It was his custom for years to
send his family to Muskoka a couple of weeks before
he went himself. These two weeks were packed with
most important work. Practically the whole course
of thought for the following year was roughly out
lined. Sometimes the courses followed a book of
Scripture ; sometimes special phases of Christian life
that seemed most in need of treatment.
To this strenuous mental application was added
downright sincerity and singleness of aim. These
combined to make him more and more fresh, inter
esting, soulful, impressive and effective.

CLAREMONT AND WOODSTOCK. 6 1
In addition to his regular duties he conducted with
great success each week a class in homiletics for the
ministerial students in the College. And not only
the students for the ministry but the whole body of
students were objects of his care and affection. And
they in turn admired, revered and loved him. A
token of it, on his part, was the practically open tea-
table kept in his home, one evening a week, where
students in ones, or twos or more, could come and
share in its genial humor, delicious drollery, and
joyous good nature, all haloed with an unobtrusive,
but manifestly present Christian spirit. On their
part it found expression in the gift of a beautiful boat
made by them in the Manual Training Department,
which he fondly called " Alma Mater," and enjoyed
to the full as she cleft the waters of Lake Joseph in
Muskoka. Throughout these years his influence was steadily
spreading in church and community, in college and
country. Through the students his reputation was
carried far and wide. He was in demand for special
occasions, and only his loyalty to his own church
prevented him from becoming, in this way, much
more widely known. His addresses at Conventions
revealed constantly increasing power. Invariably he
lifted occasion and theme above the commonplace,
and with great effectiveness summoned his brethren
to higher and holier heights. Their appreciation was
shown in many ways. The Convention elected him
President in 1892 ; and in 1895 McMaster University
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor
of Divinity — the third in its history.

62 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The relations between the pastor and the church
were ideal. His love for his people was matched by
theirs for him. To minister to them was his joy.
How well I remember the passion with which he
declared it a year after the severance came. One
day in Muskoka he came over for one of our long
annual chats. Seven years before I had gone through
the ordeal of tearing myself away from the same dear
associations and had felt it keenly. And I wondered
whether the separation had cost him much pain or
whether my own had been a mark of weakness.
Looking into my face with an intensity of emotion
that can never be forgotten, he said, " My dear fellow,
it was crucifixion. It was crucifixion. I loved those
people as I loved my own soul. When I awoke
Sunday mornings there, my first thought was one of
thankfulness to God that the Lord's Day had come,
and it was my privilege to speak to those dear people.
And all the day long the feeling was one of buoyancy
that made the work a delight. I know nothing of it
yet in Montreal. Nothing but the call of God could
have induced me to leave them." As a matter of fact
the Montreal overtures were put aside once and twice.
Then he said to his wife, " So far as we are concerned
we have done with that. Let us pray that it may not
come up again, unless it be of God." It did come up
again. He judged it to be God's call, and for that
reason alone he went.
The sorrow of that step was not his alone. The
church felt it. The College felt it. And those who
were present at it declare that the farewell meeting
was one of almost, unparalleled,,. demonstrations, of

CLAREMONT AND WOODSTOCK 63
grief. The deep emotion of Rev. Dr. McMullen,
of Knox Church, was a fair and fitting expression of
the regret of the people of other denominations.
Up to this time Dr. Dadson's life had been an
unusually happy one. Other days were coming in
which the superb character was to receive its supreme
testing, and be found unto honor and praise to the
Saviour whom he trusted. The story of those trials
belongs to his closing years and is reserved for a
later chapter.

CHAPTER VIII.
MONTREAL.
Montreal, beautiful for situation and the joy of
its three hundred thousand inhabitants, is the com
mercial capital of Canada. Its centuries of history
link it with the past, even as its position at the head of
ocean navigation links it with the Old World. Its
appearance is in keeping with these facts ; for an old-
world centre with narrow streets and massive
cathedral is here combined with the broad avenues
and handsome homes of modern suburbs.
The city presents a special problem to Christian
workers because of the overshadowing influence of
the Roman Catholic Church and of the two races
which, like the waters of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence
as they flow past the city, are seen side by side but
remain quite distinct. Owing to its perfect organiza
tion, vast wealth, political influence, social prestige
and astute use of all kinds of worldly means for
maintaining and strengthening its position, that
church has succeeded in making Protestant work,
even among the English, difficult and trying. Over
the French, isolated by language, her influence has
been still greater. Until 1834 it was her proud boast
that no French Canadian had ever died outside her
64

MONTREAL. 65
communion. In that year M. Olivier, the pastor of a
little independent church in Lausanne, Switzerland,
where missionary zeal glowed in the midst of perse
cution, following his own teachings, left home and
fatherland, and began work in Montreal among the
French Canadians. He was followed in 1835 by two
of his members, Madame Feller and M. Roussy.
Within a year some Catholics were won to the
Evangelical faith, and the success of these sublimely
heroic leaders gave new heart and hope to Canadian
Protestants and led the way to the flourishing missions
now carried on by Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists
and Anglicans. English Baptist work in Montreal
has had its own honorable and chequered history.
The first church was established in 1830, by the Rev.
John Gilmour, to whose wise and whole-souled mis
sionary and educational efforts much of the splendid
enterprise of the next twenty years was due. The
Montreal College was born of large faith in 1838, was
nobly manned, did high-grade work, and exerted a
wide and wholesome influence. Its collapse in 1849,
due chiefly to financial depression and lack of Western
sympathy, was a serious blow to Montreal Baptist
interests, though its influence in the city was rather
in giving the prestige of scholarship and culture than
in increasing the membership. At all events the
progress of the Church in numbers was very slow,
and in i860 the membership stood at 97. In 1870 it
had risen to 315, and in 1880 to 737. The next
decade showed practically no increase, the number
for 1890 being 747. In 1900 there were 1,139,
gathered in four churches.

66 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
It was to the leading one of the four — the Olivet
Church — that Dr. Dadson was called in 1896. We
have seen already that it was not his own pleasure
that took him there. His principle of action is indi
cated in these words : " If I know my heart, I want
to go where God wants my work. I have lived long
enough now to know that His will must guide and
personal considerations must give place." Though
the largeness of the field and the strategic importance
of the church and city meant opportunity, yet the
condition of the church, which was somewhat divided,
its very unfavorable location, which sorely handi
capped it, and the more general difficulties already
referred to, made the position rather uninviting.
Personal considerations favored Woodstock, God's
will assigned him Montreal.
It was lonely business at first. He missed, as only
great souls can, the frequent meetings with friends
and comrades, which was one of the great joys of his
life in Woodstock and Toronto. He was not one
who made friends quickly. It was rarely love at first
sight for him either with individuals or churches. He
had to be known to be appreciated, and it took time
to reveal himself to others. That had been the
history of former pastorates. In each case pastor
and church had come to love one another. He had
a right to expect that it would be so here. But it
called for patience, with which, fortunately, he was
richly endowed. For the danger to the Protestant
preacher in Montreal is either to be paralyzed into
hopelessness by the influence of Rome, or to succumb
pleasantly to it and sink to the level of an easy-going
professional ecclesiastic.

MONTREAL. 67
He girded himself for a long struggle. The whole
situation was carefully studied. No difficulty was
overlooked, no feature of encouragement and promise
unnoticed. His judgment was soon formed, and his
course of action determined.
So far as the pulpit work was concerned, his duty
there was clear to him from the outset. For he had /
a profound conviction that the material for pulpit;
ministration was furnished by the Bible alone. In
that marvellous book of life, God deals with all kinds;
and conditions of men. That properly expounded,
he was persuaded, would meet all the needs of the ;
situation so far as the pulpit can meet them at all.
So to expound it was his constant aim. To that end
he studied it reverently, diligently and directly rather '
than indirectly. Helps were kept strictly in their >¦
place. This direct study of the Bible itself promoted
clearness, originality and consistency of thought, as
well as the force and glow of personal conviction.
His sermons sought only to explain and enforce the
teaching of the text. Even his illustrations were
those naturally suggested by, or found in, the text
itself. It is quite wonderful with what persistence he
works out an illustration, calling it up again and
again in different phases as the thought develops.
Thus he was pre-eminently a Biblical preacher with i
that sameness of fundamental thought and variety of
presentation for which the Scriptures are so remark
able. And despite the doubts of the times, he spoke
with the authority of the man who is sure that the |
Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and the :
message of God to men. It was this profound con
viction, combined with virility, sympathy and moral

68 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
earnestness that arrested the thoughtless and led
earnest souls to the Lord. Soundness and strength,
soulfulness and sincerity, God-consciousness and
yearning after men were the great characteristics of
his preaching. These, reinforced by prayers of un
common simplicity, directness, tenderness and fervor,
made his pulpit ministration mighty, under God, for
good. Certainly he offered no elocutionary entertainment.
The importance of graceful delivery he unwisely
undervalued. Effective reading of Scripture he did
not undervalue, but he never became an expert in it.
Had he devoted as much time and attention to self-
culture along these lines as he did to acquiring a pure
English style his influence would have been greatly
increased and his aim so far furthered. That was a
mistake which is all too common among ministers of
the Gospel. Nor had he much to offer to those of
the cultured who prized the aesthetic and fashionable
above the righteous. He was a man who concerned
himself but little with the latest social fad, albeit he
was intensely zealous for the maintenance of that
eternal etiquette which grows out of the Christian
spirit and is heedful that all things be done decently
and in order.
He abhorred sensationalism — that pulpit blight
which is chiefly instrumental in manufacturing non-
church-goers out of careless and worldly church-goers.
It was his business to add men not to the church but
to Christ.
But he was to be the pastor of the church as well.
Of his duty in that capacity he had his own view. It

MONTREAL. 69
was not " to spy out the frailties and fanciful needs
of the people, in order that he might administer
his Sabbath day corrections." " Pastoral visitation
should be made the expression of sincere godly
friendship. His presence in any home should indi
cate the counsellor, the comforter and the messenger
of peace. He is to carry the fragrance of the pulpit
to his people ; never is he to carry the people to his
pulpit." To be such a friend demanded knowledge
not of the people's names merely, but also of their
life, thought and surroundings. That involved the
study of the complex life of a great city. So he
secured entre'e to the great business establishments and
saw their rushing life, he went to the harbor, " did "
the ocean liners, talked with captains and sailors, and
familiarized himself with the city's shipping interests.
He visited the cathedrals, with their gorgeous appeal
to the senses and the feelings, conversed with
cultured bi-lingual Frenchmen, and watched the
movements of religious thought among the Catholic
population, so seeking to understand the genius and
methods of Romanism. He was equally alive to the
problems of the social, business, and political worlds.
What he wrote of Dr. Cramp can be said of him.
" He recognized that as a minister of the Gospel his
duties were more extended than those found within
the limits of his parochial district. He was keenly
alive to all that was of national interest and that
could in any way affect the education and morality of
the people as a whole." It was this broad conception
of the pastor's work that makes this utterance con
sistent with the following from his pen written a few

70 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
months before : " We believe that God has specially
adapted men for special lines of work, and that they
do the best work for Him who give themselves up
soul and body to, and are consumed of, one purpose."
A definite life purpose always lays many realms
under tribute to itself, and the man of one idea is
saved from narrowness. They who thought him
sluggish, did not know him. Certainly there was no
fussiness about him. His work was done so smoothly
and noiselessly and he said so little about it that the
stranger might easily suspect him of sluggishness.
But those who knew him intimately, to whom he
opened freely the treasures of mind as well as heart,
found that the quiet of his manner was the stillness
of deep waters, the ease and smoothness of the
mighty engine. Actually he was a marvel of industry
steadily plied for definite ends. Especially was he
industrious in acquainting himself with the experi
ences, needs and possibilities of the church members
themselves. And all this that he might be a helpful
friend and wise counsellor when he met them in the
home or elsewhere, helpful in the highest sense — to
the kingdom of God. Nor are these facts inconsistent
with his own express statement that he found his
sermons in the Bible alone. His knowledge of men
enabled him to understand, appreciate and preach the
truth in its wonderful Biblical life-setting.
He was the church's leader also. As such he
longed to see them united in practical every-day
devotion to Jesus Christ, and in aggressive effort for
the furtherance of the Gospel. He was convinced,
however, that it was " a losing cause " unless a better
location could be secured ; but " the sun will shine,"

MONTREAL. 7 1
he writes, " when we get our new church." Meantime
he sought to make the old location as tolerable as
possible by getting the railway authorities to observe
some approach to Sabbath quiet at the hour of service.
His letter to Sir Wm. Van Home on that subject is
characteristic* But for the new building he planned
— toward that he turned the church's thought as the
indispensable material requirement.
His aim was a simple yet sublime one — the
establishment of the kingdom of God in the hearts
of men, bringing men's thoughts into captivity to the
obedience of Christ. That was his panacea for all ills,
social and religious, individual and national. For ,
that his hope lay in the Word of God brought home
to the consciences and wills of men by the living
Spirit. His duty was to preach and live that word of :
the truth of the Gospel and help his people to live it
also, as the one means of winning men to Christ.
Those who were impatient to see immediate results
were disappointed, for results were not soon visible.
There was an absence of enthusiasm in the church,
and he himself had not the joy in work to which he
had been accustomed. The second year was still
largely barren of such results as can be tabulated and
reported. But the quiet influence of a true life was
beginning to tell. The stronger men were becoming
aware of his strength and reserve power and were
learning to admire him, and all who had been passing
through sorrows and trials found that in their pastor
they had a great-hearted man and most sympathetic
friend. All such had become attached to him. And
* See page 216.

72 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the way was clearing for the more manifest fruitage.
At the close of the second year overtures were made
to him from the First Church, Winnipeg, which had
been pastorless since the lamented death of their
great leader, Alexander Grant. In a letter, written
August 8th, 1898, he refers to those overtures, but
cannot see why he should think of Winnipeg. He
expresses the conviction that God sent him to
Montreal, and adds, " And now why Winnipeg ? —
and to leave a church into whose life I am just
growing and among whose people I am just getting
grip." The leading brethren in his church felt the
same way about it.
A month later when he had returned to the city
from vacation and resumed his work, he writes : " The
church as a whole is working with me nicely." And
in the middle of that year he was able to send this
message : " My work is growing nicely. Baptized
four the other Sunday. Five have since applied. A
dozen more are in view. It's been a long, hard pull,
but God wins."
Meantime his heart and energies were going out
more and more toward the work of French evangeliza
tion. To quote from Rev. A. L. Therrien, one of the
most honored men in the Grande Ligne Mission :
" Soon after his arrival in Montreal he was elected president
of the Grande Ligne Board, and at once threw himself, body
and soul, into its work. At the cost of considerable energy
and fatigue he visited the various fields of the Mission so as to
be enabled to work for their interest more intelligently and
efficiently. His love for the work grew with his acquaintance
with it. While on his death-bed he repeatedly said that his
thoughts constantly recurred to Grande Ligne Mission, and to

MONTREAL. 73
Feller Institute in particular. He several times visited this
institution, where he always felt at home, and was one of the
first in 1898 to sound the note of immediate enlargement of its
buildings. His address on that subject at the annual meeting
of that year still lingers in the memory of those who heard it,
and it was doubtless largely due to that address that the
Grande Ligne Student Society initiated soon after the canvass
for raising funds. How his heart would rejoice were he per
mitted to see the building now completed !
" Dr. Dadson had brought from the West, concerning the
work of evangelization in Quebec, views which he soon saw
the necessity of altering. Like many others, he discovered that
in this, as in other matters, theory and practice are two
different things. But his disappointment did not diminish his
zeal for the cause. He soon saw that the evangelization of
Quebec was not as easy a task as he had imagined, but he was
ready to buckle on the armor and throw himself all the more
courageously into the fray.
" His interest in the French Canadians grew as he learned to
know them better, and he became enamored with the idea of
writing some day on the customs and character of the people.
He used his influence to move one of the laborers of Grande
Ligne Mission to write a book on that Mission and the people
for whom it is working. The result was that a story, entitled
' New Hearts in New France,' was written, the last chapters of
which were read to Dr. Dadson about ten days before his
death. He had taken great interest in the progress of the
book, and expressed his great desire that some day it might be
published." That desire is shared by others. May it be shared
by some one whose means would enable the author
to accomplish it. The growing interest in Grande
Ligne, expressed so freely to the missionaries, was
also expressed in letters to friends in the West, and
in the columns of the Canadian Baptist.
Among the other Baptist churches, and throughout
the city in general, his influence was increasingly felt

74 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
He never sought to do other men's work, but the full
round of his own he did labor to compass. He
shirked nothing. All tasks that he judged to be
really his he cheerfully assumed.
The First Church pastor, Rev. Donald Grant, B.A.,
has this to say of him :
" Dr. Dadson's ideas of fidelity made his life a very laborious
one. He felt that a man should do all that he was asked to do,
so far as in him lay. He exerted a wide influence outside of
his own church. He was sought after for addresses in connec
tion with the deepening of the spiritual life, temperance move
ments, etc., and impressions made on these occasions were
deep and abiding.
" At socials the tone of his address was serious, as if he felt
that the time was short and that no opportunity for helping the
spiritual life and work of the churches should be lost. At a
social in Grace Church, I remember him giving us a very
earnest talk which he prefaced with a few words to the effect
that surely such a talk could not be out of place when one was
speaking to Christian people.
"Dr. Dadson did not often go to the Ministerial Association.
He consented, however, on one occasion, to read a paper before
that body. In that paper, on " Peter the Preacher," the present-
day pulpit received some strokes. It was much appreciated.
" His coming to Montreal was by no means a mistake. His
brief pastorate in the East was the transplanting from the West
of a life that was a great force for righteousness and one that
shone as a bright light in a dark place."
Nor was the broader outlook of the denomination
forgotten. He did his duty by the various Boards of
which he was a member, and his name appeared in
the call for the first National Baptist Convention of
Canada, which met in Winnipeg in July, 1900.
To that broader work and his life in the sacred
circle of the home the next two chapters will be
devoted.

CHAPTER IX.
AS A DENOMINATIONAL LEADER.
The influence of Dr. Dadson's life and work was
not confined to the local communities he touched in
his capacity as preacher and pastor. The pulpit was
undoubtedly his throne, and immediate spiritual
ministration to the needs of human hearts his royal ser
vice. But a man of his mental grasp, sound judgment
and spiritual force could not be permitted to limit his
influence to the sphere of his local pastorate. The
place he occupied in the life and activities of the body
to which his loyalty was ever deep and strong, was
not a place into which he pressed himself. In his
genuine modesty and unselfishness he would have
gladly remained all his life in that country field in
which he began his ministry. But, as was said of his
Master, he could not be hid. When the call came to
him to serve in a wider field, and when he was
convinced that it was the call of God, his love and
loyalty, his absolute enslavement to a good conscience,
left him no choice but to respond. Without any
disposition to push himself to the front, his natural
gifts, his genuine culture, his Christian spirit and his
deep consecration made it the delight of his brethren
to press him into positions he was so admirably
qualified to utilize for his Master. 75

76 LIFE^OF^E. W. DADSON.
There is probably not a single one of our denomina
tional enterprises that does not pulsate with deeper
and fuller vitality and power because of the touch of
his life. At an early period in his ministerial life he
was called from the pastorate to the editorship of the
Canadian Baptist. He brought to this new sphere of
service qualities that admirably fitted him for its duties
and opportunities. From his college days his writing
was marked by a free and graceful command of Eng
lish. Coupled with this was the habit he had formed
of exercising this ready command of language only
when he had something worth saying. The art of
beautifully and pleasingly saying nothing he had
never acquired. He wrote or spoke because he had a
message, and his message found easy and forceful
expression. As an editor he had not only to write
himself, but to deal with the writings of others. Here
his generous spirit, sound and impartial judgment,
wise discretion and unswerving obedience to an honest
conscience, admirably qualified him for passing upon
or editing that which sought a place in the columns
of our paper, brought into being, as it was, to serve
the best interests of the denomination. No consider
ations of friendship or policy could tempt him to give
place to that which he regarded inimical to the truth or
work of Christ as it should find expression in the
policy and life of our Baptist churches and organiza
tions. No man with a denominational axe of his
own to grind ever succeeded in getting him to turn
the grindstone. He was not in that business. He
held his editorial office as a sacred trust in the inter
ests of the promotion of truth and righteousness. He

AS A DENOMINATIONAL LEADER. y"7
appreciated the wide influence of a denominational
organ and felt the consequent obligation to use it
sacredly for the purest and highest purposes.
It is impossible for us to measure the wholesome
influence of his editorial work. Into how many
homes and into how many lives did the Baptist carry
the pure breath of his beautiful and stimulating Chris
tian spirit ! It breathed its gospel messages wherever
it went, and every life it really touched felt a stimulus
to something purer and better and nobler. The love
and gratitude of the denomination expressed itself in
the following resolution, passed most heartily at the
Convention meeting in St. Catharines in October, 1888:
"That this Convention has learned with very deep regret
that the Rev. E. W. Dadson, B.A., has retired from the editor
ship of the Canadian Baptist, and that we express our high
appreciation of his ability, efficiency and fairness as editor dur
ing the six years he has conducted the paper ; and that we
request Mr. Dadson to continue to favor the readers of the
Baptist with the productions of his gifted pen."
During part of the period of his editorship of the
Baptist, Mr. Dadson was also Treasurer of the Foreign
Mission Board. To this department of our denomi
national work he gave much of his thought and heart.
For many years up to the time of his death he served
on the Board. Wise in counsel, broad in his outlook,
hopeful in spirit, his presence in the meetings of the
Board was always most gratifying. Any one who has
for years borne official responsibility in connection
with so important an enterprise can appreciate the
value of wise and trusted counsellors on the managing
Board. No department of our work has been more

78 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
highly blessed in this regard than the great foreign
mission work. For years it was the delight of the
present writer to be supported by as noble and true
and wise a body of counsellors as rarely sits about a
council-board. Among the most prized of them all
was he of whose worth it is our joy to bear testimony.
Whatever his devotion to any one department of
our denominational work, his sympathies were broad
enough to take in the interests of every other depart
ment. It is a pity that any man should be so occu
pied with the line of work in which he is specially
engaged that he should ignore the importance and
necessity of other branches of work. There is that
inter-relation between all our enterprises that makes
the highest success of any one depend on the con
current prosperity of the others. Mr. Dadson was
seized of this fact, and so while deeply occupied with
the interests of foreign mission work, was keenly alive
also to the importance of aggressive effort in the
home field. His later years, after entering on the
Montreal pastorate, were much occupied with the
Grande Ligne Mission work. At the time of his
death he was President of the Grande Ligne Mission
Board. Daily face to face with the great problem of
Quebec's evangelization, and catching visions of the
possibilities through Feller Institute, his heart was
strongly set upon the enlargement of that institution
to meet the growing opportunities of the hour.
Our Christian Educational work also had a large
place in his heart. He had broad visions of its
relation to the advancement of the kingdom of
Christ. He placed strong emphasis on the Christian

AS A DENOMINATIONAL LEADER. 79
element in education, and ardently desired to see this
element dominating the life of all our educational
institutions. In his mind there was a clear distinc
tion between theological training a'nd Christian edu
cation. The one related itself to one special field of
study for a particular vocation ; the other linked
itself with every department of study and with the
preparation for every legitimate vocation in life. In
Christ all things hold together. He who, in any line
of study, physical or metaphysical, does not see Christ,
is pursuing his investigation with narrow and dis
torted vision. He who, in the active outreaching of
educational development, is not conscious of the touch
of the Christ, everywhere immanent, has not yet had
quickened in him the most fruitful sense of intelligent
being. Until education is Christian in the positive
vision of the Christ in His true relation to all things
material and spiritual, and in the positive conscious
ness of His vital touch as we thread our way through '
the opening mysteries of the world of His power and
wisdom and love, it has fallen immeasurably short of
its true ideal. This Christian education is not simply
for those who purpose making their vocation the
ministry of the Word ; it is for all, and the training
for any calling that lacks it is deficient in the most
essential element of true education. With this con
ception of education the subject of this sketch
earnestly strove to secure its fullest possible realiza
tion in our schools and colleges. On the public plat
form and on the councils that shaped the policy of
our colleges, he never failed, in his advocacy of the
great cause of education, to keep this high and broad

80 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
aim always distinctly in sight. He believed in this
kind of education as one of the mightiest factors in
the extension of the scope and power of the kingdom
of Christ in the world. As his eye turned to the
rapidly developing prairie province and territories of
the West, he was seized with the conviction that the
establishing of such an institution in that new country
was the great need of the hour. It was after he had
entered on the experience of the excruciating suffering
of his last days that he used all his strong influence
and persuasive power on one whom he had taken
into his closest friendship from his college days to
respond to the call that had come to turn his life
into this new channel of service in the West. One
who was with him much in his very last days bears
testimony to his abiding interest in the great mission
of this infant school of the West, as an institution
where he believed his ideals of Christian education
would, as in our other colleges, be honestly aimed at.

.MRS. DADSON.

CHAPTER X.
THE HOME LIFE.
NOWHERE is a man more truly himself than in the
home. In business he may be so occupied that his
selfishness passes for industry ; in social gatherings or
with friends he may conquer his meanness and appear
kind and genial for the few hours so spent ; but for
the mean or selfish man it is too large a contract to
undertake to be genuinely unselfish during all the
hours spent with the same persons at home. To be
steadily kind and considerate there is the best proof
of genuine goodness. There have been altogether too
many so-called great men who have dazzled the world
with their brilliancy and have shadowed the home
with gloom. It was not so with Mr. Dadson. The
nearer one got to his home life the more beautiful his
character appeared.
Mrs. Dadson, whose maiden name was Julia Eliza
beth French, was born at Lytchet, Devonshire, Eng
land, December 31st, 1847. When she was three
years old the family moved to Canada and made their
home at Paris, Ont. There her early years were spent
in a Christian home. Her father was a godly man,
who, though not an ordained minister, stirred up the
gift that was in him and preached not infrequently.
Her education was received at the Public and High
6 81

82 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Schools of Paris and the Canadian Literary Institute
at Woodstock. She became herself a teacher in the
Paris Public School.
The atmosphere of the Christian home always tells.
Its influence on Julia French was to reveal to her the
claims of God's law and make her religiously thought
ful. She was much troubled about her own sinfulness,
and often appalled at the possibility of being forever
lost. She also knew what it was to have longings
and yearnings after better things. But that was the
best she knew for years. She had enough religion
to make her careful of her habits, but not enough to
make her happy and restful in her heart. She feared
God, but did not love Him ; reverenced Christ, but
did not trust Him ; heard the Gospel preached, but
had not the joy of its message of forgiveness. Neither
preaching nor Bible reading had any real relish for
her, and prayer was largely formal. So her soul was
in the gall of bitterness, restless and dissatisfied,
though outwardly little indication was given of the
struggle going on within. The last entry in her jour
nal for 1874 speaks of having accomplished nothing,
and adds : " I am disgusted with myself, and only
hope that others may not be."
The next entry, dated May, 1875, has a very differ
ent story to tell. It runs thus :
" I cannot forbear penning a few lines now to tell this old
journal what a wonderful change has come over me. Not that I
accomplish any more or am any better or more useful ; but I
have found a Friend since then who sticketh closer than a
brother, who loves me so, and who heals all my diseases of
mind as soon as I take them to Him. I go to Him full of sin,
discouragement, nothingness. He listens so pityingly to my

THE HOME LIFE. 83
long list of grievances, takes me gently into His arms, pours
balm upon the wounds, tells me that I am complete in Him, and
sheds abroad His love in my heart . . till my heart glows
with a feeble love for Him in return, and I am happy.
Then He tells me I cannot always rest on His bosom ; that I
must work for Him and overcome many foes, inward and out
ward ; that He will guide me and lead me and direct every
step. Then I start out bravely ; but, alas ! soon begin to trust
to myself, let go His hand, weary and fall. . . . I go
back humble and ashamed, expecting almost to be punished,
when, lo ! not one word of censure, not one word of reproach,
only pity and love. . . . Was ever love so great ? This
gentle, precious one is Jesus, the Friend of sinners, my Friend!
No wonder I felt uneasy, dissatisfied all those wasted years. 1
needed my Saviour, but had not found Him, and, in fact, did
not know it was He I wanted."
That Friend had been found a short time before,
during special services conducted by Mr. Henry
Varley, and publicly confessed when she was baptized
by the Rev. Thomas Henderson, pastor of the Paris
Church. It was well for her that her soul had found its rest,
for naturally she was fitful, as most souls are who are
sensitive to the influences of the world about them.
So much a child of nature was she that her moods
changed with those of nature. The moan of the night
wind, the rush of the storm, the calm of the evening,
the brightness of the morning, all found her in sym
pathy. Thus her feelings came and went, and were
often marked by an intensity that only large souls
know. All this the journal faithfully reflects. She
was conscious of her danger, and sought to hide the
tides of emotion that swept her. But a native frank
ness at times forced utterance, and at such times she

84 "LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
would indulge lament or speak the hasty word that
wounded. Had not this tendency been checked she
would have been growingly unhappy.
But her conversion was a genuine one. The journal
gives constant evidence of a real change, more marked,
she thought, to herself than to others, because she was
not given to expressing her religious feeling freely.
Her conception of the gospel of grace was very clear.
She had known much of the bondage of law ; hence
forth she enjoyed, in an exceptional degree, the peace
that comes through believing in Jesus. And her faith
was thoroughly practical. She conceives her whole
duty to be " to love and obey Jesus in little, every-day
things," believing that those who do so are just as
precious to Him as those who do the great things,
so-called. "Ambition, worldly honor, riches are
vanity, and weigh not a grain beside the simplest faith
of a poor beggar or the repentant cry of the vilest
sinner. I am content now to be poor, common and
even ignorant, if Jesus wills it so." So Christ in her
has begun and continues the good work which will
surely know completion by and by ; and, though she
has no sense of great progress, yet in all her struggle
she was sure of the divine forgiveness, and knew the
secret of deliverance and the place of her strength.
Her acquaintance with Mr. Dadson had been of
long standing. It had been formed in the early
sixties, when Mr. Dadson was visiting his brother
Stephen and other relatives in Paris, and was kept up
by subsequent visits. How she regarded him as
student-preacher in 1873 has been shown in a previous
chapter. How she felt about the' man himself is seen

THE HOME LIFE. 85
from the following quotation. He has just been com
pared, as a preacher, with another : " Mr.,H. thought
there was no comparison, Ebb's was so much superior.
Yet  is cleverer than Ebb in some respefcts, and
has a finer appearance. But the longer a person
knows Ebb, the more they like him and the nicer
looking he grows. Some think him handsome, but I
cannot say that I do. I used to think him awfully
ugly, but there is a charm about his face. I am never
tired of looking at him. I like his face so much, and
yet I don't know why." The note of familiarity is
due to early friendship ; one's justification for quoting
must be found in its delicious naivete and justness.
And though at that date they thought of nothing
more than friendship, but rather looked forward to
the parting of their ways, it is pretty clear there
was that kind of thought and mutual admiration which
furnishes good soil for love. Probably the fact of her
not being a Christian was the chief thing that kept
them apart. That removed, the natural happened,
and they were married in August, 1877.
The home thus established was a very happy one.
They were sufficiently alike in character, principles
and purposes to build a home together. They were
both Christians, had the same love of nature, the
same general conceptions of what a home should be,
the same spirit of contentment with their lot. They
were sufficiently unlike in temperament to be com
plementary and interesting to each other. He was
steady, patient, modest ; she, impulsive, chatty, self-
confident. They were both clear-headed and sound-
hearted. They loved and believed in each other.

86 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
From the outset they guarded against drifting
apart. Mr. Dadson believed that public duties did
not exonerate him from those of the home, and that
his wife had larger claims on him than anyone else.
And Mrs. Dadson felt that, without neglecting the
responsibilities of the home, she should keep in
intelligent and sympathetic touch with the work of
her husband. In his Denfield journal she frequently
appears under various pet names, as accompanying
him in his walks, drives and calls. She was as fond
of literature as he, and many books were read and
discussed together. This practice was kept up
throughout life, and proved a continual help and
inspiration to him in his work. Her touch with the
broader work of the denomination is shown by the
fact that she was the organizer, and served as first
secretary, of our Mission Band. At the time of her
death she was president of the Women's Convention
East, her election being due not only to wisdom and
enthusiasm in counsel, but also to her large gifts as a
public speaker.
They were one in the heartiness with which they
obeyed the scriptural injunction to exercise hospitality
without grudging. Both had large social gifts, and
their hospitality was delightful. The simplicity of
their tastes, as all know who were acquainted with
their homes in Muskoka and Woodstock, left their
energies the freer to administer unto others. The
extra burdens entailed by their abounding hospitality
he ever sought to share.
The best of bonds next to the love of God was
given them in their five sons. The eldest was named

THE HOME LIFE. 87
Alexander, a tribute of gratitude to the faithful college
friend who had brought him to Jesus. With the joy
of children came the usual anxieties. They had their
full share of children's diseases, with more serious
ones added. In Claremont the home was scourged
with diphtheria. A little grave and life-long scars
on the parents' hearts were its memorials. Mrs.
Dadson herself had a stroke of paralysis in Denfield,
and never afterwards enjoyed really good health. In
all these times of trial the husband and father was the
best nurse that could be found. If need be, he could
assume the entire responsibility of the home. And
though his quick sympathy made him feel keenly the
sufferings of others, yet he was blessed with such a
flow of good spirits that he never gave way to de
pression, but maintained a happy and contagious
cheerfulness. He was the essence of chivalrous
devotion, thoughtful, tactful, patient, unselfish to the
last degree.
They were one in their conception of the training
children should receive. She early expressed herself
as eager that they should be educated and accom
plished. He desired them to be also helpful to
mother, practical, brave, self-reliant. Prompt obedi
ence was inculcated so early and successfully that it
became an instinct. Yet they were on terms of the
most delightful familiarity with their boys — teased
them a bit, sympathized with them always, laughed,
joked, romped with them. The home was for the
children rather than for strangers. What good times
they had in the free, glad life of Muskoka ! A little
plain cabin (shanty, he called it) served for kitchen

88 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
and dining-room ; tents, for other purposes. The
situation was ideal. " Arbutus " was part of Clare
mont Point; and fully fifty feet above the water
stood headquarters, commanding a beautiful view of
central Lake Joseph with its fascination of ever-
changing waters and well-wooded islands and shores.
From the morning plunge and the stentorian calls to
the boys, each by name (the reader who has once
heard will remember the varying pitch and length
and quality), until the mail was brought home as the
shadows gathered, the day was filled with varied
recreation. Many a joyous hour was spent sailing in
the " Alma Mater," beguiling the time with song and
story, sallies of wit and happy repartee. " The Alma
is in constant use," he writes, " and we pride ourselves
that we get more fun out of her than they do who
have to sit continually on the knife-board of a Mac."
The swimming hour was 3 p.m. We remember well
how, in the early days, before she had learned to
swim, Mr. Dadson would set his good wife afloat,
and how in laughing contentment she would continue
to float until he came to the rescue. By and by she
could swim with the best of them, as could all the
boys. Fishing, picnicking, berrying, quoits and other
things fill d in the happy days. And where families
grouped together the universal feeling was that Dr.
Dadson was the happy genius of the occasion. His
presence lent a charm such as no other did.
Over all these happy scenes rested the sanctities
of religion. Family worship was regularly observed
as a matter of course. In the midst of pleasure it
was easy and natural for him to turn his own and

THE HOME LIFE. 89
others' thoughts toward the Author of all good, the
Father of all mercies and the God of all grace.
Neither family nor friends could ever suspect that he
was merely professional in his preaching. The great
central virtues pervaded all his life — truth, righteous
ness, faith, hope and love.
What Dr. Dadson was as a husband can best be
told in the words of his wife. Writing after seven
years of married life, and just after a siege of sickness
in the home, she calls him " the kindest, truest, most
patient husband that ever lived, and withal the most
comical and jolly." " He is a hard-worked man, at
least much harder worked than when in Denfield, but
he is still fat and healthy and jolly, and just as good
and kind and devoted as when a lover. I have been
greatly blessed, and I am very thankful to God that
he has given me one of the best of men and three
sweet little boys. Our home has always been a
happy, cosy, jolly one, and I trust that, as long as
we are spared and make God our centre, it will
always be."
His references to her are equally appreciative.
Facing a new problem in the autumn of 1 898, he says :
" Alas ! conditions are now sadly altered. My strong,
wise, dearly-beloved is no longer by my side." In
another letter he says, " She was a merry-hearted
woman, never a dull hour in her company." Still
another, devoted partly to serious discussion, partly
to a racy description of the summer's doings, closes
with these words : " Through it all, the passion of my
grief must have its way a little. Only beloved ! I
hear her voice so often. I strain my ears to catch

9o LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
her merry laughter. I hear her singing over the
water. In the night I wake to put my hand on her
dear head, and my heart breaks again. Well, God
gives me much comfort."
The agony and grief which rent his soul when the
fatal character of her disease revealed itself, and after,
was matched by her anguish of anxiety and blanched
face when she saw him fallen from the scaffolding of
the Medora Church in 1897. And no more beautiful
tribute did husband ever pay to wife than the sketch
of her life and character, which he wrote and had
printed for his boys, that on the anniversary of her
death they might read it over to keep her memory
fresh in their minds and their affection for her warm
in their hearts. On the first anniversary, at his re
quest, it was the writer's pathetic privilege to read it
to the family at his bedside ; he was suffering too
much to read it himself, as he had hoped to do. The
second he did not live to see.
These two were " lovely and pleasant in their lives,
and in their deaths they were not divided." Their
children arise and call them blessed.

CHAPTER XI.
THE CLOSING SCENES.
" If the Lord had put in words His purpose in
sending Dr. Dadson to Montreal," says Mr. Grant in
the same notes from which I have already quoted,
" I would not have wondered if it should read like
this : ' I will show him how great things he must suffer
for my name's sake.' " Certainly, if ever the suspicion
has found foothold in the writer's thought that sorrows
are God's punishments for our sins, it would have been
banished by the experiences of D. A. McGregor,
appointed by men to the principalship of Toronto
Baptist College, but summoned by God to a year of
suffering, and then home ; and of E. W. Dadson, from
whom his fellows were expecting long years of splen
did service in Montreal, but whom God called after
less than three years of work there, through much
tribulation, up into His heavenly kingdom. The
Christian's trials are never punishments for sin ; they
are not always chastisements ; they are often love's
best blessings poured out in special fulness upon
those who are saintliest and most able to bear them.
By and by " the day will declare it," and we shall
adore Jehovah for His wisdom, love and faithfulness.
It was at the close of the first year in Montreal, as
9i

92 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the first gleams of encouragement came to relieve his
anxiety about the church, that the first shadows of
the oncoming darkness fell upon his pathway. In the
summer of 1897 Mrs. Dadson had very definite warn
ing of some internal trouble, the nature of which,
however, they did not understand. Ignorance left
room for hope. Yet she had premonitions that gave
a new depth of feeling to her leave-taking of Muskoka,
and made it strangely pathetic. Her farewells to each
scene of beauty were multiplied, and she confessed to
the feeling that these were her final farewells to the
glorious place she had loved so well. As the year
passed the disease made steady progress, and her
sufferings became intense. But it was not until the
late spring that its absolutely fatal character became
known. That fact, long feared, was revealed by the
operation then performed.
To Dr. Dadson, with his big heart, warm, quick
sympathy and great love, his wife's intense suffering
was unspeakably distressing ; and when the surgeon's
knife disclosed the utter hopelessness of her case, a
dagger struck his heart. When we remember that, a
little while before, his eldest son had undergone a
critical operation, from which he was now slowly and
tediously recovering, we may realize something of the
sorrow that was upon him.
Mrs. Dadson was a brave, good woman, with a firm,
Christian hope. Life, for her, had been very happy,
and, for family and other reasons, was full of attrac
tiveness still, and she longed to live. But when at
last, with breaking heart, her husband gently broke to
her the intelligence that she could not live, there was a

THE CLOSING SCENES. 93
momentary struggle, and then a sweet, gracious resig
nation, bringing heavenly calm and even triumph.
They did not suffer alone. The members of the
church and other friends in Montreal were full of ten-
derest sympathy. Scores and scores of others, east
and west, followed with sad hearts the sorrows of that
home. The Convention, meeting in Hamilton in May,
telegraphed its fellow-feeling. The Associations of
the next few weeks sent messages of affectionate
esteem. These multiplied expressions greatly cheered
the sufferers.
One friend from the West, who was on his way to
see her before she passed away, reached the city Mon -
day morning, June 20th, only to find the home deso
late and to be told that all was over, and that the
funeral would take place that afternoon in Woodstock.
A union service of the Baptist churches had been held
Sunday evening in Olivet Church, which had been
decorated with wild flowers for the children's anniver
sary. There was no crape, no un-Christian gloom.
This was in keeping with the spirit of serene confi
dence and hope with which she had awaited her home-
going, and in accordance with her expressed wish and
Dr. Dadson's own preference. Pastor Grant voiced
the general sympathy and extolled the grace of God
given to the departed for service and suffering, and
Pastor Graham, of Grace Church, testified that " the
whole experience through which Dr. Dadson and his
family passed and the heroic way in which they acted
through it all was a great blessing to many."
A few days later the Executive of the Women's
Baptist Foreign Missionary Society East held a special

94 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
memorial meeting, at which special mention was made
of " the praiseworthy qualities of the late President,
her courage and hopefulness, her patience in suffering,
her perfect acquiescence in God's will, her firm and
unwavering trust in her Heavenly Father, her interest
in the work of the Society over which she presided,
and her deep concern for the success of the coming
meeting of the Convention."
The strong man had received a blow from which he
never recovered. " For the sake of others," says Pas
tor Graham, " he kept outwardly cheerful, and said
nothing about his grief except to his most intimate
friends." The kindness of his church stepped in and
gave him a long rest in Muskoka. Thence he returned
in September, but not to his own home. That was
closed. Thomas was in England, Willie was sent to
school in Paris, and he and the other two boys boarded
at 5 Tower Avenue, with Mr. and Mrs. Jones, whose
great kindness won his deep gratitude and deserves
mention here. Into his ministry he threw himself with
utmost devotion, and, as we have already seen, with
growing power. The winter was full of work, and
more and more pastor and people were being bound
together, and signs of blessing multiplied.
Then came the first of May, 1 899, and with it his
return to his own home. That very evening he felt
the first stab of the same fatal disease which had
already desolated the home. In all probability the
beginning of his trouble must be dated back to that
day in the summer of 1 897 when the scaffolding of the
little church in Muskoka, on which he and Professor
Wolverton were working, gave way and precipitated

THE CLOSING SCENES. 95
them to the ground. That fall injured his back,
crippled him for several weeks, and probably gave
standing room, at least, for the disease that now
manifested its presence.
Three weeks later he attended the Walmer Road
Convention, and was one of the Convention preachers.
Before rising to preach he was suffering so intensely
that he feared he might not be equal to the task at
all. A prayer for strength was lifted, and God gra
ciously heard and granted freedom from pain while
he gave that great message from 1 Cor. xv. 58, which
still lives in many hearts. Then followed two months
of suffering, in the midst of which he hurried to his
loved Muskoka. The physicians were baffled, and
consented to his longing thus to entrust himself to
the nature ministry of his summer retreat. It seemed
to justify his confidence and bring relief, for during
his last six weeks there he was almost entirely free
from pain. His feelings may be judged from the
following extract from a letter written September
20th :
" I am a well man, thank God and this glorious lake. I shall
be so glad when I stand in my pulpit again. Enforced vacation
isn't so ' springy ' as the usual thing. I purpose leaving here
next Monday. Tuesday I shall take Billy to Paris and arrange
for his next year. Perhaps run up to Woodstock to see McKee,
and then to my work. Hasten the day and the strength."
On the way to Toronto the pain returned. When
he reached our home, his appearance was that of
almost perfect health. But the return of the pain was
a keen disappointment. The visit to Paris was made
in suffering, that to Woodstock he had to forego.

96 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Wednesday he returned to Toronto, and on Thursday
set his face toward Montreal. There after fresh exam
ination and consultations, the physicians yielded to his
eagerness to resume his work in the church he had
learned to love, and which was proving itself well
worthy of his love, and he writes, " There's a happy
man in Montreal." Bravely, hopefully, joyously he
took up his task. All testify to the marvellous power
of that last month's ministry. The like had not been
known in Olivet since the palmy days of ten years
before. But in the midst of this rich promise of
fruitage he was struck down again, and his preaching
was done, except as through more than four months
of untold agonies, his splendid bravery, unconquered
cheerfulness, unfailing patience and unfaltering trust
told out impressively the genuineness of his faith, the
ripeness of his Christian character, and, through these,
the reality and worth of Christ's salvation.
There is no need of telling in detail the story of
those twenty weary winter weeks, and the efforts
made by a score of doctors, in the home and in the
hospital, to diagnose and cure. All that the best skill
could do was done, but it was a battle in the dark,
for only the post-mortem brought certainty as to the
cancerous nature of the disease.
During these long months his heart was cheered in
many ways. The watchful loving ministry of his
own nearest and dearest ones was a continual com
fort. Especially did it gladden his soul when his
second son returned from England, and told him of
his decision to abandon his fine business prospects
and study for the gospel ministry. To have a son in

THE CLOSING SCENES. 97
the ministry was an honor he had long coveted and
prayed for in secret. God's goodness pillowed the
last six weeks with that assurance. Another prayer
that was always in his heart and often on his lips,
has since been answered in the conversion of the last
and youngest of his sons in the same dear college
halls where he himself first saw the light. And the
church was now repaying his faithfulness and un
selfishness in many beautiful ways. He was sensitive
about continuing as pastor when no longer able to do
the work, and in November he was seriously think
ing of resigning. But the thoughtful and generous
devotion of the church and the exquisite tact and
delicacy of the officers not only overcame that feeling,
but made him restful and happy in the sense of their
love. He had sown bountifully, he was reaping
bountifully. And even still he was giving measure for
measure. The sadness of the family he sought in every
way to dispel; His wit and humor flowed as freely as
ever, and compelled merriment and laughter. It was
the joyousness of a Christian hope. The sick-room
was a Bethel. Those who came to cheer were cheered
themselves. No one who saw him can forget how he
sought to banish all signs of suffering and greet them
with the merry twinkle, the welcome smile, or the
hearty hand-shake of the days of health.
At last, on the 12th of March, 1900, at 4.45 p.m.,
just as the day was beginning to darken toward
evening and the night, the poor worn body was
released from its pains, and the purified spirit passed
from the presence of the loved ones here into that
of the Best Beloved, the radiance of whose glory
makes that day that never knows a night.
7

98 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The widespread regard for him was shown by the
gatherings at the funeral services in Montreal and
Woodstock. At Woodstock the large church was
thronged by members of all classes of the com
munity, and friends from almost every section of the
Convention, from Sarnia to Montreal. We condense
the account given by Dr. Goodspeed in the editorial
columns of the Canadian Baptist :
Pastor R. R. McKay led in prayer ; Rev. T. W.
Johnson, of London, read the Scriptures ; Deacon
D. W. Karn spoke appreciatively of his work in
Woodstock ; and Deacon W. K. Grafftey, of Montreal,
told of his work there, of the quiet strength with
which he grappled with a difficult situation, how his
life and preaching had gradually impressed the people
and united them, and how his cheery heroism, when
an unutterable grief and then great suffering came
upon him, had won the hearts of all. Rev. W. T.
Graham, of Montreal, gave an address, from which
we quote elsewhere ; and Dr. McMullen, of Knox
Church, representing sister denominations, referred
to the impressions his life and work had made on
the general community, who respected him for his
loyalty to his special convictions, and admired his
broad catholicity of spirit and general kindliness.
Principal McCrimmon voiced the feelings of the
College, and testified to the immense influence for
good Dr. Dadson had exerted on faculty and stu
dents. Rev. S. S. Bates, of Toronto, told of the
wholesomeness of his influence in his college days
and the faithfulness of his friendship. Professor
Farmer referred to the value of his services in the

THE CLOSING SCENES. 99
broad arena of denominational activity. Prayer was
offered by Rev. J. E. Trotter, of St. Catharines, and
the singing of " Jerusalem, the Golden," closed the
service. Dr. George Cross voiced the prevalent feel
ing when he characterized the service as most excel
lent because, in the presence of a character which was
so genuine, all fulsome speech was avoided, and all
that was spoken was felt by each one who knew
Dr. Dadson to be a reflection of the reality of his life
and service.
It touched all hearts, and may stand as a token of
the affection in which his friends all held him, when
Rev. Alexander Turnbull, of New York, after his
long railway journey and a bleak ride of twenty
miles across country to be there in time, responded to
the call of Pastor McKay, and feelingly and fittingly
expressed the grief that had its explanation1 only in
their unshadowed friendship of more than thirty
years. From the home of Deacon Karn to the church, and
thence to the Baptist cemetery, his remains were
borne by fond friends, and laid beside those of his
wife. Ah, me ! the strangeness of it never wears away !
That that dear form, whose living presence meant for
many a year the presence of a radiant personality,
should be lying there a prey to corruption ! Blot out
the light of the resurrection morning, and life were
but a mockery and death a tragedy unrelieved. The
opened grave of Jesus is the birthplace of our hope,
the gateway to glory.

CHAPTER XII.
THE MAN AS WE KNEW HIM.
LITTLE need be added to what the portrait tells of
his personal appearance. He was of medium height,
thick-set, and the burly form moved with slightly
rolling gait. The keen grey eyes were wonderfully
expressive, thoughtful in repose, soulful in public
speech, sparkling with humor and beaming with rare
kindliness in the company of friends.
Mentally, he had clearness rather than brilliancy,
vigor rather than acuteness, sanity rather than breadth,
insight rather than logic, vision rather than imagina
tion. The strength and wisdom and beauty of his
thought may be judged from his productions. They
body forth the realities of God.
But it was his character that gave him pre-emi
nence. Modest, yet self-reliant ; reserved, yet full of
bonhomie; he possessed that true dignity that is utterly
unpretentious, and that sense of the sacredness of
personality which ensures at once self-respect and
respect for others. Believing in simplicity of man
ners, dress, furnishings, church buildings and public
worship as conducive both to purity and strength, he
had at the same time a passion for the beautiful in
nature and art, in character and conduct. He had

THE MAN AS WE KNEW HIM. IOI
the instincts of a gentleman — courtesy, thoughtful-
ness, chivalry, honor.
Above all he was a good man — good with the
goodness of God. His piety was genuine. He lived
unto God. Though abounding in wit and humor, he
was reverent and devout, and utterly eschewed and
rebuked the introduction into public worship of slang,
or jesting, or anything that savored of irreverence.
In prayer he believed sincerely, and to it constantly
summoned himself and his brethren. He was a slave
of righteousness and truth, conscientious always,
"honor bright in all things." I never knew him to do
anything publicly or privately the moral quality of
which I could even suspect. Merry and thankful in
times of joy, he proved patient and exultant in
sufferings. Though of rugged form he had a
great heart overflowing with sympathy, going out in
kindness, kindling with the feeling of brotherhood for
all men. Though a pronounced Baptist he called
every man a Christian brother whose heart God had
touched, for he distinguished between the terms of
salvation and the conditions of effective church
co-operation. Within the denomination he was ever
ready to co-operate in the second best rather than
divide on the first. He was royally unselfish.
Selfishness seemed utterly expelled from his life.
His friendship, genuine, generous, steadfast, was a
perpetual delight and grew with the intimacy of the
years. There was something so gracious and winsome
about him, his personality was so rich and attractive,
and his fellowship so satisfying, that it was a joy just
to be with him. In that fellowship there was blessing

102 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
and uplift. Doubt and meanness were rebuked,
faith and goodness fostered. He was a living epistle,
spelling out the character and saving power of Christ,
and inviting men to be reconciled and devoted to
God. What others thought of him is seen in the following
characterizations :
Rev. B. D. Thomas, D.D., for twenty years the be
loved pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Toronto,
preached at the memorial service in Olivet Church,
on March 18th, 1900, with 1 Tim. iv. 6, "A good
minister of Jesus Christ," as his text. Omitting the
biographical details and his fine panegyric on the
glory of the Christian ministry, we confine our quota
tions to those paragraphs that form Dr. Thomas's
characterization of Dr. Dadson :
" It will be imperative, if I confine myself to the text which I
have chosen, that I speak of our departed brother more espe
cially as he stood related to the great work to which he gave his
life. Nor need I do otherwise. That is what he supremely
was — 'a good minister of Jesus Christ.' He could not have
[been that, however, if he had conspicuously failed in any sub-
\ ordinate relations and responsibilities. He was a good husband,
father, friend, and he was a good minister because the whole
quality and impact of his life contributed to make him so. His
ministry was not a piece of gilded officialism, pronounced good
because of its display and glitter, but the consummate outcome
of qualities that permeated his whole being.
" Here we have, then,
" I. THE GRANDEST VOCATION TO WHICH MORTAL COULD
ASPIRE. . . .
"II. THE GRANDEST VOCATION TO WHICH MORTAL COULD
ASPIRE, FILLED WITH A MANLY AND WHOLE-HEARTED
fidelity. Of no man in our ministry in this land could this

THE MAN AS WE KNEW HIM. 103
more truthfully be said than of Dr. Dadson. He brought into
his lifework all the powers of his mind and all the wealth of his
heart. There was no reservation on the ground of uncertainty,
or insincerity, or heartlessness. His convictions struck down
into the solid foundations of divine truth — his faith embraced
the eternal verities with a grip that was unshaken and unshakable.
He knew what he believed and believed what he knew. He
was slow in his movements, but every step was firm. He was
not a floating skiff imperilled by every wind of speculative
vagary, but a strong-ribbed craft, built of the best seasoned
timber that could plough its way through any sea. His com
pass was always set to the port of destination, and he kept the
helm in that direction, come what may. He might not have
presented as brilliant an appearance as some other craft that
plied the waters, but he carried a more valuable cargo than
most of them, and for real service he was equal to the very best.
" He was first of all and always a real and genuine man. The
groundwork upon which was inwrought the varied qualities of
excellence which distinguished his career was a singularly
robust and healthy manhood. The artistic elaborations never
failed of their best effects through an inferior quality of canvas.
The fruitage was never withered and meagre because of the
poverty of the soil from which it sprung. The building never
tottered because the foundations were insecure. No one who
knew Dr. Dadson for a moment questioned the genuineness of
his manhood. The instances were rare when acquaintance did
not develop into confidence and intimacy into the closest
friendship. . . .
" The call to the editorship of the Canadian Baptist came to
him at this time and cut short a relation that promised to be
long and useful. I believe that he did as well as any other
available man could have done in this new position, but the
editorial chair was not as congenial to him as the pastorate. .
" His settlement in Woodstock was a perfect fit in every way.
He came into the life of the boys as a great, loving, inspiring
benediction, and they came into his as a mighty stimulus and
inspiration. The place which Dr. Dadson won in the con
fidence of the community, in the esteem of the Faculty of the

104 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
College, and in the affection and admiration of the students, was
that of an enthroned king. They looked up to him, admired
him, trusted him, loved him as few men have ever been to the
same extent.
"About three years ago, Olivet Church, Montreal, always
coveting the best gifts, turned her eyes toward Woodstock. Dr.
Dadson was called to fill this pulpit. You know the result. He
came. At first, and possibly for some time, you were disappointed.
He had not the qualities, neither as a man nor as a preacher,
that take with the garish multitude. There were no pyrotechnic
displays in his pulpit ministrations, no cheap, flashy tinsel in
his intellectual output. To appreciate Dr. Dadson there had
to be a love for the truth for its own sake, and for earnest,
manly thought in its unadorned ruggedness. He was not an
adept in the trivialities of social etiquette. He did not give
very much attention to what is held in estimation by polite
society. He did not gush. Neither in speech nor manner
could he be denominated elegant. He was an every-day man
who moved about amongst his fellows in every-day fashion, and
I am not surprised that he should have been for a time regarded
as an ordinary individual. But when he became known, when
his real worth discovered itself, when sorrow came into your
homes, and his great heart beat up against yours with its
flowing tides of sympathy — when you had learned to dis
tinguish the wheat from the chaff, and to appreciate the value
of instruction in the deep things of God, you found that you had
a treasure hidden in that rugged personality that any church on
the continent might envy.
" I have referred to some of Dr. Dadson's exceptional
qualities of heart and life. I have represented him as a rich,
generous, genuine, whole-hearted man. I want to say a word
-. about him as a preacher. The pulpit was really the throne of
.! his influence. He was strong at the bedside of the suffering
and in the home where death had cast its depressing shadow ;
but he was stronger in the pulpit when the conditions were
favorable to the production of the best results. I do not pre-
fsume to represent him as a great preacher. Greatness is a
term that applies really only to the very few, but as compared

THE MAN AS WE KNEW HIM. 105
with the ordinary run of preachers he was surely worthy of
being so designated. He towered above them as a mountain
does above the little hills. The last time I heard him was at
our Convention, less than a year ago. As he moved along in his
discourse from point to point, from one height of argument to
another, making the apostolic exhortation to ' abounding
work ' and ' unwavering steadfastness ' a burning obligation, I
could not help saying, "There, that is preaching, that is
preaching. That is what the apostle meant when he said,
' Preach the Word.1 " Truth clearly stated, argument logically
developed, obligation irresistibly enforced, and all applied to
the heart and conscience with a magical touch which held the
whole audience as with the spell of an enchanter.
"Dr. Dadson lacked some of the essential qualities of
oratorical effectiveness. He was a little too ponderous in
thought and style to be widely popular with the unthinking
multitude, but his sermons were clear and strong, rich in
thought and powerful in argument, and they were frequently
delivered with a manly fervor which opened a way for their
reception into heart and life.
" Nor could I say my last word about his preaching without
emphasizing its fidelity to all that is fundamental in the
Christian system. He gave no countenance to the intellectual
libertinism which plays fast and loose with the sacred oracles.
He made no compromises with the enemies of the faith, in
whatever guise they chose to appear. The pulpit that had no
eternal life to offer, no Divine sacrifice to proclaim, no perfect I
righteousness to invite to, he in his very soul despised. He '
was not narrow in the range of his thinking, but his loyalty to !
sound doctrine kept him from even casually recreating under '
the inviting shades of rationalism or infidelity. He would
rather abide by the dictum of Paul or John or the Master than
listen to the speculations of the most distinguished representa
tives of modern thought. He stood firmly and contentedly on
the foundation of the ' prophets and the apostles, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner-stone.' He was in no perplexity
as to what to preach, his only solicitude was how to do it so as
most surely to impress those who listened to him with its

106 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
authority and value. His message always carried with it the
full weight of profound conviction. ' He knew whom he had
believed,' and what he believed, and his one aim was to make
that knowledge tell upon the destinies of men. The ' trumpet
which he put to his lips had no uncertain sound.' He declared
the truth, as he had apprehended it, with an honesty and whole-
heartedness that none who ever heard him would presume to
question. He was ' a workman that needed not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.'
" Such was Dr. Dadson in his life and ministry. That he
should have been called away in the very zenith of his powers
is not for us to understand. It is one of the mysterious pro
vidences which we must leave enshrouded in the darkness
which refuses to explain itself to our most anxious peering. We
will not attempt with our clumsy fingers to fumble at the com
bination which is known only to Him who cannot err. We will
seek to bow in the presence of the inscrutable until the fuller
light shall break, when all that now depresses us with its gloom
and mystery shall be made plain.
" While we sorrow over what we have lost — the staunch
friend, the faithful pastor, the devoted father, the imperial
personality — let us not forget what there is left to us : a memory
fragrant and endeared, a legacy of virtuous qualities and noble
deeds, of services and sacrifices that will perpetuate his influence
through all coming years. He is not sepulchred but ensphered.
He has entered into the endless life of the universe. We shall
no more see his face, nor hear his voice, nor feel the friendly
grasp that meant to us so much, but he will be with us still.
He will live in our hearts as a memory and benediction. He
will live in the influences and ministries which he has sent out
into the world. He will live in the blossoming beauty and
abounding fruitage of the principles which he scattered with so
much fidelity into the fecundent soil of this goodly land. ' He
rests from his labors but his works do follow him.'"
The Rev. W. T. Graham, pastor of Grace Baptist
Church, made the chief address at the funeral in

THE MAN AS WE KNEW HIM. 107
Montreal. The following extracts indicate the esti
mate formed by a strong and successful neighbor in
the pastorate :
"By the death of Dr. Dadson I have lost a valued friend. I
have known him intimately for years, and the longer I knew
him the more I loved him. His was a great nature. He was
in many ways a unique personality. . . As I think of him
I fail to call up what would be considered a striking weakness
or failure in the man. I do not claim — and he would be the last
to have any one make such a claim — that he was faultless, but
there was nothing in him that repelled you or weakened his
influence for good over the lives of those with whom he came in
contact. . . .
" In the first place he was thoroughly devoted to Jesus Christ.
His life was emphatically Christo-centric. To please Him was
his delight, to glorify Him his ambition, and to advance His
interests his one aim. There was no self-seeking in all he did.
He never sought honor, power, or place, or influence, or any
thing else but what Christ in His own good time and way was
pleased to give him ; and when they came he consecrated them
all to the service of his Divine Master. There was no man I
ever knew who kept self more in the background than did Dr.
Dadson, and yet the highest honors and most important posi
tions in our body were at his disposal. What a living commen
tary he was upon the words, ' Him that honors me I will honor ! '
" Then there was his unswerving allegiance to the Word of
God. He had no sympathy with the conclusions of those who
sought in the slightest degree to depart from or substitute any
thing else for the living word. He was a careful, persistent and
prayerful student of the Bible, and from that inexhaustible foun
tain drew all his material for preaching. He said to me more
that once, ' The longer I live the more I am convinced that what
the people need is the truth as it is in Jesus, and the more I am
determined to preach nothing but the grace of God.' And what
a preacher he was ! . . . Taking his pulpit work as a whole,
I think I am safe in saying that it has never been excelled by

108 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
any in the Canadian Baptist ministry. Few men could grip
the meaning of a passage of Scripture as he could, and fewer
still could clothe the thoughts in language as beautiful and
chaste. One never heard him but with interest and profit.
Then he was an orator of no mean order. He could play upon
all the chords of the human heart, and make them respond to
his master touch, and yet he never appeared to be conscious of
his power. Dr. Dadson always felt that the best he did was far
¦ below his ideal.
" Then he was a true and valuable friend. While he was kind
and courteous and gentle in his bearing towards all with whom
he mingled, it was only the few who were permitted to cross the
sacred threshold into his confidence. But to enter there was to
enjoy a wealth of affection and to behold the wonderful richness
of his great soul. The depth and sympathy of his great charac
ter were marvellous. No person could be a friend of his and
not become better. To have him open his heart to you and
: give you a glimpse into his inner life was to make you ambitious
; to become holy. There was nothing low or mean or selfish in
. his life. No one ever saw him do a mean act or heard him say
an unkind word about any man. You could not think of any-
: thing depraved while in his company. One always felt that he
kept Christ enthroned within, and you longed to rid yourself of
l anything that was unlike Him. ... By his consistent,
godly life our departed brother has been the means of blessing
to many. Those who knew him intimately feel his influence
lingering with them like a strange message from that far-off
country whither he has gone, inspiring them to more Christ-like
living and a more heroic service."
A number of friends who came into touch with him
under different conditions were recently requested
to condense into the briefest form their estimate of
Dr. Dadson.
Rev. W. T. McMullen, D.D., pastor of Knox
Church, Woodstock, and a former Moderator of the

THE MAN AS' WE KNEW HIM. IO9
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
Canada, writes :
" Long and intimate acquaintance with Dr. Dadson impressed
me with an increasing sense of his unswerving principle, intel
lectual force, sound judgment, transparent candor, high sense
of honor, and deep spirituality of mind. In our Week of Prayer
meetings, which for years past have filled the largest church
buildings in the city, Dr. Dadson's addresses never failed to be
forceful and inspiring. The ring of genuineness struck the ear
of his audience so as to win ready and interested attention ; and
his grasp of doctrine, associated with devout and constant
study of Scripture under the teaching of the Spirit, enabled him
to speak as one having authority. He was beloved by his
brethren in the ministry in this city, and held in high apprecia
tion in all the churches.'/
Rev. O. C. S. Wallace, D.D., LL.D., Chancellor of
McMaster University, whose knowledge of him was
formed during the last ten years, chiefly in official
and denominational relations, summarizes his impres
sions in these words :
" The words he spoke were strong and wise words, but the
man was better than his words. Some of his messages will
live long, but no one can measure the influence he exerted upon
those whom he admitted to the secret place of his confidence
and affection. With a remarkable ruggedness and masculinity
of character there was joined in him a womanly gentleness and
tenderness. When we heard him in sermon or address, or in
the discussions concerning men or measures, we felt always his
force of character, his constancy to high purpose, his purity of
motive, his scorn of wrong, his love of right, his chivalrous
devotion to his friends, his earnest desire to put honor upon
Jesus Christ. He was " great-hearted, whole-hearted," a master
in our Israel, a man whom it is good to remember, whose mem
ory it is right that we should cherish."

HO -LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Rev. Thomas Trotter, D.D., President of Acadia
University, Nova Scotia, a friend and companion for
many years, speaks of him as follows :
" He was a royal soul. I knew him first in 1870. Then, and
in the earlier subsequent years, he was gay-hearted, keen of
wit, essentially kind and reverent, and always pure. He was
the life and soul of any company of young men in which he
was found. He already exhibited independent mental power
and marked literary skill and taste. Through all the later
years, during which I came to know him with growing in
timacy, there was the rapid ripening and mellowing of the
fruitage which the earlier times had promised. The natural
gaiety and wit persisted in more and more chastened forms.
Kindness grew into a passion of love for humanity, and
reverence into adoring love for the God whose glory he saw
in the face of Jesus Christ. The 'good fellow' became the
most lovable of men. He was a white soul, whose presence
instantly revealed and rebuked impurity, and clarified the moral
atmosphere. His gifts of thought and expression found their
climax of opportunity in the exposition and enforcement of
what to him, as to Paul, was the 'glorious gospel,' and he
became at his best a mighty preacher. Masculine as the most
virile, tender as a woman, self-effacing, but absolutely and
heroically devoted to the service of God and truth, he was a
man whom to think of creates a most wholesome feeling in
one's mind, and gives to the soul a conscious impulse towards
all that is good and true and worth while."
Rev. S. S. Bates, D.D., pastor of College Street
Church, Toronto, President of the Convention for
1 900- 1 90 1, and for many years Chairman of our
Foreign Mission Board, bears this testimony :
"It was my good fortune to attend the Canadian Literary
Institute with the late Dr. Dadson. Besides being a most
delightful companion, he was, by his open, manly, pure life and
conversation, a distinct help to me towards a right life. He

THE MAN AS WE KNEW HIM. Ill
was always attractive and always ennobling. He was as well
the heart of kindness as the soul of honor. He was the
centre of a group of admiring fellow-students. There was
nothing of the sepulchre or of the monastery in his goodness.
He was jovial, and yet always reverent towards things sacred.
All that he was as a young man became more fully and strongly
developed in after years. To have been permitted to know
him somewhat intiniately in his youth and in his manhood
was a great privilege, and is now a cherished memory."
Professor R. Wilson Smith, Ph.D., who sat under
Dr. Dadson's ministry in Woodstock, and camped
with him for some months in Muskoka, had special
opportunities of seeing the man under all conditions.
He writes :
" Though a certain brusqueness of manner, together with the
robustness of his physique and character, might obscure his
real nature to others, to me his most distinguishing character
istics were gentleness and charity. He had a womanly tender
ness and sympathy which endeared him to little children and
to all who were in trouble. His was the charity that thinketh
no evil. He seemed to see and value all men not so much for
what they were as for what they might become. Few of his
friends, therefore, were so good, so noble, so unselfish, as he
conceived them to be, and the most erring of men was not an
object of scorn or aversion, but the blurred image of God,
which might be restored to beauty and perfection. He had a
wonderful power, too, of conveying his optimism and hopeful
ness to others. His geniality had a tonic quality and his con
fidence was an inspiration to noble effort, while his good
opinion pointed the way in which the effort was to be
directed. " As a preacher his great excellence was in the fact that the
sermon was always an unfolding of the text."
Rev. John Clifford, M.A., of London, England,
who, as a stranger, heard him one Sunday in Mont-

112 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
real, on learning of his death sent this tribute to the
Canadian Baptist :
" I cannot forget the evident sincerity and cordiality of his
welcome to a visitor from the Old Country, and the grace with
which he introduced me to the friends of Olivet on the occasion
on which I preached. But chiefly I recall the service I shared
under his inspired leadership in the morning of that day. I
cannot forget the strength and solidity of his thinking, the
clearness and force of his utterances, and the brightness of his
outlook. The uplifting effect of that morning worship is with
me to-day. God's world is made lovelier by the passage
through it of a man so Christian, saintly, strong and unselfish.''
This strikes me as remarkably just ; and, as com
ing unsolicited from the great leader of English
Nonconformists, may fittingly stand as the closing
tribute to our friend.
Brother beloved ! thy presence here was perennial
delight and blessing ; thy memory is full of sweet
ness and wholesome inspiration ; and the Christian
hope is by this the richer that it holds among its joys
the renewal and the perfecting of our fellowship.

PART II.
THE WRITER.

Thoughts on
" That touch of God we call Christianity."
E. W. D.

CHAPTER I.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
The Beauty of the Lord — The beauty of the Lord, for
which the Psalmist prayed, has very much more to do with the
life of God's children than furnishing a theme for delightful
meditation. The beauty of the Lord is no mystic sentiment ;
it is the possible characteristic of every Christian, the practical
test of the virtue of godliness.
The gospel of God's grace was intended not only to convert
the soul, but also to beautify all that sin had corrupted. Being
converted by faith in Christ, it is not intended that we remain
as we are until we see Christ as He is ; rather it is intended
that correction should immediately begin, and that heart, mind
and body, throwing off the evil and taking on the good, should
make progress back to the position whence they fell. That
which characterized Christ upon earth and made Him the
chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely, is the
point to be reached. That characteristic was the " beauty of
the Lord " of which the Psalmist speaks. " Let the beauty of
the Lord our God be upon us," we commend as a practical
prayer. Even in the matter of physical comeliness we do not know
that we should be out of the way in indicating the influence of
the grace of God. For certainly obedience to God's command
ments, resignation to His will, together with the trustfulness
which that grace involves, must in the end tell favorably upon
even the exterior man. Other things being equal, the man who
governs his life according to the counsel of the Lord is a better
specimen of physical humanity than anyone who neglects that
counsel. David, Daniel, and the three young Hebrews were
"5

Il6 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
noted for personal beauty, and their adherence to God's law had
not a little to do with it. Everyone is familiar with the features
of the face grown old in sin, and has noticed the contrast between
it and the countenance of one who has grown old in the service
of God. Beauty in old age is reserved for the godly. Now
this is something practical. The theme touches very closely
the spirit of the age. Personal beauty is sought after and
applauded, and more highly distinguished, perhaps, than in
any previous age. And it is well to recognize that even this
very desirable thing is among the "all things" for which
godliness is profitable.
We are speaking correctly, and we hope not trivially, when
we say that the subject-matter of this petition is some
thing which may be helpful in all mental endeavor. Certainly
a mind under Christian influences, and so trained, has a stronger
grasp and has nicer perceptions than the same mind not so
influenced. Grace has something to do with the quality of
thought, and surely ought to be a power of no small influence
in matters of taste, culture, etc. Here again is something
practical. These are the days of aesthetic culture. A thirst for
the beautiful pervades society, and makes its way into our
homes and our churches, as to their decorations ; and upon our
lecture platforms, and into our pulpits, as to their acceptable
oratory. " The same mind which was also in Christ Jesus " has
very much to do with imparting strength to our faculties ; and
He who tinted the heavens and gave to the earth its variety and
position of tree and shrub, stream and ocean, crag and dale,
surely may be depended upon to direct more unerringly, even
in departments such as these, than in any case where His mind
does not influence. We suppose that as pieces of literature the
beauty of Job, the Psalms and the Parables have never been
equalled. And we suppose, also, that in tasteful design and
beauty the finish of Solomon's temple has never been excelled.
The beauty of the Lord was upon them. Much has been said
disparagingly of the tendency of rigid righteousness upon
things which affect good taste, yet the fact remains, that the
monuments of beauty, either in literature or art, are the inspira
tions of godliness, .

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. I17
The beauty of the Lord has to do, and emphatically, with all
that is moral and social. Here, undoubtedly, is the point of
the Psalmist's petition. Sin has distorted our character and
our manners, and in heart and in actions there is great neces
sity for comeliness. Let the spirit of the Lord direct the heart
into desires which are pure and Christ-like, and the beauty of
the Lord is that which in our social intercourse shall manifest
these characteristics of Christ : love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. The
most practical of prayers this. We recommend that in our
devotions it stand side by side with " Give us this day our daily
bread." Beauty and Strength. — The germ of eternal life is an
active, growing thing. It increases, it spreads continually if
nurtured as God directs. It consists in the bringing into its
own line of working any power with which a man is endowed
which it is permitted to reach. To illustrate : There is an old
dead oak tree, such as may be seen in some forests in old
countries. It stands with its bark stripped and its unsightly
arms extended. The gentleman who owns the place on which
it stands, says, " Cut it down, it mars the appearance of the
place." But the woodman interferes and has it reserved for an
experiment. He takes some cuttings of ivy, plants them at its
root, and trains them up its trunk. After a time you would be
unable to recognize that tree. The ivy has crept gradually and
silently up the trunk. It has reached out its tiny arms and laid
hold upon the bare branches. It has mounted higher and
higher. It has spread wider and wider, until not one trace of
the original blasted tree can be seen. Every imperfection,
every deformity, is completely enveloped in the rich, dark green
of the beautiful twiner, which has so silently and so gradually
embraced it. Christ formed within the soul will in like manner
extend and widen its influence, covering up the sin of that
degraded heart and making it fair to look upon, laying hold
upon an affection here and a thought there, and holding them
within its beautiful embrace, twining itself around an unruly
emotion, making itself the master of some unholy desire, until, if
its progress be not wickedly stopped, it will completely transform

Il8 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
that depraved, unholy, unlovely man into one whose moral
appearance and the fruit of whose life is Christ-like. As that
tree became the beauty of the forest, so the sinful man thus
clothed upon with Christ Jesus cannot fail in being beautified.
And, surely, as the ivy could find no more fitting place to dis
play its beauty than upon the trunk of the blasted oak, so the
humblest, or sinfullest, or most unlovely man may become
moral, comely, graceful.
And then again as to strength. Surely there is something
very wrong in the case of that man who is easily tempted and
goes often astray. The principle of eternal life should, by its
development, result in stability, and the germ has been dam
aged if any other result takes place. Illustrating, as before :
There are houses in the Old Country which are almost com
pletely overgrown with ivy, and which, they say, owe their pre
servation entirely to the embrace of this plant, in which they are
so firmly held. The timbers and boards long ago would have
fallen but for being so interlaced and interlocked. However
this may be, it will illustrate what is meant. The germ of
eternal life, springing up from within, not only beautifies one's
character, but makes it strong ; that is, of course, unless the
principle be wickedly tampered with. And the fact that so
many unlovely characters and so many weaklings exist in our
churches, points to striving against, and repression of, the good
Spirit. He does His best upon every character that He has
turned from sin to God, and if they are not distinguished
by gentleness, meekness, patience, kindness and faith, the old
man within them is getting the upper hand of their Christian
life. Become Personally Acquainted with God. — It may be
taken for granted that only by communion with Jesus Christ
can a Christian man maintain his integrity before God and his
usefulness in Christ's kingdom. This secret communion must
be kept up at all hazards. But we do not believe that the high
pressure of life is the sufficient excuse that many make it to be.
The lives of all eminent men have been lived at just such
pressure. Dr. Jeter was a busy man all through his course.
Spurgeon is a busy man. So were Whitefield and Wesley. So

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 119
were Calvin and Knox and Luther. Yet each could devote to
private meditation and prayer sufficient time to become
personally acquainted with God. The eminent men have time
enough. Surely ordinary men not half so beset with work and
care may secure as much as they need. . . .
It will pay the Christian to neglect his duty no more than it
would pay the harvestman to omit the grindstone from his
routine labor. By prayer and God's Word the Christian may
cut through the difficulty of the day with ease to himself and to
the delight of the beholder of his work.
Familiarity with God. — There is such a thing as genuine,
respectful intimacy with God. The position which He assigns
to all believers is that of sons, and the degree of intimacy is just
as close as may be included in the meaning of that word when
its proper relations with the -word father are taken into con
sideration. The relation implies on the part of the son all that
is reverent, respectful, and submissive, together with righteous
fear ; and on the part of the father, tender love and active
benevolence. Hence, as sons of God, it is very becoming, and
we are privileged, to go before Him as children to an earthly
parent, and we may be assured that His compassionate heart
will receive us graciously and love us freely. But we are never
to carry ourselves before Him as presumptuous children, as
spoiled children, as impudent or disrespectful children. This
would be to misinterpret altogether the privileges of the re
lationship between us and God. Our demeanor and our speech
before God is to be that of children who rightly regard their
relationship to their father, intensified by the consideration that
this is not only the Father, but also God.
In this matter the attitude of the " First among many breth
ren," the Son of God, is to be our example. In all His references
to God there is the utmost veneration mingled with His
affectionate address. Never once is He presumptuous, nor does
He lack the dignity of respectful utterance. " Holy Father,"
"Righteous Father," and terms of such character begin His
reverent addresses, and enable us to judge, at least, that any
degree of familiarity upon which He did not venture is not to
be thought of in our approaches. Christ is the pattern to

120 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
believers in all things, in behavior and speech, as well as in
heart-life. Most assuredly His position before the throne of
grace is a law unto us.
Thy God is with Thee. — The Lord God is certainly with
Christians at all times and everywhere. The knowledge of this
fact has been in all ages the comforting doctrine to God's people,
when in times of adversity they have been driven to the Word
for consolation, or in times of doubt they have needed direction
from a source higher than elsewhere could be obtained. But
this promise carries with it the assurance of a condition
of things which perhaps Christians do not sufficiently love to
consider. God accompanies the man upon whom He has
written His name, not only in the prosecution of his business,
but also in the pursuit of his pleasure ; not only in his going in
the direction of that which is good and true, but also of that
which is bad and false. God and His child once united are
inseparable. The fact here indicated ought not to be lost sight
of by that man who has inclination towards questionable busi
ness ventures, by that woman whose tastes are towards fashion
able folly, by that young man to whom strong drink and billiards
are attractions, by those who patronize theatricals. They may
go into all these things, and too frequently they do, but wither
soever they go God goes with them, His presence being either
recognized or ignored. And the conclusion of the whole matter
amounts to this : The Christian who ventures upon questionable
business expedients, the drinking, pleasure-loving, theatre-going
Christian, not only loses dignity himself in the eyes of the world,
but degrades his God by subjecting Him to such environments.
In His Name. — The Christian is Christ's man, His servant,
His agent. Christ has set His mark upon him, and the man
himself has proclaimed that he died to the world and lives only
to God. There can be nothing for it but that he does whatever
he does in the name of Christ. He may misrepresent his
Master, he may do things altogether contrary to the mind of
Christ, yet he cannot get rid of the responsibility and the name
which he represents.
Better Die than Lie. — We take it that the law of God pro
claims " no compromise " in the matter of veracity. Truth pure

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. I2t
and simple, honor bright in all things, whether for weal or woe, is
the only doctrine endorsed by the Word of Life. The contrary
doctrine has lately been proclaimed at Chautauqua, and the
proclamation was greeted with prolonged applause. It was said
that in certain cases — the detection of crime, the prevention of
bloodshed, etc., for example — it would be right to lie. We have
not the least sympathy with the teaching. Better die than lie
is our creed. And we consider any ethical doctrine which
smooths the way for lying lips is pernicious in the extreme.
The contrary of this position may be put very plausibly, dilemma
cases innumerable may be presented, which may with certainty
draw away our sympathies from the line of rigid righteousness.
Nevertheless, God's truth and man's dilemma are two distinct
things. He is one and changeless and cannot lie. If He cannot
lie, unless He deny himself, He cannot approve of lying. Con
junction of circumstances cannot change His nature ; man's
dilemma cannot alter what is stamped upon His being. Conse
quently nothing can excuse lying. We take it that God's
character is the only true standard of Christian virtue, and
anything which conflicts with the moral rectitude of God is
wrong and without excuse. God is holy — to be unholy is sin.
God is righteous — to be unrighteous is sin. God cannot lie —
lying is sin. Anywhere and in any circumstances lying is sin.
We believe that this straitest position is the only one which
agrees with sound ethics. There is this also about lying which
makes it more than a great many things an inexcusable sin —
we can be truthful. In a great many other directions we cannot
help sinning. Sin has so long controlled us that evil desires
are unmanageable, and bad imaginings break all bounds.
" There is none righteous, no not one." But, depraved as we
are, we need not lie. God cannot lie, and so far up out of our
depravity may we approach near Him that we need not lie.
Here is a sin that we need not do, and there can be no excuse
for the doing it. Truth may demand the forfeiture of convenience,
of friends, of property, it may be of life. In any event let it be
spoken. Nothing can excuse the omission of that which is right
to do and can be done.

122 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The Gamut is not Learned in Heaven.— Time is a prepa
ration for eternity, or, rather, eternity continues what life
begins. We are born unto God upon earth, not in heaven ; and
that life continues through eternity. Jesus has power upon
earth to forgive sins, and the effect of that forgiveness continues.
Now are we the sons of God ; afterwards will be Christlikeness
as the result of sonship. Sanctification begins here ; it is per
fected hereafter. Life is the infant school of the Christian, in
which it is appointed him to learn his a, b, c, his gamut, in pre
paration for the after course. Let him see to it that he is culti
vating the heart and mind of Christ. Let him see to it. that he
is familiarizing himself with the character of God and the laws
of His kingdom. Let it be his business upon earth to accustom
himself to the songs and scenes of heaven. Heaven ought not
to be a new country to those who are its citizens. Its joys ought
to be familiar things. The gamut is learned here.
Spiritual Resources Within. — Eternal life is really in the
possession of every Christian. We believe that the tendency is
to rely too much upon the aid that comes from without, and to
consider ourselves helpless unless the heavens open and God
sends help from the sanctuary, and to wish and hope and pray
for tardy deliverance. This need not be. Christ is already
formed within the Christian the hope of glory. And all poor,
timorous mortals need do is lay hold upon Him.
The Christian's Support. — The matter of personal salva
tion has its place, and a very important place, in the thought
and heart-life of every Christian, but its place is nowhere in the
vicinity of Doubting Castle. It has its work to do upon the
general development of Christian character, but its work is
exactly the reverse of that for which its service is employed by
so many. Its position and its service are to be strengthening,
hope-giving and gladdening ; never discomforting, all the way
through. Instead of being itself a matter for anxious surmis-
ings, it is intended as a great help in the conflict with other
anxieties ; instead of being a source of trouble, it is the thing
above all others which makes for our peace. Christians
generally will find enough outside this which they make so
conspicuous to give them unrest ; and so this is given at the

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 1 23
beginning of the race, not at the end, that it may be help and
consolation in the midst of the temptation and struggle and
trial which must necessarily go on until the end is reached. So
says the apostle in effect : When in temptation, lay hold on
eternal life ; when in trouble or disease or poverty, temporal or
spiritual, lay hold on eternal life. Take, to begin with, every
consolation which assured salvation can give, and therein will
be found in the hour of every need a source of strength which
that Christian entirely misses who allows himself to be troubled
about his final safety.
Christ's " Comes."— We insist that conversion to God
means coming to the " yoke " just as much as it means coming
to rest. The " Come " means just as emphatically come to work,
and the symbol given, yoke, indicates that the toil involved is
not of the lightest or pleasantest, viewed from the standpoint of
those to whom the invitation is given. But rest and work do
not exhaust our Lord's definition of His word of invitation. He
insists upon it that study shall take its place with the other two,
and in His definition He emphasizes come and learn, just as He
emphasizes come and work, and come and rest ; thus complet
ing what is essential to the proper understanding, and hence
accepting, of His invitation.
We do not say that there is no salvation for the man who
" comes to Jesus " in response to the popular appeal, even
though he be in great ignorance of the meaning and responsi
bility of our Lord's " Come " ; but we do say that it is the busi
ness of those commissioned by Christ to be the heralds of His
proclamation to set forth the Lord's invitation consistently with
the Lord's meaning.
The Great Need. — The hope of the individual Church, or of
Christianity at large, is not in the men of brilliant genius who
may arise to set forth and defend her truths ; nor is it in the
multiplication of such noble men as Morgan, Dodge and Wil-
lets, who have lately passed away ; nor even in the spread of
that spirit which actuated the apostolic Carey and Judson. It is,
on the contrary, in the willingness of commonplace Christians
to do promptly the little things which they can just as easily do
as not.

I24 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The Prayer of the Life.— Prayer ought to be looked upon
as a life as well as an act. Probably the prayer which deserves
the chief consideration, and is worthy of special emphasis be
cause it is in danger of being overlooked, is the prayer of the
life. This prayer does not voice itself in any set forms of
speech, nor is it dependent upon any place or posture. There
may be no speech nor language, yet its voice is always heard,
its spirit ever ascending.
The Testimony of the Life  The life testimony always is
read and read correctly, no matter what the lip testimony may
assert That good brother who is always, in prayer and cove
nant meetings, lamenting his constant failure and declaring the
uselessness of his life, not hypocritically, but who is known for
his home virtues and neighborly kindness — nobody listens
to his speech. In spite of this he is rightly placed among the
godly and saintly. And the Pharisee's speech is just as little
heeded ; in spite of his words, he is known as a Pharisee. The
good profession, then, is witnessed by deeds, not words.
As we write we recall to mind a man who lived for eighty-two
years and was never known to open his lips in the assemblies of
God's people, although for over half a century he was among
the most constant attendants upon the means of grace ; yet his
life was a never-ceasing witness to the truth as it is in Jesus.
Boys and girls respected him, young men and women rever
enced him, and God's cause flourished through him as in the
case of few others. If we could get living testimony we should
be able to get along very well without the other ; if these testi
monies are united, so much the better ; if they are not united,
we propose, as by far the better way, silence in the churches.
Strong and Beautiful  "To the end her life was strong and
beautiful," says the writer of Mrs. Taylor's obituary. Not
often is such a testimony given. A faith strong and beauti
ful in the midst of circumstances peculiarly trying — throughout
brave struggles that very few know of during these days — in
spite of the contumely which the color of her skin would be sure
to provoke — strong and beautiful for ninety years ! Many go to
martyr scenes for inspiration, or seek among the good, great
men of earth for testimonies of grace. It appears to us just now

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 125
that that which could keep a soul for ninety years strong and
beautiful does not want further witness, and that the patient
heroism of all these years ought to take rank as gloriously as
the brief testimony of the martyrs.
Thanksgiving — Thanksgiving is not the action or disposition
of a moment ; it is a phase of life, of character, and it is only as
God's benefits impress the life, moving a man not only to
express gratitude but to live thankfully, that thanksgiving goes
up with acceptance before God. This may appear from the
very word which we use to express this emotion of gratitude.
The words "thank" and "think" are closely allied in their
origin, and they have so much of their meaning now in common
that thankfulness does not exist apart from " thinkfulness."
From which it is manifest that mere outward posturing or words
of thanks have nothing to do in the matter, unless the thought
is duly impressed. Let the mind be duly affected with thought
upon God and His benefits, and the emotion of the heart will
immediately respond. Thinking produces thanking.
Invalid Service. — The work of the world is done in great
part by invalids or by those sadly hampered by physical disa
bility. Swift, De Quincy, Carlyle, Johnson and Cowper are
types of the great invalid host of literary men to whom the world
owes so much. The achievements of William III. and Zisca
show what seemingly incapable men can do in the realm of
soldiership. Milton and Fawcett were statesmen, and one need
but be reminded of the long array of theologians who, through
much tribulation, have shed the light of their wisdom. Indeed,
historical retrospect is quite unnecessary. Everyone knows
among his friends or acquaintances invalids who are doing hero
work in the various spheres to which they have been called to
labor. The achievements of invalidism ought to inspire cour
age. Some grow faint-hearted under their often infirmities.
Let them remember Paul, Timothy, and the delicate ones who
followed after, and let them never think that affliction was sent
to destroy usefulness.
Cheerful Sufferers. — Christian teachers, of all men, should
suffer uncomplainingly. By so doing they commend their doc
trine, and also by their cheery presence and carriage they

126 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
vastly enlarge the company who can be persuaded to sit at their
feet. Faithfulness. — " Moreover it is required in stewards that a
man be found faithful," and that is all. God never requires of
a minister that he be found eloquent, nor does He require of
Sunday School teachers that they be found learned, nor of a
Christian mother that she train up virtuous children, nor of a
servant that she do the thing which will always please her
mistress. It is required of men and women that they be found
faithful, and in God's sight there is no other obligation. This
is practical doctrine, and doctrine which ought to have a great
deal to do with the settling of very much of the unrest which
pious souls fall prey to. One's duties consist in knowing God's
will, and doing his best in regard to it. What minister has not
tortured his soul, when he got back into his study on Sunday
evening, over the failures of the day. It takes somewhat of
grace to recall with equanimity what has been said and blun
dered badly, and some specially fine bit that has been forgot
ten ; how same fancied " effort " has fallen flat, and how some
simple passage of the Word unexpectedly lit up the faces of the
congregation. Let the chagrined pastor hold hard upon the
comfort which the being found faithful may bring, and let him
leave his " efforts " and blunders to the winds, where they
belong. If he has been faithful, he may enjoy his Sunday
night's sleep.
This one obligation, by means of which, after all, God is
going to carry on the work of His kingdom, is, through prayer
and faith, at the disposal of any Christian.
Character the Test.— Although we set no light store by
soundness in the faith, we are of opinion that the character test
outweighs any other. A man who walks in humble dependence
upon God and does right is a Christian brother whatever his
views otherwise may be. It would be capital exercise for those
who deny the name Christian to any who do not see eye to eye
with them in doctrinal matters if they would faithfully examine
their own right to that name, judged by merely the character
test.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 1 27
The Business of a Christian.— The business of a Christian
man is to love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly before his
God in whatsoever sphere God has set him to work, and thus in
any season live in obedience to the commands (with no excep
tion whatever, not even while sleeping), " Pray without ceasing,"
" Let your light shine." In our view Christian business is
transacted as effectively in the countingroom or the harvest
field as in the prayer-meeting, and God, through it, may be in
the same manner glorified. We go further and say that when
God demands of a man the fulfilment of his countingroom and
harvest field obligations, He does not want him in the prayer-
meeting. Christian Happiness. — Christian happiness lies in the doing
of God's will and this only. The grand specific for Christian
melancholy, unrest and dissatisfaction is to be found in the
hearty activity of service.
The Christian Citizen. — We have upon several occasions
pointed out to our readers the positive Christian duty of attend
ing conscientiously to the obligations of citizenship. Both as a
duty to God and to man, Christianity presents no other alterna
tive. Seeing that this is so, that those in authority are placed
there by the people ; seeing that it is so also that Christian
men, if conscientiously determined, have it within their power to
say by whom and how government shall be carried on, what is
corrupt lies clearly, in great measure, at the door of those who
are indifferent to the practical Christianity of citizenship.
Christian Politicians. — There is need of Christians who are
willing to be politicians. It is very much the fashion to pro
claim a divorce between these two things. While not denying
that many Christian men can safely and successfully be engaged
in continual political work, a conviction obtains with very many,
that godly men are safer out of it. Politics, they say, involves a
great deal that is disreputable. So does banking, shipping, or
shoemaking, or any other calling in life, which is open to disrep
utable men. The reason given is not a good one, nor ought it
to be sufficient to deter men who are doing their best to serve
God from taking their place and doing their best for God and
man in any department of the public service. Christian men

128 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
have Christian business in the midst of affairs which are ordained
of God.
flanly Witnessing. — There is need of prominent men who
are not ashamed to be known as Christians. We detest cant,
and we utterly abominate religious parade, but we commend
and honor Christian manliness which is not careful to conceal
its convictions and which bears testimony to its faith when it
is just as convenient and fitting as not to do so. Witnessing
for Christ in a manly fashion is not out of place anywhere.
Worldliness. — Worldliness ought to be applied to that only
which is wickedness : the fact of existence in the world does
not constitute worldliness in the scriptural sense. Customs,
desires, aspirations, etc., which have nothing in common with
the principles of Christ's gospel, are rightly thus designated. . . .
There is no use talking around the matter. As the sin of
worldliness is theTgreat snare of all Christians, the present posi
tion of the Baptist denomination is not without danger in this
direction. What is meant by worldliness is well enough under
stood without special definitions. This thing which God hates,
has ever stood in the way of the progress of Christ's kingdom.
The history of the Church is strewn with the wrecks which it
has made ; and without controversy the church or the denomi
nation which is borne on its current, if not done to the death, is
sadly crippled. Now that our denomination is riding prosper
ously, the note of warning which urges the path of safe sailing
ought to be regarded as well sounded. As a people we all know
that the good opinion of others says nothing as to God's opinion
of us. The patronage of the world argues nothing for the
success of our mission ; our ability to stand side by side with
others in the signs of material advancement says nothing as to
what we are doing for Christ Jesus. Our source of strength is
deeper and beyond all these things. We must be spiritual or
we are nothing and worse than nothing. Spiritual strength is the
only strength ; if anything other is, then the Roman Catholic
and the State Church have it ; for, do what we will, we can
never approach them in the realms of architecture and ritual or
in the dignity and beauty of service, and we may as well retire.
In these days of our prosperity, then, let it be understood that

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 1 29
only so far as we are spiritual are we doing God's work, or are
we of any use whatever as a denomination of Christians. We
believe that, so far, spiritual power has characterized our
churches. Certainly every step of real progress we have made,
has been the result of this only. We see the danger into which,
if unguarded, we may fall, and we deem the warning just now
timely and, perhaps, sufficient ; worldliness is a thing that God
hates. Wrecks. — Men through drink and lust become wrecks, but
wrecks are not always made by these means. Covetousness,
social ambition, and mental pride, are equally potent forces to
that end. It may be a very shocking thing to say ; nevertheless,
when the purposes of man's creation are considered and his
influence upon his fellows regarded, it is said within the truth,
that many lauded millionaires, many a queen of society, many
of those who, from their money, society, or intellectual standing,
appear to merit the " Well done " of their fellows, are simply
hulks, stranded and useless. The free, easy course of worldli
ness landed them where they are.
Covetousness. — The covetous man is in Scripture placed in
unholy company, and is spoken of in no better terms than his
fellows ; but in so far he has been allowed to take his place with
the pure and godly without rebuke. What is to be done with
him ? Kindly and earnest expostulation is recommended ; this
failing, church discipline, and in the end, expulsion from church
fellowship. There will be some difficulty, however, in getting a
satisfactory answer to the question, " Who is the covetous man ?"
Enemies of the Cross. — There can be no doubt that the
apostle had professing Christians in mind when he wrote to the
Philippians and told them, even weeping, that some of them
were enemies of the cross of Christ.
Forgetfulness. — One of the very first principles which ought
to be learned by every Christian is that of the obligation to
fidelity which his profession of Jesus Christ involves. " How
can ye say that ye love me, if ye do not the things which I say ?"
lies at the threshold of discipleship, and ought so to enter into
the composition of the renewed heart and mind that to be
neglectful of the relationships which it indicates would be
9

130 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
impossible, unless criminal. The scriptural illustration of the
married state is in point here. Husband and wife are one, and
if it could be possible in a man to ignore his wife for no other
reason than that he forgot all about her, the State laws would
certainly very unpleasantly remind him that forgetfulness is
crime. So in regard to the obligations of discipleship : forget
fulness cannot be taken as a valid excuse for their non-fulfil
ment. Just Judgment. — We must not judge all men alike. Some
are born into this world predisposed to irritability and all man
ner of mental and moral ugliness, and after their advent here
they are thrust into the midst of surroundings which cultivate
innate meanness. Others are predisposed to all things lovely,
so far as outward characteristics are concerned, and find them
selves matured in an atmosphere helpful to what is sincere and
seemly. The man holding his own for fifty years, who has been
opposed all the way through by such demons as make a
specialty of provoking bad temper and general meanness, has
made, through God's grace, a grand fight of it. Were it not for
this grace where would the poor fellow have ended ? In this
particular we often mistake in our estimates of men, and
frequently condemn one who has fought a good fight, because
he is not manifestly victor. The apostle's figures of boxer and
racer give two conceptions of the progress of the man of God.
The one shows us a man who makes swift progress and is dam
aged very little by the way ; the other is stationary, buffeted
and often prone in the dust, but if he endure to the end he shall
not miss his crown. We dislike the petty meannesses which
sometimes characterize Christian men, but we are inclined to
praise God that through His grace they have, at least, held their
own. Sacrifice.— Christianity involves sacrifice. Indeed that
species of consecration which makes one willing to give up his
personal tastes, and part with a share of his substance for the
benefit of that which is assumed to be the purpose of his
consecration, is the characteristic of Christianity. We do not
well see how the divine life can flourish, if indeed it can exist,
where this grace is lacking. The foundation idea of religion

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 131
is just this thing. God began it by the sacrifice of His only
begotten Son. Christ continued it by freely giving His life
and giving himself in death. It remains for God's children to
fulfil it by continually working in the line of this foundation
principle and giving themselves up to the business of self-
sacrifice. Why Deepen the Spiritual Life ?— Why (perhaps it will lead
to an answer) deepen the well ? That some one might drink
and be satisfied. Spiritual life must be deepened because the
poor world is thirsty and wants to drink. We are commanded
by God to carry this water of Salvation — the Word of God — to
souls that are perishing of thirst. The Lord wants us to have
more and more depth of Christian character, that these might
drink. Are there not fathers, brothers, daughters, in many
homes without the Water of Life ; living among Christians, but
Christians whose Christianity is like the water that is merely
surface water — it does no one any good ? They want greater
depth, in order that out of the fulness God has given them, the
thirst of some soul may be quenched.
We need a greater depth of character because souls are
following in our wake, and, if so be we do not cut a broad
deep channel in the things we do, some souls will be wrecked.
There is such a thing as a Christian, as well as the man who
walks the street in baseness of life, leading his fellows to
destruction. Well, as it seems a practical question, how is the life to be
deepened ? Not alone by feasting on the things the Lord Jesus
Christ has given us. In order that the spiritual life may
have its proper effect upon the lives of others, there must be a
constant emptying of one's self and a filling again. The
Christian who simply absorbs and gives nothing out is not
letting his light redound to the glory of God. Our Saviour
spoke of a well of water " springing up " into everlasting life ;
not springing up to our own everlasting lives — that is not the
right idea — but to the everlasting life of somebody else. It is
the Christian's business to let flow from himself day after day
all the blessings of everlasting life.
"Ye are the salt of the earth," our Saviour said. It was not

132 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
that they themselves might be kept preserved and purified, but
that the regeneration Jesus Christ had put in them might be sent
throughout the world. It was said again, " Ye are the light of
the world," but how many Christian men so surrounded their
light that it did not shine. The bushel was a type of business.
Many a man in his restful home— his hours of pleasure — simply
covered up the light. Thank God, he did not put it out, and
he would be in glory by and by, by the grace of the Son of
God, but that was not the purpose for which Christ brought us
into His kingdom.
The Greatest Grace — The perfect type is found in him
who, with faith and hope, possesses charity ; and it is this which
imparts the tone of genuineness to everything beautiful in faith
which hope imparts. For, as we have seen, faith only may be
uninviting if not repellent ; so faith and hope alone may exist
together enlightening and blessing wherever they influence, and
still fall short of the possible and proper ideal. Hope may
expend itself in good wishes and bright coloring. Charity does
not stop short of good deeds. Hope, in indolent mood, may
not trouble itself further than to effect a comfortable feeling to
itself and happy appearance to things surrounding. But charity
is deeper down than feeling, and has but little to do with
appearances. It is that crowning grace whose characteristic it
is that it " thinketh no evil." It does not stop at wishing no
evil ; it thinketh no evil.
The Unseen Workmen  Professor Drummond, in that
delightful book upon " Tropical Africa," lately published, tells
of the myriad " plowmen " which nature has at work, doing for
her increase in luxuriant vegetation year by year in the vast tracts
untouched by man, what, year by year, the husbandman must do
if he would reap the fruits of harvest. The soil must be turned
up to ensure production, whether of grain or jungle grass.
Professor Drummond shows the part which the white ant of
Africa performs in this necessary work. Its patient, stupendous
and widespread toil renews the face of the earth. And this fact,
to the uninitiated, among the many wonders he tells of ant life
and work, is perhaps the' most amazing— the ant is unseen. Its
work is ceaseless and universal, extending from beneath the

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 133
soil to the tree-tops, yet it is silently done and unobserved.
The little creatures, whether clearing the forests of their fallen
timber, or throwing up their tons of subsoil, conceal their move
ments from every gaze. Nature owes the beauty and abundance
of increase to the labor of her unseen workmen.
So does Christianity. Its beauty, its growth, and its wide-
reaching blessing, as seen to-day, have been brought about
mainly through the instrumentality of unseen and unrecognized
workmen. Not many learned, not many noble, or otherwise
conspicuous, have been among the myriad toilers, whose life
business is clearing the world of the encumbrance of sin and
doing the drudge work which makes the wilderness and
solitary places blossom as the rose. This is in the plan of God,
and although it conforms so closely to the analogy of nature, it
is the plan that is in great part unobserved. The Spirit of God,
with tireless activity, is bringing men from darkness into light.
As the Gospel spreads, the souls of men are new created, now
few, now multitudes, until Christianity numbers its millions —
all changed by grace, all impressed with the instinct of the
Spirit, all having new life felt in some measure, as they needs
must, according to the inner promptings of that life. But of
all the millions whom the Spirit touches, how many do we, in
our ignorance, credit with effective service in the production of
the glorious results of the kingdom. The pulpit and the "lead
ing brethren" and the sister " workers " comprise, generally,
the sum total of what we consider the efficient workers. It
need not be said that the kingdom does not come, and is not
maintained, through such service only. Leaders these may be,
and conspicuous workmen ; but the solid service of the kingdom,
the self-denying drudge work, is done by the unseen forces.
Here the millions are at work, little by little, grain by grain,
preparing the way and ' making the path straight — little by
little, grain by grain, bringing up lost humanity out of the
darkness into the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. The
unseen workmen, how they toil ! One is the father of a family,
and as he stands at his bench hour by hour, his children pass
and repass through mind and heart and are sent Godward on
the prayer of faith. Another is the mother ; and all the day

134 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
long, and perhaps long into the night, her little ones are con
secrated by her faithful and importunate pleadings. Another
is a young disciple who, out of her hard earnings, lays aside all
but her actual necessities, for the work and service of her
Master. Another is^he young man who, unknown to all the
world besides, drives his plane with double force that he may
fit a workman for more public service.* This is the grain by
grain work of the millions — work which newspapers do not
report, and which secures but small applause, but which is
after all the work which tells upon the kingdom. And what
shall be said of the many unseen toilers whose countenance,
whose prayers and whose faith are the foundations upon which
more conspicuous workmen stand ? What of her, the afflicted
one, who can only pray ? What of him who, with his bundle of
tracts, spends his spare hours in the foul by-ways ? What of
her whose sweet charity is known only to those of humble life ?
What of the multitude who wear less clothing and live upon
meagre fare that their hands may be open to the Lord ? Unseen
workmen, all of them. No praises for their charity, no pleasant
speeches about their self-denial, no fuss, no flowers. They are
willing that the captain should have his praises sung in the
flattering address and the purse ; they are content to be
stokers whom nobody sees or thinks of; but they feed the
furnace nevertheless, and rejoice that their unrecognized efforts
mean progress.
We have lamented that the fruits of righteousness are in so
small measure apparent upon the lives of vast multitudes in
Christ's kingdom, but we find in the lesson of Mr. Drummond
that the great results are accomplished by unseen workmen.
Amidst much apparent apathy this should be strong encourage
ment. His Servants Shall Serve Him.— To simply "do nothing
for ever and ever," while it may have been the highest concep
tion of felicity to the poor, toil-worn creature into whose mouth
*No doubt, as he wrote this, he thought of his brother Mark, whose
beautiful unselfishness stood by him during his eleven years of college
preparation. — [Ed. ]

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 1 35
the phrase is put, is by no means the conception of future bless
edness of which Revelation speaks. Undoubtedly the coming
abode of Christians will be a place of blessedness, but it will
also be a place of activity. But why should it be said that ser
vants shall serve unless, indeed, it is implied that servants do
not always serve ? The words carry upon their face a shadow.
They tell of a state of affairs as lamentable as it is well known,
in the present state of the kingdom.
Death and Resurrection. — We ought to become so familiar
with the matters pertaining to death and resurrection that the
prospect, instead of being a gloomy one and one upon which we
most dislike to dwell, should be in fact our solace in trouble
and despondency. Such was the apostles' idea ; and, if our
impressions of these coming events do not bring with them
gladness to the heart, there is something wrong with the spiri
tual life.

CHAPTER II.
SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.
The Existence of God  Someone wrote to Charles Darwin
in 1873 in regard to his belief in the existence of God. His
reply closes with these words : " The safest conclusion seems
to be that the whole subject is beyond the scope of man's intel
lect ; but man can do his duty."
Charles Darwin was an earnest seeker after truth, but, unfor
tunately, not in the direction of the question which was put to
him. Whatever was his authority in matters pertaining to the
science of nature, which he thoroughly investigated, it was very
little in the science of theology, which, so far as we know, he
did not investigate. We like the tone of his reply, however ; it
is modest, sincere, and stamped with the simplicity that charac
terized the man.
But what is man's duty ? Were man to do his duty there
would not be so much intellectual ignorance as is, of late
especially, being displayed in regard to the existence of God
and kindred themes. He has revealed Himself in nature and
in His Word, so that those who seek may find. He challenges
the fullest investigation. " Prove me now herewith, saith the
Lord." No man does his duty who does not answer God's
challenge ; and very few who do honestly sift the matter for
themselves, arrive at the conclusion that the existence of God is
" beyond the scope of man's intellect." A greater scientist than
Darwin concluded that " to fear God and keep his command
ments is the whole duty of man."
Liberty of Conscience.— Charles Bradlaugh is an infidel of
the most pronounced type, and as such we hold in utter detesta
tion his opinions and his advocacy of them ; but Charles Brad-
136

SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 1 37
laugh has been repeatedly elected to Parliament, and cannot,
without a blow at representative government, be denied his seat.
The Baptist principle is that no government has any business
to force a test which is against the conscience of any man.
Every man has the right to believe what he pleases, without
interference or proscription ; and when, because of that belief,
the State denies him privileges which are freely accorded to
those who believe otherwise, violence is done to that part of him
over which God, and He alone, has any controlling right. It
ill becomes the once proscribed Dissenters, Catholics, Quakers,
Jews, Etc., who had any influence in defeating the bill, to give
their voice in favor of those disabilities against which they them
selves so long protested.
Freedom of Thought.— The report comes to hand that the
Society for the Suppression of Blasphemous Literature proposes
to get up cases against Huxley, Tyndall, Spencer, John Stuart
Mill, Etc. While we do not attach much importance to an
implausible rumor, yet we believe the tendency of zeal without
knowledge is in the direction of just such ridiculous things.
Christianity is all the better for the work of such men, and, in
the long run, its triumph will be more signally glorious than if
its principles had never been tested by men of such eminence.
God's Book fearlessly invites the Goliaths of its enemies, and its
invulnerable principles are commended to all the people the
more decisively as they remain undimmed in the conflict with
the best that can oppose them.
The Inspiration of the Bible  What Dr. Pepper says,
however, of the value and authority of the different parts of
Scripture would not help his position as against verbal inspira
tion. He is quoted as saying : " The words of Christ have an
ultimateness, an integrality, a sphericity beyond any others,"
and with him these words have authority greater than either the
apostle's or prophet's. But Christ wrote nothing. What we
have in the New Testament is merely recorded from memory
by the evangelists, if it were not verbally inspired. We fail
to see how Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could give to the
words of Jesus ultimateness, integrality and sphericity greater
than is manifest in other words upon their records unless

138 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
these words had been specially given them. Moreover, is it not
going too far to say that Luke in his gospel speaks with greater
authority than Luke in his Acts, or that Matthew, Mark and
John wrote with ultimateness, integrality and sphericity greater
than Paul ? By far the simpler way out of the difficulty would
be to say that the same power which dictated to the evangelists
the wonderful words of Jesus performed the same office for Paul.
Verbal inspiration has this to commend it : One believing in
it and doing his reading according to that belief, will arrive at
such a conception of God's truth as by any other theory will be
pronounced just ; he will not go astray upon the eternal verities.
On the other hand, what may not a man come to believe, or to
disbelieve, if he be governed according to the new theories
which are made for him, or which he may invent ? Evidently
the true theory has not yet been established. How would it do
to fall back upon one that is safe in any event ?
The Bible Only  With W. E. we firmly believe in the
" supernatural." Doubtless God has other agencies through
which He can communicate with men besides the Scriptures.
We know that angels are ministering spirits ; we know that the
Spirit, God himself, dwells with men ; we know right well that
the Omnipotent One is present everywhere with the creatures
whom He has made ; and we are far from denying that He can
exercise control over heart and mind at His pleasure. But i'and
this is the point to be emphasized) how can it ever be known,
apart from the Scriptures, whether the spiritual forces that are at
work upon consciousness (or mind, or heart, if W. E. prefers
the term) be really of God ? What we experience in our own
consciousness we know to be of God, or otherwise, only as we
bring it to the standard of God's Word. Fully admitting all
that W. E. desires in regard to the supernatural, that there
must be some test is self-evident from the fact that within the
compass of that supernatural there are other mighty agencies,
the malignant, which can equally well give their impressions to
imagination. In this very line runs the apostle's injunction,
" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether
they be of God," and nobody knows of any test save God's
Word. To take the example already given. Mr. Mozoomdar

SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 1 39
and Loyola may, in some things, have been taught of God ; but
neither of them, apart from the Bible, knows from which direc
tions his impressions have come. It has been revealed to Mr.
Mozoomdar that Jesus is the medium through whom the soul
reaches God ; it has also been revealed to him, or it comes to
him as a deduction from other revelations, that Jesus is not the
Son of God. In the case of Loyola also ; doubtless he professed
his doctrine of self-abnegation to have come from God, and
just as certainly he would attribute to that source the doctrine
that the end sanctifies the means. But, Bible in hand, we know
better ; we know that one part, at least, of Mr. Mozoomdar's
belief is not of God, which also we know in the case of Loyola.
How far, then, apart from the authority of God's Word, can any
impression or belief be trusted ? No faith whatever can be
placed in it. Whether or not God ever saves men indepen
dently of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a matter we are
not called upon to discuss now. We hazard this statement,
however : they can have no knowledge of that fact, if He do,
until the Gospel reveals it to them.
Of the dangerous tendencies of the admission of any other
revelation as authoritative except the written Word of God, it is
not necessary to refer for examples to fanatics or pronounced
mystics ; all decadence from purity and truth which the Church
has ever sanctioned has originated just here, and all present
departures from apostolic teaching and practice are to be attri
buted to no other thing. Men have impressions in regard to the
unseemliness of primitive modes of worship, and they have deep
conscientious convictions which are opposed to some very plain
statements of God's Word. These convictions and impressions
may not come through dreams or special ecstasy, but they are
there, stamped upon the mind through some agency and indi
cating frequently a change of mind just as wonderful as that
produced by Mr. Mozoomdar's revelation. And what shall be
done about it ? Admit, say, that there can be no everlasting
punishment because the whole moral nature of some sincere
man suddenly revolts from the thought of God being capable of
doing anything to hurt anybody. Or admit the propriety of all
manner of worldliness in the Church of God, because somebody's

140 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
soul abhors the Puritanical. This will never do, evidently ; but
how can it be avoided, if anything other than God's Word is
allowed as authoritative ?
Miracles. — If man's mind were perfect, and if he were in
possession of all data, we can readily understand how such a
thing as miracle would be entirely ruled out. He could then
see the workings of the mysterious as easily as he now sees the
manifest. There are no miracles from God's standpoint. He
has a reason for everything He does, and He does it reasonably.
To us, however, His actions, after reaching to the limits of our
faculties, pass over into the miraculous. Our reason cannot
follow ; it may indeed rebel, but the fact remains.
Reformation Principles  We do not purpose charging upon
Protestantism of to-day any serious falling away from the light
which ushered in the full glory of the Reformation. We are
not among those who look back fondly upon the Christian life
of three or four centuries ago, and deprecate the character of
the godliness which is now prevalent. Indeed, when we bring
into comparison the heroes of the Reformation and the men of
this century who have stood out as leaders of God's people, we
cannot but note the progress which the intervening years have
developed upon Christian character and life. We are not, how
ever, blind to the fact of the increased advance which could be
made in all departments of things spiritual if the Reformation
principles were more generally carried out in the church-life
and heart-life of those who have lived so long enjoying the good
things of that religious liberty which these principles made
possible. It would be a grand step in advance of even the
present state of Christian progress if, through the Christian
education and culture, the architecture and general facilities of
religious advancement, the missionary and philanthropic enthu
siasm, the book-making and newspapers and the music which
are so conspicuously in character with the heart-life and methods
of nineteenth century Christianity, there were always recognized
shining out clearly those three principles. Had these not
forced themselves upon the Erfurt monk, Romanism would still
prevail in all its old-time darkness.
These are : (i) That man in sin is a lost soul ; (2) that man
is altogether helpless, as far as his own endeavors are concerned,

SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 141
to propitiate in any way the God of Heaven ; (3) that Jesus
Christ, received by faith, is the only escape for lost sinners.
During the centuries intervening from Luther, every step of
progress has been made upon these lines ; and whenever the
individual church or Christendom has turned aside into any other
path, the result has been only to impede God's work. During
the time which is to come, man's sin, man's helplessness and
man's Saviour will continue to be the principles of man's refor
mation until the world is redeemed unto Christ. Anything
other, opposed to these, will simply retard the day of victory. We
trust that throughout our churches, where Luther's life has been
reviewed, the principles which gave success to his work may
not be forgotten.
The Present Attitude. — When once particular principles
have reached their ascendancy they maintain supremacy by
reason of their own momentum, even after the power by which
that ascendancy was reached has become effete. Thus, politi
cally, Greece and Rome swayed the world long after the
sinews which gave them the mastery were unbent. Thus,
pagan religion and philosophy were accepted and universal
long after the gods were laughed at and the philosophy
despised ; and the spectacles presented themselves to the
world of stern war victoriously waged by an indolent and
luxurious soldiery, and religious principles spreading them
selves which were the merriment of their devotees. It came to
pass that apparent success did not depend upon " eternal
vigilance." The name of Rome, say, or the name of the gods,
stood in the place of discipline and devotion, and the soldier
could indolently saunter to victory, and the priest could slyly
smile when ministering his mummery.
There is a lesson in all this which Christian men and women
cannot just at the present time afford to overlook. The
Reformation produced Great-Hearts, whose souls go marching
on still in all the victories of the Cross. The victory part is
very certain. But what we want to make plain is that, in spite
of victory, Christianity may be an indolent thing ; that is, its
professors may be apathetic and worldly, simply nominal
Christians. And there are indications just now in the very day of

142 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Christian prosperity which call loudly for a universal getting
back to straight lines and rigid discipline, which means :
i. The purging of God's Church, even now, in the days of
unparalleled conquest, of all sloth and worldliness.
2. The going to God with strong crying and tears of every
Christian that personal fidelity may be maintained, and that the
heroic blood and stern faith which made Christianity cover the
earth as it does to-day may never give place to Christian
voluptuousness. The present is no time for the Christian to
rest on his oars.
The New Theology — We do not like the " New Theology,"
and all we have yet read from its advocates has but confirmed
us in our dislike. We are conscious enough, of course, that no
opinion of ours is going to settle the matter ; but to a great
many minds the methods employed by its supporters in dis
posing of words and phrases which give nothing other than the
old faith, as they now stand, ought to go a good way towards
settling it. The " new creature " of Paul, for example, presents
no little difficulty in the way of the new theory of justification, of
late so much praised and blamed. It is alluded to now, however,
as an Orientalism, a specimen of Paul's hyperbole, and thereby
easily brushed out of the way. By the same token every other
root-word of Christian doctrine may vanish, and the Universalist
or infidel has it. If Paul's " new creation " is a figure of speech,
so is his "buried with him in baptism," and we Baptists may
as well give up our schism.
God Wants Our Help — God wants help, not necessary to
Him, of course, as absolute God, but necessary to Him from
the circumstances in which He has chosen to place himself.
As absolute God, He is far removed from any possibility of lack
or want. Certainly nothing that the assembled hosts of puny
man could do would in the slightest influence Him either one
way or the other. Entirely independent of His creatures He
performs all governing and providential work, all acts of
creation and destruction, all offices which pertain to the
Almighty throne, save and except those departments of work
in which He has affiliated himself with man. In these man
and God become workers together, and God does not work
independently of man. It has pleased Him from the beginning,

SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 143
in certain cases,, thus to join himself with man in the pro
secuting of His work, and we always find that God limits and
binds himself by the restrictions which He himself has set up.
It has pleased Him through the foolishness of preaching to
convert the world unto himself. He has chosen men, not
angels, as His assistants in this sphere, and aside from His
chosen media of conveying spiritual effort, God, so far as we
know, is inoperative. The Gospel is spread as men spread the
Gospel. The souls of men are converted as men receive the
Gospel. The world is brought over to Christ as men are
faithful with the business God has given them to do. The
work of God lags or stops as men lag or stop. Of course, it is
God working in all and through all, but it is God working in a
line which He has laid down for himself. It is of no use to
say that whether we do this or that, or nothing, it will make no
difference in the end — God is sure to bring all right at last. It
is of no use to say that if God intends to convert the heathen
He will convert them, and the cause of missions will make no
difference. It is of no use to say that unconverted people
around us will be saved if they are to be saved. There is but
one name under heaven among men whereby salvation comes,
and that name it is given unto us to publish. Whosoever shall
call upon that name shall be saved. " But how shall they call
upon him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard ? And how
shall they hear without a preacher ? And how shall they
preach except they be sent ?" " Now, then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you,
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." We are workers
together with God. We are fellow-laborers with Him. Suffice
it to say that God, instead of by a word of His mouth changing
all depraved humanity into pure beings, fit for the eternal
abodes, has been pleased to carry on His work through human
agency. This treasure He has placed in earthen vessels. And
this work advances, stops, or retreats just as man does, or does
not, the work God has given him to do. Such is Bible doctrine.
Such is the testimony of church history. Such is the testimony
of the experience of to-day.

CHAPTER III.
GLIMPSES OF BIBLE DOCTRINES.
God's Fatherhood — The fatherhood of the Almighty can
not be too greatly exalted. Nor can the love and gentleness of
His nature be too frequently extolled. When, however, the
tender characteristics of our God are made to cover all else that
belongs to Him, and His sterner qualities are ignored, injustice
is done to His character, and very much harm to those who
imbibe this one-sided teaching. Let it be admitted that
the Puritan representation of Jehovah was done in too sombre
coloring, and that the severer traits of His Majesty were dwelt
upon overmuch, it still remains that He " will in no wise clear
the guilty," and that " our God is a consuming fire." Those
who are in any way familiar with the sermonic literature of the
present day press, must be struck with the marked absence of
any conception of a God who demands anything, and who
stands ready to exact the fulfilment of His will. We have the
beauty of His compassion, the patience of His long-suffering,
and His mercy which endureth forever, plentifully set forth, but
we miss much mention of His compelling power, and the con
sequences of not yielding implicit obedience to His will. The
fatherhood is given us, so far as in fatherhood is comprised the
gentle wooing of love ; but the fatherhood which reveals the
stern face and the unequivocal rebuke not unaccompanied by the
rod is conspicuous by its absence. We believe the teaching
that thus gives to hearers a one-sided conception of the
Almighty is pernicious, and cannot but have evil effects upon
the lives of men who take it in as truth. To say nothing of the
dishonor cast upon the Almighty by imputing to Him an
144

GLIMPSES OF BIBLE DOCTRINES. 145
effeminacy which His word does not warrant, the teaching is
putting into the hands of those who want it a shield against the
terror of the Lord. But this is not the worst of it. The
ridicule of infidels and " advanced " and " liberal " thinkers
which is so' freely given to the Puritan conception of the
Almighty, is allowed to pass unchallenged, or, if ever alluded to,
the corrective is so mildly put as to amount to practical endorsa-
tion, and the consequence is that we find young people who
have attended the ministry of even orthodox pulpits protesting
against any other idea of God than the effeminate one, and
using glibly in reference to the "consuming fire," the vocabulary
of the " advanced " thinker. " No such God," say they,
" could be tolerated in our thoughts. He is unthinkable, a
cruel despot, a monster, a fiend," and so on. The fifty-third
chapter of Isaiah ought to be enough to convince anyone of the
folly of such speech, and to restore somewhat of virility to the
conception of Almighty God. It is recorded of God the Father
in reference to His only begotten Son that " it pleased the
Lord to bruise Him, He hath put Him to grief." The God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God and Father of us
all ; and, however unthinkable it may be, or however cruel and
fiendish, we may rest assured that His fatherhood will permit
and compel Him to deal no more leniently with the sinner than
with the Sin-bearer.
Christian Brotherhood. — Perhaps there is too great a
tendency toward religious caste in this day. The thing, if it
does exist, is contrary to the genius of the Gospel and to the
example set by Bible saints.
We ought to be converted out of our prejudices, out of our
regard for appearances, out of our respect for what the world
might say. We ought to be converted into union of sympathy
with, and affection for, everything that belongs to Christ.
There is no Bible warrant for lack of sympathy with a fellow-
Christian because he is poor, because he is ignorant, because
he is sinful, or because he is faithless. Rather, we take this to
be the genius of the Gospel. We should be converted thor
oughly enough to say sincerely and heartily to any of Christ's
disciples without exception, " My beloved brother."

146 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Repentance  Right views of God are so intimately con
nected with the full showing of this truth that scarcely in any
other way can a sinful man be brought to appreciate the
character of that infinite holiness with which he has to do. Say
what we will of the superiority of mental processes over
emotional we get our deepest impressions after all from our
heart-teachings. Everyone knows what sorrow of heart is,
from his own experience and from its effects upon others ; and
everyone, as a result of such experience, has his mind fixed
intently upon the cause which produced it. Just here can
easily be noticed a wide distinction between the effects of
sorrow and joy respectively in human experience. Account for
it how we may, we receive our good things of this life, either
temporal or spiritual, without much inquiry as to the cause
which produced them ; but whenever evil things cross our
pathway, or the heart grows big with sorrow, how this thing
came to pass is our careful and incessant query. Let sorrow on
account of sin be imperatively insisted upon, and the mind will
naturally busy itself in finding out why ; and, immediately, an
essential force in the redemption of man is set at work, viz., an
inquiry into the character of God.
Right views of sin are just as intimately associated with the
proclamation of this doctrine. This, of course, is simply the
converse of what has already been said. The character of God
is the standard of sinfulness, and departures from that standard,
to greater or less extent, mark the various stages of sin. There
can be no more wholesome mental exercise for the sinful man,
than, after having been led from the exhortation to repentance
up to the character of God, to trace his way back again to a
contemplation of the contrast which is exhibited in his own
sinful heart. Indeed, we know not how else a poor lost soul
can so effectively arrive at conviction, or how any just idea of
the character of sin can be obtained. In proportion as it is
necessary for sinners to know themselves in relation to God, is
the necessity of the faithful preaching of repentance.
So, also, it may be urged that no other truth sets so forcibly
before the sinner his proper attitude in relation to God. His
proper attitude is humiliation. While it is well, in the proper
place, to point the sinner to the Lamb of God who taketh away

GLIMPSES OF BIBLE DOCTRINES. 147
sin, it is not well in any way, however unintentionally, to make
light of sin. The man who has led a life of daily insult to God
ought to know and feel the blackness of his guilt, and before
God he ought to stand as the publican or as repentant David
before he takes his position as the honored son in the parable.
Faith and Works.— On a summer evening, aboard a steam
boat, when the foredeck was thinly peopled, two women, stran
gers to each other, began a conversation in the hearing of the
writer — the one, sweet-faced, middle-aged, evangelical and
missionary ; the other, black-eyed, brown-cheeked, accent that
told of the Sunny South, and pendant cross which proclaimed
the Romanist. The usual tourist remarks were soon over, and,
after a pause, missionary work on the part of the former began.
The low-voiced pleading on behalf of Jesus Christ, the only
Saviour, was done with earnestness and true-heartedness. The
invitations were persuasively held out, the blood and promises
were made much of and put lovingly ; but she of the dark skin
was not impressed favorably. She listened respectfully, and for
some half-hour with only monosyllabic encouragement, until
some allusion was made to the faith whose symbol she wore.
And then the fountains of her quiet deep were broken up, and
she stood, eyes bright and cheeks flushed, low-voiced, however,
and championed the ancient faith against the entire creed evan
gelical. Her conversation showed a cultivated woman, a woman
who knew whereof she affirmed, well-grounded, evidently, in the
long controversy, and so skilled as to leave the evangelical
speechless. The pleading of the latter had been " all of grace,"
" all of faith," " nothing to do," " all has been done " ; and the
protestation of the latter was with emphasis and expatiation. " If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me." The Romanist was sarcastic in her
earnestness as she went over the cross-bearing and self-denial
which the evangelical religion involves. No confession is
needed, no penance, no mortification, no prayer, at least none
that involves any inconvenience ; no matins, no vespers, no
midnight vigils, " nothing to do," " all has been done." No
luxury to give up at any season, just the giving of money when
the impulse is on, and church attendance when one feels like it,
and throughout it all only a suspicion of the shadow of the cross ;

148 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
and of self-denial nothing. Her religion, she protested, was a
thing of deeper meaning. If she would go after Christ to dwell
where He now reigns, self-denial and cross-bearing were the
sine qua non; and these requisites were of personal obligation
and not to be theorized away into the non-obligatory realm of
" all has been done." " Our religion demands watching and
prayer and work and suffering," said she, " before the glory is
entered. Your religion gives you glory by faith simply, and you
may be careless and prayerless, give up nothing, suffer nothing."
That was an intensely interesting defence, and, to the listener,
intensely suggestive.
There will be no need, of course, of pointing out its fallacy ;
but surely thoughts the reverse of complimentary to the living
epistle of the evangelical faith, thus known and read, will occur
to the mind. Is there any foundation for the reading given
above ? We suppose that any prominent impression, from what
ever standpoint 'viewed, which fixes itself upon a thoughtful
mind cannot be altogether disregarded. If evangelical Christi
anity thus presents itself, even to an opponent, it is worth while to
ascertain whether or not there be a cause for it. Is it in any way
true that the practical; outcome of present day evangelical teach
ing is to beget a state of affairs such as above indicated ? The
way to find out, we suppose, is to look and see. Our churches
and their work will serve our purpose. Take the average
church. The Sabbath observances will not say much for it
either one way or the other, as nowadays there can be nothing
of cross-bearing or self-denial in connection with these ser
vices. The prayer-meeting gives a better field for observation.
How many, in proportion to the membership, are present?
How many take part ? Look into the home life, as far as a
stranger may intermeddle. How often is family worship
observed, except when the minister is present ? Look around
the neighborhood in which the church is. How many poor
relieved, how many drunkards reclaimed ? How much of sweet
charity displayed? How are church members esteemed by
business men ? Of the membership how many are engaged in
the activities of Christian life ? Of the membership how many,
as far as one can see, live without prayer, and do nothing in
honor of the name they profess ? How many, whose whole self-

GLIMPSES OF BIBLE DOCTRINES. 1 49
denial and cross-bearing consist in church attendance once a
Sunday ? The whole membership profess Christ ; the whole
membership, by profession and expectation, are safe for glory.
How many, then, are presumptuously resting upon grace,
sinfully having an eye upon " all has been done " ? There is
certainly some foundation for the impression made, for a very
cursory observation will reveal overmuch apathy. The shame
of it — that it should be so much as to put such a stamp on our
faith from the view-point of anybody.
Is enough stress nowadays laid upon the works which neces
sarily accompany faith ? As to grace and faith, we rejoice in
thinking that our pulpit is sound. Christ is evidently set forth
among us as the Saviour only and complete. The new birth is
proclaimed, with dogmatics and polemics attached thereto, in
all boldness and sincerity, and therein do we also rejoice. But
something is the matter if, when a soul embraces the Saviour
and professes the regenerating change, self-denial and cross-
bearing fail to be manifest. Can it be so that, in its anxiety to
escape from righteousness by works of the law, the pulpit skips
the works which accompany salvation also ? It would seem
possible. There may be necessity for greater insistence upon
the doctrine of James while holding firmly to the teaching- of
Paul. The sermons of a former generation had much to say about
the fruits of the Spirit, about self-examination, about testing
one's self to see whether the root of the matter was in him.
There may not, at the present day, be sufficient emphasis laid
upon the proof of reigning grace. If it were generally under
stood from the direct teaching of the Word that there could be
no crown without the cross, that self-denial is imperative, that
apathy is inconsistent with faith, that carelessness and distaste
for any form of Christian work surely indicate the absence of
salvation, and that there is no hope for the man, notwithstanding
his profession, whose works or whose indolence condemn him,
there would not be so conspicuously manifested the easy-going,
presumptuous reliance upon untested faith.
Death=bed Repentance. — Were we to venture a statement
upon this matter, which is now thrilling the pulse of Christen-

150 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
dom, it would be to the effect that practically there is no such
thing countenanced in the Word of God, or in human ex
perience, as death-bed repentance. " As a man lives, so shall
he die, and as a man dies, so shall the days of eternity be." Of
course, there may be instances of mercy extended just as soul
and body are about to part. Of course, probation does in fact
reach to that extremity. But the vital question for every man
is, shall I then be in a condition of body, mind and soul to
avail myself of that extended probation ? The whole tenor of
Scripture says, No ; and the entire weight of human experience
says, No. The only safe rule for unrepenting sinners is, now is
the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation. And in so
far as Joseph Cook has softened down that imperative now, we
believe that his teaching- on probation is harmful.
Probation After Death — If there is to be probation after
death, far better let alone the preaching of the Cross, which, in
that case, must be evil tidings indeed to nations, the majority
of whose people will hear only to be condemned. We do not
know, of course, and we suppose that nobody else does, but we
should think that an after-death probation would be more
effectual as to the result in view than that which the present con
dition offers. Spirit could surely look upon spiritual realities to
better purpose. The mighty experience, death, cannot but be
an instructor whose lessons will be heeded, and the after
teachings of the other world, doubtless, will be all as con
vincingly put as they were in the case of Dives. If, then, in the
experience of every soul as yet unintroduced to the Saviour
there is to come a time when, in the absence of fleshly environ
ments, the reception of the Saviour will be comparatively
unobstructed, is not the folly immense which systematically
spreads the knowledge of the Saviour to those who would have
a far better chance of eternal life without that knowledge ? And
will these new religionists, we wonder, be inclined to carry out
their creed to its beneficent and logical conclusion ' Why not ?
If probation after death is to be, and the conditions of that
probation offer advantages which cannot be claimed for the old
doctrine, why not in the churches and the homes of the
adherents of this creed banish the name of Christ and put a

GLIMPSES OF BIBLE DOCTRINES. 151
veil over everything that could possibly point toward Him.
The true mission of Andover is to erase the name of Jesus from
the knowledge of mankind.
The Resurrection of the Body  A great deal has been
said and written against the resurrection of the body, we are
well aware ; but as yet scientists have failed to give us any
other theory that is more easily understood, or that accords
better with the judgment of reason. We fancy science would
be as much puzzled over the assumption of any other substance
in which to clothe the spirit as it now is with the literal body.
This matter and many kindred matters are, however, entirely
beyond the realm of science. They are simply miraculous, and
ought to be looked on as such only. The creation of the world
out of nothing was a most unscientific performance, and upon
that ground men deny it. The formation of man out of earth
was equally unscientific, and so scientists deny it ; but we take
God's Word for it, as we needs must, and let science and reason
go. So with the resurrection of the body. This bringing
together again of atoms which have been constituent of human
bodies again and again for ages past is absurdity to science and
contradictory to reason. Of course it is, and what then ? Why,
so let it be ; it is not impossible with God, and there we rest.
Christ's body came out of the grave, and it is declared that
" all which are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall
come forth." The body is in the grave, not the spirit. The
body shall come forth.

CHAPTER IV.
TRAINING : HOME, CHURCH, COLLEGE.
Home Religion. — There is nothing incongruous in intro
ducing the Gospel into scenes which are not, in set terms,
religious. It was not given to be received with the long face
and drooped eyelid, or to be the companion of only our sacred
moments. On the contrary, it was given to bear its part in every
word and work, in our eating and drinking, and in whatever
we do. And those who have witnessed it can well testify that
no human experience is more beautiful or satisfactory than is to
be seen in that family where religious experiences form the
subject-matter of conversation as frequently as business ex
perience, where soul difficulties find expression as readily as
bodily difficulties, and where the pleasures of the inner life are
as entertaining and as freely discussed as the pleasures of the
world. If religion is treated as a tabooed subject its influences cannot
spread, or they will be greatly impeded, very much to the
spiritual disadvantage of everybody concerned. There are
phases of heart-life in the experiences of young people which
only the most undisguised confidence can successfully deal
with, and which, so long as religion is an embarrassing theme,
must be left to take their natural course unguided. Just how
much this means let anyone say who has endeavored to find
the cause of the undeveloped, wayward and faithless Christianity
which results from so many pious homes.
Next to knowing the Gospel is facility in utilizing and
enjoying the Gospel.
Home Training. — There is wisdom and truth yet in the
antiquated Scripture which says, " Train up a child in the way
152

TRAINING: HOME, CHURCH, COLLEGE. 1 53
he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
We believe this "will" of Solomon ought to find its place
among the many " wills " which so frequently form the theme
of evangelical addresses. It is just as emphatic ; it is just as
important ; it is just as authoritative. Let son or daughter be
properly trained, and they will not depart. We are as pro
nounced as anyone in denouncing the freedom of intercourse,
combined with the excitement and late hours, which modern,
and even Christian, opinion has seen fit to permit to young
people. We strongly maintain the necessity of the prayer,
" Lead us not into temptation."
Manliness. — If boys cannot be corrected out of the notion of
fighting, they should at least be instructed that boots and stones
are cowardly weapons — the weapons of low-bred roughs.
Parents and school-teachers and all who have to do with boys
should give them, in addition to instruction upon gentleness,
charity, forgiveness, etc., some energetic homilies on how to
quarrel manfully and how to fight decently — that is, provided
the better instruction in how to live peaceably is of no avail.
Family Worship. — Speaking now not of the religious obli
gation, but simply of the intellectual and moral tendency of this
stated intercourse with God, more than anything else worship is
the bond which unites the family and strengthens in its different
members the impressions which are most fondly remembered.
At all other times each individual mind is off upon its own wan
dering in business or pleasure, into temptation or anxiety. All
the day long each heart knoweth its own bitterness and its own
joy, and it is scarcely possible that all can be united in the
pleasures or sorrows of each. The hour of prayer gives an
opportunity for each member to forego for a little what is merely
personal, and give attention to what all share in common.
Here is perfect union to a degree which scarcely anything else
renders possible. The silent seriousness of the family group,
a fit attitude to receive impression, all minds occupied with
the same thought, the subject-matter the most elevating and
refining, is a combination of circumstances which cannot occur
in any other family relation. The very fact of this opportunity
which worship in the family gives, ought to be sufficient to

154 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
recommend it in every household. It is a God-honored and
God-honoring custom, and greatly beneficial to all those who
rightly observe it. Among its blessings, perhaps, this one is
not too frequently considered — it commits parents to a godly
walk in their households.
Every Christian can testify that impressions received at that
sacred altar have been the most fruitful blessing of any received
in childhood. Let it be so conducted that the children will love
it ; there need be nothing distasteful, even to them, in its con
duct. The hearty song of praise, God's Word read instructively,
the blessing of the Father invoked — and this day by day— will
do more for the eternal well-being of a family than any other
thing which parents can devise.
Literature for the Young.— Parents ought to read for their
children, that is, put books into their hands which they them
selves have read. It will take time, and perhaps be somewhat
distasteful, to do what this personal selection involves ; but the
reward is ample when the child is brought to appreciate a really
good thing, which is made all the better by reason of lights by
the way which only by such method is the parent able to
impart. Of course, this selection will involve a getting back
again into the tastes and sympathies of- childhood, but most of
us would be all the better for such an experience.
The other way is the supplying of good literature by those
who are the children's temporary guardians. Day school and
Sunday-school libraries have not yet received the attention
which they demand, and are as yet far from being adequate to
the great need of children. What is imperative just now is that
secular and religious trash be removed from the book-shelves,
and that these be filled up with the bright, instructive and whole
some volumes which a pure press is daily providing, and which
can be known through personal inspection. It is lamentable
that, where good books abound, bad ones, through ignorance or
negligence of those who are responsible, are permitted to do
their evil work.
Children in Church. — The reason and the wisdom of giving
this attention to the children of the congregation are evident.
Delight in the Lord's house, or the reverse, comes early in life —

TRAINING: HOME, CHURCH, COLLEGE. 1 55
earlier than many seem to suppose. And impressions which
are formed early are hardest to get rid of. To a great extent it
may be said that the congregations of the next generation, both
as to quality and quantity, are being determined now. Give
the children the power of enjoying God's service now, and there
will grow up a generation of glad and devout worshippers.
Make the service tedious for them now, and they will escape
from it when they have opportunity — or endure it by and by,
convinced from their early memories that this is about all that
is required of them.
Children's Sermons. — It should not be considered neces
sary to talk childishly when preaching what are denominated
children's sermons. Children, as a rule, find very little difficulty
in understanding the style of English in which, admittedly, the
best pulpit oratory is delivered. We suppose that no child of
average intelligence leaves Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle unedified,
and Mr. Spurgeon, we suppose, deals with themes as weighty
as need be brought into any pulpit. Of course, nobody else can
preach like Spurgeon, but everybody can arrive at a simplicity
of utterance in regard even to complicated matters, if he sets
himself about it, which, to children and grown people alike, is
vastly more profitable than either the grandiloquent or the
childish. Training Child Members. — We receive children into the
Church just as soon as they receive the Saviour into their hearts.
The age of the child does not enter into our consideration ; at
any age we gladly receive them whenever they give evidence
that God has taken them to himself.
Acting upon this method of receiving children, the churches
of our denomination have a pretty extensive child membership.
The possibilities for the future of child membership are very
great. They have been taken early into the heart of the Saviour,
and have missed, in consequence, many sin-scars which other
wise they must have received, thus presenting to the Church
an object upon which to test her usefulness and prove the benefit
of her discipline such as could never be in the case of one
reclaimed from worldliness or from vice. Here is a little one
given to the Church to be trained in the ways of God, and the

156 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Church ought to accept the responsibility as a sacred trust.
Just what possibilities of future usefulness, soul-winning, light-
bearing, Christ-witnessing, inhere in that little child, let anyone
consider who knows somewhat of the power of the gospel truth
rightly directed throughout the course of a long life.
But all these possibilities depend a great deal more than we
are apt to think upon the child's early activity in pursuit of
Christian business. The habit of uselessness is as easily formed
as any other, and being confirmed, we seriously believe is less
easily remedied.
Let young Christians be guided into the formation of habits
of usefulness in church service. The future of our denomina
tion depends largely upon it.
Young Converts. — The style of Christian character which
already prevails in any given church will have not a little to do
in determining the value for Christ of those newly brought in.
Let the "joy of the harvest" manifest itself in the more
guarded walk, the more liberal spirit and the more Christ-like
disposition on the part of those who are now so heartily giving
thanks to God for His great goodness in bringing so many out
of death into life. .
Would it not be well for pastor and deacons to make the
cultivation of the Christian graces of a young convert a matter
of solicitude as untiring as that which exercised them before the
soul was brought to God ? Perhaps just here is the seat of the
trouble. Conversion is looked upon as the great point gained.
Sea and land are willingly compassed to make one Christian,
and too often there the business ends. The matter, when it is
so, is not properly considered. The salvation of many more
souls, humanly speaking, depends upon the proper training of
this one. Let carefully trained Christians, those whose ordinary
gifts are cultivated and whose heart-life is tutored to respond to
the Spirit's promptings, multiply in any church, and a work for
God has been accomplished which cannot be equalled in
importance by any amount of mere additions to the member
ship roll. . . .
Those who become members of Baptist churches should
early be initiated, not only into the responsibilities of church

TRAINING: HOME, CHURCH, COLLEGE. 1 57
business, but also into the knowledge and necessities of
denominational work. . . .
We know of some churches whose practice it is to put into the
hands of every new member both a manual of church doctrine
and practice and an outline of the various denominational
agencies by which the great commission is sought to be
fulfilled. We commend the practice. . . .
Let beginners be practically instructed from the outset in
regard to both public and private duties of church membership.
The prosperity of our denomination depends largely upon this ; "
nay, the very existence of many of our churches. The fathers
pass away, and what then ? Their passing away has often been
a calamity, simply from the fact that others have not been
trained to take their places. We want every Christian life, not
only negatively consecrated, but actively employed.
Sunday~school Teachers' Work. — Sunday-school teachers
do not work that they may be benefited themselves mainly
(this may be secondary) ; they do not work that they may do
their part in the culture and training of young minds merely
(this also may be secondary) ; but they work out of the love
they bear to the Heavenly Father, and have consecrated to His
use what means and powers He has given them that the souls
of children may be born unto God. This we take to be the
grand aim of Sunday-school work.
And another aim scarcely, if any, inferior to this, is, when a
child is converted to God, to take that new born soul and
stamp upon it the impress of the Saviour's likeness.
The Raison d'etre of the Christian School. — Among all
the reasons for and against the perpetuation of Woodstock
College, this stands out prominently in its favor, viz., the great
need for some such institution for those who must leave home
in order to be educated. The great majority of our people do
not live in towns or cities. Their circumstances are such that if
they would educate their children further than is possible in
the country school, they must send them away from all home
influences and the social and church relationships to which they
have been accustomed. And, while they are away, who is to
control them ? They immediately fall into the associations of

158 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the average boarding-house, and there is nothing to prevent
them. It is said that the guidance of young men and women
while away from home is the social business of the local
church. Perhaps it is, but no local church can in two or three
hours a week throw over a homeless boy or girl the influences
which are necessary to make one at that period of life walk
straight, mentally and morally. Be that as it may, it is not
done. A college for higher education is therefore needed to
which young people may be sent where all influences will be
wholesome.* nissionary Day at McMaster. — The Fyfe Missionary
Society comprises both professors and students. One day in
each month all meet together simply as missionaries of the
Cross. The distinctions of professor and student are laid aside,
and the day is given up to conference and prayer, to devising
plans for personal contact with the work, and the reception and
discussion of missionary intelligence. Last Friday the writer
of this was present at the afternoon and evening sessions, and
can gratefully bear testimony to the value of such a day upon
the spiritual life of the college. This feature of our college
work promises to give to our students, in addition to their
* We would like to quote extracts expressive of Dr. Dadson's views
on many current educational questions, but our space forbids more
than the mere mention of some of them. We find him advocating
higher salaries for teachers, the admission of women to the Provincial
University, co-education in both academy and college, teaching rather
than lecturing in the undergraduate course, the reduction or abolition
of examination pressure to secure freedom in teaching and promote love
of learning, the restraint of college athletics within wholesome limits.
At first he strongly favored university confederation, and for two reasons :
Financially it seemed for the denomination the only practicable scheme ;
and, educationally, he felt that, while the Christian academy was a
necessity, the-student should "begin to walk alone at matriculation."
Later, when that scheme seemed to be a failure, and Senator McMas
ter's gifts made the denominational university possible, he adopted that,
at first, as the "next best." Finally, he became one of its most
powerful advocates. His mature views on Christian education will be
found in the Educational Address in Part III.

TRAINING : HOME, CHURCH, COLLEGE. 1 59
training otherwise, continual sympathy with the progress of
aggressive Christian work and stimulus towards consecration
of life.
To=day flakes To=morrow.— We shall live in the future ;
our methods of work, the doctrines we teach, our principle of
training wili bear fruit. Of what character will that fruit be ?
The possibilities are : Increase of godliness, and a more
thorough appreciation of the laws of Christ's Gospel in another
generation ; or, the arising of another generation which know not
the Lord nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. To
prevent the latter and arrive at the former the path is plain and
simple : Present convenience is to be thrown to the winds in
teaching and in practice, and what is right adhered to through
sunshine and shower.

CHAPTER V.
THE CHURCH : ITS MEMBERSHIP, WORSHIP,
WORK AND POLITY.
Converted Membership. — The Church is responsible for
the character of its membership. There is no more solemn
charge laid upon it than to keep itself pure. Converted mem
bership is the foundation stone of all Baptist faith, and every
member is personally interested, and accountable, in the insist
ence of this first principle ; and it is not consistent with a
church's responsibility that anyone should be baptized concern
ing whom it is not manifest to the Church that he has passed
from death unto life. The matter is too serious for guesswork,
or for any sort of peradventure. Conversion must be reasonably
assured, or membership should not take place : otherwise the
Church is responsible and cannot wash her hands in innocency.
The intimation that churches do sometimes admit members
upon insufficient evidence of conversion is a startling intimation,
and of sufficient gravity to carry concern to the heart of every
loyal Baptist.
It is intimated again, and this is perhaps more serious still,
that unconverted persons are actually, by some species of force
work, hurried through baptism and into the Church. A church
desires to see its membership roll speedily increased, or pastors
are so impatient for the fruit of their labors, that church mem
bership is viewed as of greater moment than conversion to God,
"sinners being led blindfold into the Church." This is pretty
business. God help Baptist churches and Baptist pastors who
have so far departed from the faith ! There is no reason for
expedition, and there is every reason for deliberation in receiv
ing members into a Baptist church. If we were believers in
1 60

THE CHURCH. l6l
baptismal regeneration, then, of course, it would be proper by
all means to expedite business and by water make sinners chil
dren of God and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven ; but as
we believe no such thing, we can afford to wait until the new
life assuredly manifests itself. What if it takes a year, or ten
years ? The Head of our churches has laid this upon us that
we should be satisfied with nothing less.
Qualifications of Church Membership.— God's idea of the
church on earth is that it should embrace every variety and
grade of Christians — Christians, observe, and that is the only
inward qualification. It is required that one love Christ, that
he be in the way of salvation, and that is all. The Church is
not the home only of advanced Christians — those of deep expe
rience, well grown in grace, and the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is not only for those who are
faithful, or busy workers in the vineyard of the Master, or the
good soldiers of Jesus Christ. God's Church is the common
camping ground of all who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was instituted for the babe in Christ, and here the child in
grace and in knowledge may come with all his inexperience
and ignorance. The faithless one is not shut out of it, even
the indolent one may find a place in it, and the frightened,
timid, doubting one. All who are called to salvation are under
obligation to be in union with God's people. God, in apostolic
days, did not add to the Church only such men as James and
John. He did not pick out the most estimable of the Parthians,
Medes and Elamites, nor the most virtuous of the Phrygians
and Egyptians, nor the most learned Greek, nor the most
graceful Arabian. He took them all who were pricked in the
heart and repented, all who gladly received the Word and were
baptized. These He added to the Church : and there were
among them many an impetuous and faithless Peter perhaps,
and many a doubting Thomas, many as ignorant as we know
some of the Corinthians were, many who had very obscure
views of the truth, many who were neither cold nor hot, slothful,
faithless, foolish ones ; no matter, if they believed upon the
Son of God, the Lord added them to the Church. The Church
is the home for the believing soul, and upon earth he has no
other.

1 62 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
How would it be if anything other than believing were the
test of church membership ? Something in advance of this, say,
the obligations of membership, what then ? Herfe are some of
them : " See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but
ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all
men. " Who could ever enter the Church if that were the quali
fication? "Rejoice evermore." How many would that sentence
leave in the Church ? " Pray without ceasing." What Christian
would stand that test ? " In everything give thanks, for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." That would
bid good-bye to everybody. "Abstain from all appearance of
evil," and if we could stand before all else, here we must fall.
But the door of entrance to the Church is impeded by no such
bars. The test which God requires is a merciful one, and we
are not required to draw the line tighter than He does : if we
do so, the chances are that we must exclude ourselves. All
Christians are supposed to be church members. The excuse
of not being good enough is invalid : the Church is not an
institution for faithful people. The excuse, the fear of being
unfaithful, is not valid : for the Church is not an institution for
faithful people. The excuse that many make in regard to the
conduct of sinning members is not valid : for the Church is not
an institution for consistent men and women. It is for those
who believe in Christ to witness to their faith. It is a vast
mistake to set up qualifications of one's own, and then, because
these cannot be met in personal experience, to have nothing to
do with the relationship. God's Church is composed of poor,
sinning weaklings, of faithless servants, of cowardly soldiers,
of men and women who, being still in the flesh, are fleshly.
Angels do not belong to it, nor glorified saints, but men and
women. The Church is God's school into which are received
the ignorant ones, that they may grow in knowledge and in
grace. It is God's barracks in which His raw recruits are discip
lined. It is God's furnace in which the sinful flesh is purified.
It is God's nursery in which the tender plants are trained and
watered. It is God's fold in which His lambs are guarded and
fed. It is God's workshop in which indolence is corrected and
fidelity rewarded. It is God's college filled with students in

THE CHURCH. 163
preparation for the business of heaven. Good people, those
who have arrived at the Christian's standard, consistent Chris
tians, live only in heaven. And the one who objects to church
membership upon any of the pleas usually given, may as well
make up his mind to have to do only with the heavenly
relationship. Infant Church-Membership. — In our view the position to
which the Congregational Magazine seems to incline is the
correct one, and the one which offers a solution of the whole
difficulty, viz., church membership should be a thing of honest
election by the member himself — only we must make the
"honest election" cover both the baptism and the church
membership. We do not understand anything that contravenes "honest
election" in matters that have to do with the soul in its relations
to God. Religion is entirely a personal matter ; its obligations
are to be voluntarily assumed ; and nobody except the individual
concerned has any right to accept, reject, or otherwise decide
in regard to its ordinances. There can be no fulfilment of its
obligations by proxy, and the responsibility of assuming or
rejecting these lies at the door of the individual soul, and
nowhere else. " Every man must give an account of himself"
ought to be the principle underlying every aspect of the Chris
tian life. According to this " honest election " a child decides
for Christ himself and not another for him : he decides upon
baptism and church membership for himself : as no one can
answer for him, so no one can decide for him.
This "honest election," if generally understood and its prin
ciples practised throughout the Christian Church, would have
at least three beneficial results. It would —
1. Do away with that injustice to the child which custom has
come to sanction, but which is, nevertheless, an evil thing, and
which, if perpetrated in other relationships would be looked
upon as monstrous, viz. , the forcible subjection of one ignorant
and unsuspecting to a rite which is meaningless to him and
which may be pernicious. The injustice of the transaction
consists in the invasion of the right which belongs to every soul
of deciding whether he will or will not obey the command of

1 64 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
God, and of putting him in a false position before God and the
world. Somebody, in the name of Christ, has placed the sign
upon him that he is a child of God, and he knows in his own
consciousness, if he is unconverted, that he is not. He is not
to blame, but for all that his position is a false one, and a great
wrong has been done him. And the rite performed may be
pernicious, because the child may very naturally come to believe
that the statement of his baptismal formula is to be credited,
and that he is in fact what it says, a child of God, when God's
converting grace has never touched him. This is serious busi
ness, and looking at it in view of the living and dying, of the
one who may be deceived, we should not like the responsibility
of being party to a baptism which shuts out the responsibility of
the one baptized.
2. It would do away with the anomaly of church members
being denied the privileges of church membership.
3. It would do away with the degrading notion that "baptism
is only a decent ceremony to be accepted and carried out much
as we carry out other social customs and obligations." This
view is by far too common. We protest against the doctrine of
baptismal regeneration, but we do protest also against any view
of it which does not give it its place as a solemn symbol com
manded by Christ and to be recognized by all those who have
partaken of His life.
Obligations of Church Membership.
1. To the World. — Every man upon connecting himself
with the Church not only enters upon a new relationship, but
maintains still his relationship with the world, and his obliga
tions consequently become two-fold. Church relation does not
release him from the world. He is bound to the world by indis
soluble ties while he is in it — ties which never loosen till he
leaves it. The very fact of church membership intensifies all
existing relations with the world, and brings out obligations to
the world in still bolder relief. A soul becomes enlightened by
the Spirit of God, and, thus enlightened, it is enabled to see
humanity as it never could before. Coming to the knowledge
of the truth, it can understand the divine purpose in human
creation ; it can understand the actual state of man unredeemed ;

THE CHURCH. 165
it can understand the workings and consequences of sin ; it can
understand the loss to humanity by the forfeiture of heaven as
it never could do while it was unenlightened by God.
Moreover, the universal brotherhood of man, as a practical
conception, is a matter of scriptural truth and spiritual enlight
enment. It is only when we come to see the oneness of our
corrupt nature as it is traced to the one source ; it is only when
we come to see the oneness of diversified sin, the sameness of
the natural resisting power, the identity of our manifold tempta
tions, the necessity and the adaptability of the one remedy,
and finally, the oneness of our unity with Him who is our
Saviour — it is only when we see these things, heard of in the
Scripture only, that we get at all a proper conception of our
relation to our brother man. The obligations springing out of
the relations existing between man and man are intensified,
rather than cast loose, by the spirit of Christianity. Hence,
and because it is not always recognized, we make this promi
nent. It is too much the case that when one identifies himself
with the Christian Church, he begins cutting off now this, now
that cord which binds him to his fellowmen who are sinful and
worldly, under the mistaken notion that he is freeing himself
from worldliness ; and so into the Church, and away from
fellow- sinners who are not churchmen, he brings his relation
ships and transfers his obligations. This is a mistake. The
thing cannot be done. The ties of common sinfulness, of
common temptations, bind the believer to the sinner as strongly
now as ever they did. While the hope of the one, and the
despair of the other ; the knowledge of the one, the ignorance
of the other ; the help of the one, the impotence of the other ;
the happiness of the one, the wretchedness of the other, fasten
and rivet the obligation as never before. So now, instead of
finding the fulfilment of every Christian obligation within the
scope of what are usually called church duties and church
privileges, the obligation is upon every church member, by
reason of the relation by which he stands connected with his
fellowman, to work as religiously in their interests as he does
in the interest of the Church.
We do well to keep clear of worldliness, we do well to set

1 66 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
our faces as flint against all sin ; but we do not well to cultivate
church exclusiveness, when the Pharisee and the Sadducee,
the Herodian, the publican and the sinner stand in need of
brotherly kindness, to say nothing of Christian regard. Identi
fication with the Church does not cut off identification with the
world. But rather from the clearer view it gives, it makes our
relation nearer and our obligation the stronger.
2. To Christians Generally. — Each church member is under
obligation to the Church generally. He has come into fellow
ship with all believers in Christ. He has become one of the
great body which is united in Jesus. In common with all
believers he has been saved from the dreadful consequences of
sin. He and they have the same hope, the same Saviour, the
same life, the same sanctification, the same heaven. They and
he are united to each other in their union to the Saviour — as
closely united as the members to the body and that to the
head. Does not the same heart-throb beat in each ? Is not
each breast the temple for the same inhabitant ? Do not we
each live through the same life ? And is it possible that rela
tionship so near, so without a parallel intimate, involves no
obligations ? And yet is it not a fact that Christians of differ
ent names and creeds practically set these aside by their
decided non-Christian intercourse, and scarcely dream of ful
filling them further than as they spring from the common duties
and courtesies of life ? The obligations of love and Christian
fellowship are upon everyone upon whom the grace of God
has come. The commands to cheer and to help, and to com
fort in the Gospel, are just as binding in this particular as else
where, inasmuch as all are believers upon the same Lord and
are brethren. One thing church members ought to bear in
mind, that is, the Lord has saved other people as well as them,
and the Saviour's command, "That ye love one another," is
not restricted by sectarian lines. Now this is not mere senti
mentality, this is a fact. Yet the tendency is, now that the
believers in Christ are so numerously divided, for each one
division to recognize obligations only as they occur within
itself, thus leaving the great body of Christ, other than it is
represented in their own small section, unsympathized with,

THE CHURCH. 1 67
unprayed for, and unfellowshipped. Not thus was it with the
apostles, who, even through the mists of corrupted doctrine,
recognized and loved the converted soul. Not thus was it with
the Saviour, who prayed directly for all who should believe
through His word. Let not the church member forget the
obligations involved in Christian fellowship.
3. To the Denomination — Each church member is under
obligation to the church denominational. The denomination
is a Christian necessity. It is the outcome of religious thought
and religious conviction. Denominations are as much a Chris
tian necessity as languages are a necessity among men. It
would be well, probably, if all men could speak the same
tongue, but from the nature of the case, and by reason of not-
to-be-helped circumstances, they cannot. So, probably, it
might be well to have but one sect, and name it Christian, but
from the nature and circumstances of the case it cannot be.
Denominations exist. Men cannot think alike, men are not
equally enlightened, men are not equally susceptible of truth.
Hence, from necessity, although truth is one, men cannot be as
one in their deductions from it. So it comes to pass that shades
of belief involving separating principles must be, and this cry of
"No denomination" is all nonsense. There is no such thing
in the Christian world, and the mere act of withdrawing from
denominationalism is the setting up immediately of a new
denomination. The thing exists unalterably, and the believer
in Christ must necessarily take his stand right in the midst of
things that are as they must be, and God's Word in hand, his
convictions will go this way or that way in the line of denomi
nationalism. There is no escape. Defining new boundaries
will enclose another sect.
But now, then, the point : Are there obligations in connec
tion with this denominationalism ? Certainly there are, and of
the most rigid description. Truth to us is that which appeals
to our reason and to our conscience, and an> thing contrary is
error, and if sacred truth involves an obligation, we find that
obligation in the church denominational. To put it practically :
here is a denomination, the Baptist. Clear and distinct we
stand out in our belief and practice from the rest of the Chris-

1 68 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
tian world. God's Word tells us, and reason and conscience
are convinced that our faith is right, and that our practice is
right, and that the faith and practice of others is error. We
freely give to others the right that we claim for ourselves, viz.,
the right to hear God speak and to be convinced for them
selves. We in no way interfere with that right, but in the
exercise of it, if they arrive at conclusions at variance with
those which mind and heart tell us to be the truth, we are
bound to respect their right, but not their conclusions. We
are bound rather by our own convictions. Bound to do what ?
That is, under obligations to do what regarding these convic
tions ? To publish them, to defend them, to teach them. They
come to us as part of the glad tidings, to strip the Gospel of
which would make it incomplete. We dare no more let go
these distinctive principles than we dare cull the pages from
God's truth. It is a double principle which, according to the
great commission, is obligatory upon every follower of Christ.
First, it is to do the things which Christ has commanded ; and
secondly, it is to teach others to do them also. A man does
not fulfil his obligation by being personally obedient : that can
never be fulfilled until he teaches others to obey also. So not
only is the church member obliged to receive truth in a denom
inational line, but also he is obliged to disseminate it in a
denominational line. For he must not teach error by his act
any more than by his word, and he must not teach error by his
money any more than by his word, and he must teach to obey
according to the commission, consequently he is restricted to
teaching obedience in a denominational line. He is bound to
obey himself, and to teach Others to obey in his own vicinity
through the instrumentality, say, of his own local church organ
ization. By the commission, in order to obey he is bound to
g» into all the world and teach all nations to obey. Hence his
Christian enterprises in his own land must be denominational.
Hence his Christian endeavors in lands beyond the sea must
be denominational. In other words, he must work as a church
member having denominational obligations at home and abroad.
By necessity, by force of existing circumstances, he has no
alternative. To do otherwise is to violate obligations. So

THE CHURCH. 169
while fulfilling among his fellow-Christians, gladly and cheer
fully, what may spring out of the relationships of Chris
tian fellowship, he must preach the Gospel and do all which
that involves rigidly and punctiliously, according to reason and
as God's Word tells him.
4. To the Local Church. — Each member is, of course, under
special obligations to the local church or particular organization
of believers with whom he has connected himself. Of this, in
the strict and scriptural sense, he is a church member, and,
upon his entrance, becomes bound by the rules of government
laid down for its perpetuity and well-being of its members. To
make a simple enumeration, and briefly comment upon it,
notice that each church member is under obligation to observe
the courtesies, the common civilities, the decorum, the secrecies,
the confidences, the decencies which belong to ordinary good
breeding. Thus, in their private life, in their intercourse with
their fellows, in their business assemblies, in their meetings for
public worship, " Let all things be done decently and in
order," has its most comprehensive meaning in the case of a
church member.
It is incumbent on each member to worship, and to worship
with the people with whom he has connected himself. The
services of the church are for the direct and special object of
worshipping God. Everything else in connection with them is
secondary, and one's duty to his church is primarily his duty
to his God. Out of this principle, then, we get the statement
that it is the obligation of every church member to go to
church. Sometimes, because of the fancied inefficiency of the
minister, or the evident inconsistency of some of the brethren,
men and women do not take their places in God's house. Look
at this thing. We do not go to God's house to hear the
minister : we do not go te God's house for the purpose of
mingling with our fellows. This notion of going to hear such
and such a one preach is altogether a wrong one, and the
phrase carries with it a false idea of Christian obligation.
Misapprehension of the very purpose of the Christian assembly
has made, and is making, sad work among God's people. It
is degrading God's service into the service of man.

17° LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
It is incumbent upon each church member not only to wor
ship but to sustain worship. The obligation is alike upon the
rich and the poor ; it is, in fact, part of the worship which we
render. And we contribute our money, at least this is the true
motive, primarily, as an honor tribute to God. " Honor the
Lord with thy substance" is the true and only scriptural basis
upon which giving is done.
It is incumbent upon each church member to observe the
rules and ordinances of the Church. It should not be a hard
matter for any Christian to submit his life to these restrictions.
He lies under obligations to do so, bound by his own subscrip
tion and the voice of his brethren.
The Church's Business. — The business of the Baptist
Church is to witness a good confession before the world, and
to keep the faith. In doing this business it is responsible for
the teaching imparted, and for the character and demeanor of
its members ; and consequently the very greatest care is
necessary in-order that neither men nor methods be employed
that shall in any way misrepresent or injure its cause. A
Baptist church is complete within itself. It is supposed to do
its own preaching and its own gospel work, of whatsoever kind.
Among its own members it is to keep the light shining. It is
not part of its business to be on the lookout continually for
outside or adventitious help. Its members, who are called of
God into church fellowship, are called to live and to work for
God in that sphere. In itself the Church is sufficient to set
before the people the ministry of the Word.
Its Power. — Church life depends to-day upon just what it
depended long ago, viz., the possession and exercise of spiritual
power. AU the power must have its home with the body of
believers whom God has appointed to be His witness upon the
earth. Reverence. — Religion centres in God, and is true or false,
very much according to the conception which the worshipper
entertains of the object of his worship. To know God is
fundamental. To know Him aright must be at the base of
acceptable service. Just as the knowledge of God is faulty or
accurate will be the character of the worship paid Him. God's

THE CHURCH. 171
distinguishing characteristic is holiness, in view of which the
distinguishing characteristic of worship should be reverence.
We have neither excuse nor sympathy for any form of worship
which permits, in the slightest degree, irreverence either of
sentimental familiarity or of blasphemy. God is holy, and
cannot be worshipped with expressions of familiar childish
endearments : God is holy, and any approach unto Him which
is neither respectful nor deferential may be sincere, may be in
a measure satisfactory to heart and mind, but it is born of
ignorance and is not worship.
Forms of Worship.— What is needed in either case is the
awakening of the spirit of devotion : if this can be arrived at
the better by changed forms, then we are prepared to welcome
any form which can effect it.
Hymns and Doctrine. — Let Christian doctrine be put into
the hymn-book, beautified with the best that the poet and
musician can do, and there will be sent into the family, in a
shape to be impressed forever on the minds of children and
grown people alike, proper views as to God, and life, and
eternity. Pious singing which does not mean anything in
particular, makes pious Christians whose lives do not mean
anything in particular.
The Service of Song. — Singers are wanted, then, in the
first place. Those to whom God has given voices more or
less tuneful, should look upon it as their mission and their
privilege to consecrate these voices to the service of God, in
His house, and to see to it that their consecration is no half
hearted service. We do not say that everyone who can sing
should feel it incumbent upon him to take his place in the
choir ; that need not be ; but let him sing where he sits, and
sit where his voice may lead and influence others. The choir
is a helpful institution and should be wisely composed of
devoted hearts and voices who can touch the entire body with
their inspiration ; but the prominent voices here and there
properly distributed, becoming, as they soon will, nuclei
around which sub-choirs will gather, give the weight and
effectiveness to congregational praise. Not many can be door
keepers in the house of God, and so vie with David in his
preference, but a great many can be singers.

172 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Books are a second necessity. In these days of cheap books
and suitable books it is a shame that ample provision is not
made so that everybody who can sing may sing.
Heartiness is a third requisite. We do not say much about
good voices and artistic rendition, because these features of
music may only be spoken of relatively, and are not of the
importance that very many seem to make them. What would
be a very fine voice to us, would be execrable in the ears of
one of refined and cultured judgment. What we should con
sider excellently well done, and with exquisite skill, would cause
excruciating agony to the maestro. So of good voices and
skilled performances we have but little to say ; but let us have
heartiness. Some one said of a certain Welsh congregation,
that they sing with all the soul that is in them. So say we
thus it ought to be. Much is said as to the delivery of the
sermon. It must be earnest, it must be forceful, it must be
impassioned, and so on. Little is said as to the delivery of the
song of praise, except by way of advice and criticism to the
choir. But delivery is everything as far as apparent effect and
inspiration are concerned. Let the words come out full-
sounded and full-voiced. Let the face glow and the body sway
if they will. Let the natural eloquence of song be unrestrained.
The restraint of vocal corsets is undesirable in the house of
God. Better an abandon in the passion of song than the
lisping speech and unheard mutterings and embarrassed con
straint that, too frequently, do duty as praise.
In the last place, and chiefly, let there be heart worship, and
let all sing.
Songless Creeds. — Agnosticism, Atheism and Liberalism
are songless creeds. We have not the heart to say a bitter
thing in regard to a people whose belief gives them no music.
Sincerely they have our sympathy. All the rich chords so
finely strung within them must remain untouched, for their
belief shuts out the spiritual breeze which alone can wake them
into harmony. They put themselves beyond the consolation
of sentiments such as these hymns contain, and they have
nothing which can take their place.
There is nothing poetic in so-called Liberalism. All the way

THE CHURCH. 173
through it is the straitest kind of prose. This life simply, and
material only, gives no scope for poetry. If we take from the
poetry of the world all that attaches to immortality and the
spiritual in man, there will be little left worth the name. Cer
tainly there will be little of that which in all ages has been its
power. There could be no infidel Homer, or Milton, or Dante.
Poetry in its highest meaning, as a moral force, must get its
inspiration from something which is more exalted than the
poet. Hence Liberalism is songless. The Liberal must deny
his creed before he can compose a hymn that will have any
moral effect upon his followers, only in proportion as he gets
away from his belief can he stir their emotions.
Poetry in the sense in which we are now using the word, is
possible only to those who have faith ; and we rejoice, indeed,
that the facts of God's revelation reach to that in humanity
which is resolutely closed to the voice of any other creed.
The Power for Evangelism and Growth. — After all has
been done in the way of attractive architectural, musical and
social surroundings, the Cross remains as the one power which
brings sinners unto God. In God's Word, for the purpose of
saving souls, the preaching of the Cross, and that alone, is the
power of God. In her evangelistic work then, which, doubt
less, is the chief work of the Church of God, the public preach
ing of Jesus Christ and Him crucified must always hold the
chief place.
But for the growth of the Church, so far as the membership
is concerned, the prayer-meeting certainly is the appointed
means which is productive of the greater results, and which
indicates more than any other thing Christian and church
vitality. For this meeting of the Church we have apostolic
precedent even more abundant than for any other church exer
cise or assembly. And that church which is at all interested
in the salvation of men, and the equipment of men who shall
give themselves to this work, should know that as they honor
this institution they are sending laborers into the kingdom ;
and as they disregard it, not only are they crippling their own
little cause, but they are seriously impeding the progress of the
kingdom elsewhere.

174 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Do the Work of an Evangelist. — It often comes to pass
that the entire work of the Church is overtaken by an un
accountable spirit of dulness. Then the pastor thinks is the
time for unusual action, and he takes his Bible and reads, not
" do the work of an evangelist," but " send for an evangelist."
The evangelist is sent for, with the usual results, viz. : Great
blessing in the ingathering of souls, in many cases we frankly
admit; but just as generally loss of power to pastor and church,
from the fact of allowing someone else to take their crown.
The Most Effectual Revival Method.— Look well to the
home, social and business life. Christian life as seen in these
three departments preaches far more effectively than any evan
gelist, and because it comes more frequently under observation
has greater influence than any series of special meetings.
The Cure for Few Conversions. — i. Humiliation before
God ; for this state of spiritual dearth indicates faithlessness or
other sin somewhere.
2. Renewed and determined consecration. Not that thing
of sentiment which consists merely in heart emotions, but that
practical trait of Christ-likeness which will do, suffer, deny and
purpose in any place or time in which there is a possibility of
gathering an ear or two for God.
3. Joyful expectancy. Hope ought to go hand-in-hand with
the work of faith and labor of love. Let the eyes of the denom
ination be turned ever towards the hill whence help cometh,
intent upon the radiance of the promises, and the consecrated
toil of the coming year must show a different result.
Discipline. — Go in the spirit of Christ, and try to win the
brother back to the path of duty. Personal and loving fidelity
will, in the great majority of cases, effect the desired result.
This course failing, let no time be lost during which good
impressions may evaporate. Let the scriptural method of pro
cedure in regard to a companion in this ministry, and finally
the ministry of the whole Church, be successively and shortly
applied. All this done in tender regard and through much
prayer, and the brother is won. It is not so much a question
of "how long" as of fidelity.
How shall we Pay Church Obligations? — We have very
decided opinions as to what is the only right way to pay church

THE CHURCH. 175
debts or mission obligations. The only right way, in our
opinion, is to put the hand in the pocket and give dollar for
dollar, according to the extent of the obligation. We pay our
grocer's bill just that way, and our baker. In fact, in our
worldly dealings we recognize no other method. But when
it comes to debts owed to God, too frequently our churches
resort to expedients. In all honesty, what does a Christian's
twenty-five cents go for when given as a tea-meeting fee ?
Does he give it to pay what he owes God, or for his supper ?
For God, or for the intellectual or musical treat which he
enjoys ? Who can possibly affirm that he has discharged his
debt by enjoying a feast physical or intellectual? And yet,
through the long year reports come telling us exultingly that
by this "grand time" or that "festivity" so much was raised
to liquidate church obligations. We do not object to good
times among God's children ; but we do object to the methods
at present in vogue to make the performance of obligations to
God more easy.
The Great Giver. — The life in Christ is to be conducted
pretty much as was the life of Christ. With Him it was give,
. give, give, until He gave himself in that great sacrifice which
completed the work of Redemption. To follow in His footsteps
the same demand confronts us. We must give as He gave :
with the same spirit, to the same extent, so far as may be, and,
as in His case, until the end. The time will never come when
the cause of Christ stops its appeal ; and it is well that so it
should be.
The Greatest Givers. — It is not well to overlook the fact that
the churches abound with "princely" givers. A pastor told us
lately that his church, composed almost entirely of working
people, found no difficulty in promptly meeting all their pay
ments. Inquiry brought out the fact that laboring men having
families to support contributed one dollar a week to ordinary
church expenses, besides having something for every missionary
call. Another pastor related that young men in his church,
receiving a salary of eight or ten dollars per week, gave regu
larly two dollars of it as tribute to the kingdom. It may not
be generally known that the most consistently liberal givers to
church work are servant girls and factory employees.

176 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Announcing Gifts. — No man who gives for Christ's sake
appreciates the public announcement of how he has discharged
his stewardship under the head of "Princely Munificence," in
staring capitals ; and why should he be compelled to listen to it
or read it ? If he does not give for Christ's sake, it is true that
flattery of this sort may allure him to still further display ; but
the flattery is of very questionable merit. Would it not be very
much better every way to let Christians pay their debts quietly,
and be content with their Creator's acknowledgment ? If
"princely," "munificent," etc., must be used, then we submit
that the laborers and factory employees, who feed and clothe
themselves and give the rest of their income to the Lord, should
in some way be introduced in connection with the " distinguish
ing" words.
God's Basis of Value. — Money given to the cause of God is
valued upon a basis different from money otherwise employed,
i.e., five dollars in the treasury of God represents altogether
another value than five dollars upon the commercial exchange.
The latter is referred to a labor basis, the work of one's hands ;
the former to a heart basis, the outflow of the affections God-
ward. Forgetting this principle, the mistake is prevalent of
estimating Christian liberality in dollars and cents, and praising
this or that Christian according as the figures stand upon the
lists of receipts for church objects. Never was a falser criterion.
Money to be worth anything in the service of God must repre
sent that which only is valuable in the sight of God, viz., heart
service. It must represent love. It must spring from the free,
generous impulses. Mere duty does not give it value. Giving
through fear of violating custom robs any amount of money of
its value ; the giver must be prompted by love to God. A gift
thus made denotes a heart at God's service. And according to
the increased heart labor so is the value of the gift increased.
Every heart labor, i.e., self-denial for God's sake, represents so
much more of active force in God's kingdom. This is God's
estimate of the value of money ; and so it will be understood
how that very often the one dollar of the poor man, who denies
himself that he may give, is, by actual count, more money than
the million of a Vanderbilt which is contributed with no effort ;

THE CHURCH. 177
or how that the widow's mite outcounted the much cast into
the treasury by the many rich men. And so it comes to pass
that there is many a princely giver whose donations never get
beyond one figure.
Worthlessness of the World's Wealth in the Kingdom
of God. — This is the day of fine churches and costly services,
the day when wealthy men are attracted to the house of God
and made welcome for other reasons than that they have souls
to save. The Church receives liberally of their money, solicits
their subscriptions, and rejoices at the generous flow. Perhaps
we are singular in our notion, but we believe this to be all
wrong. We believe the kingdom of God advances according
to the gifts which represent the current value of that kingdom,
and not in any other way. God may use the money of the
ungodly, but this is not His way of working. Every man's
wealth belongs to Him, of course, and He may take it for His
own purposes ; but such wealth is not the power upon which
He depends for the prosecution of His redemptive work. He
uses, frequently, wicked men, like Jehu or Balaam, to promote
His own glory ; but the power upon which He depends is godly
men. So, doubtless, God does use unsanctified dollars, and,
doubtless, He uses them to good purpose when He wants them ;
but His system is not to select His money from among the
unconverted. The True Wealth of the Christian Church consists in the
multiplication of dollars which represent love, and self-denial,
and constant devotion. It is a mistake to think that any other
kind of wealth is going to help God's cause. We do not favor
the solicitation of any other sort.
Holding the Rich. — Someone asks in the Religious Herald,
" Is there no way of keeping the children of rich Baptists from
going over to other denominations?" And then he adds:
" There is a Baptist church in one of our New England cities
which has lost more than one hundred million dollars by such
defections within the last forty years. "
The brother is putting this question wrong end foremost.
The " rich " and the " hundred million dollars," which appear
to be the pith of his lament, do not, as far as we read Scripture,

178 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
have the importance which is here given them. Unto the poor
the Gospel is preached, and ever will be, and we suppose that
it is the poor who only throughout the ages will be benefited
thereby. The above question, by giving special emphasis to
the rich and the dollars, puts it out of court so far as gospel
principles are concerned. Rich men, as such, do not inherit
the promises ; and the wail over lost millions is pitiable, if in
any way the notion is intended to be conveyed that to secure
the wealth seme effort ought to be put forth for the salvation of
the soul. Poor and rich all must come to one level, and that
is the level of the publican and sinner, in order to be candidates
for God's favor. " Blessed is the poor in spirit." A man is in
God's sight just as he stands naked — his clothing and his bank
account are never considered. He must come to the Saviour
as the poor man comes. God is no respecter of persons.
Coming thus and giving himself thus to God, he will doubtless
stand side by side with his neighbor in doing what he can for
the kingdom, and esteem it the privilege of his life if God
trusts him with the greater stewardship. In regard to the
effort which should be put forth to keep the children of the rich
from going over to other denominations, we suppose that just
the same efforts should be made as in the case of any other
man. It is souls and not dollars that the Church is anxious
about. Touching Baptist Proselytism — To our ministers and
laymen, then, who have in charge the Word of Life, and who
think it incumbent upon them to do something in the way of
fulfilling the great commission therein contained, we would say :
i. Proclaim your message, whatever it is, kindly, truthfully,
fearlessly. Address no one as Baptists, as Presbyterians, etc.,
but all men simply as those to whom the Word of God should
go. Never go out of your way to say a thing that is dis
agreeable to any who may be listening to you ; and on the
other hand, never omit from your discourse anything which
may not accord with the known sentiments of one, not of your
denomination, whom you happen to discover in your audience.
Speak in a manly fashion all that you have prepared to say.
2. Speak to your brethren with whom you are acquainted or

THE CHURCH. 179
with whom you may chance to be, upon matters affecting the
divine life, church order, etc., by all means, of whatever
denomination they may be. Talk to them by the wayside or
in their homes, if they care to listen. Never act like a man
going about with something hidden, of which he may not
speak. Be free and open-hearted, and thus shall you escape
the charge of baseness.
3. Never do a religious act or impose a religious ceremony
upon any whose intelligent consent is not freely given. Let it
be foremost in your mind always that it is decision of heart and
mind which imparts value to any such observance. For
example : In law, a marriage performed during the unconscious
ness or without the free consent of either of the parties is
illegal, and friend Presbyterian would call the means used to
bring about such an affair base. Similarly : should you per
form upon anyone, the rite, say, of baptism, while either he is
unconscious, or while he himself has not so elected, your
action may be similarly characterized. Observe, you would be
stamping a man with a Baptist seal ; that is, making him
count as a Baptist ; that is, proselytizing him whether he would
or not. This, also, our friend would call base. Have nothing
to do with any religious ceremony which is not honorable and
intelligent to all parties concerned, so shall you have removed
from you the stigma which the Presbyterian thinks is, in some
cases, somewhat applicable.
The Significance of the Lord's Supper. — It is com
memorative. It looks back through the space of nineteen
hundred years, and brings us face to face with Him who was
the despised Nazarene, the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted
with grief; and bids us remember that He — body, soul and
spirit — was given to death for us, instead of us, and that, because
of that, we have escaped the death eternal.
It is declarative also of our union with Christ and sustenance
by Christ.
The Position of the Lord's Supper — It has a position in
order. It comes after baptism. Baptism signifies birth — the
new life. Communion signifies the sustenance of the new life.
Clearly the ordinance signifying birth must precede that which

180 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
symbolizes food. That is the logical argument. The testa
mentary is equally convincing. For it is never recorded in
Scripture that the supper preceded baptism ; but always first
baptism, then the supper.
It has a position also in character. The Lord's Supper is
distinctly an ordinance of the Church. It is the testimony of a
body of believers of their union with each other and to Christ.
" For we, being many, are one bread and one body." And it
stands in no other position, as may be clearly seen from
i Cor. xi. 18-20, 23. It is not the testimony of Christians, but
of the Christian Church ; not a symbol of Christian fellowship,
but of church fellowship. Christ has given plenty of means for
the expression of Christian fellowship, means which may be
employed in any place and at any time ; but He has given to
His Church but one expression definitely laid down to symbolize
the Church's relation to Him. It is not the property of Chris
tians individually. It is not to be taken down from its position
and introduced hither and thither among the assemblies of
men, but it is to be set up in the Church of God, the testimony
of the bride of Christ. The supper is the voice of the Church,
the loving voice of the bride telling of her attachment to Him
who is her husband. And it were desecration to remove it
from the pinnacle where God put it, and prostitution to use it
apart from His ordained purpose. The custom which among
us has confined its observance to individual churches and to
the Lord's Day, ought not to be set aside without sufficient
reason. The Underlying Principle of the Communion. — Like
baptism, communion is a positive institution, having no force
in itself or by reason of the circumstances of the case, but
depending for all its import and power upon the command of
Him who instituted it. This being the case, obedience, in the
letter and in the spirit, is the underlying principle ; for here
" obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat
of rams." Baptism and the Lord's Supper are teaching
ordinances, as every symbolic ordinance must be. In them
we not only obey, 'but teach the Gospel. The great commission
to " disciple, baptize, teach to observe all things I command,"

THE CHURCH. l8l
emphasizes this thought. " Obey yourself and teach others to
obey." So, in the communion the obedience and the teaching
of obedience to others is the underlying principle — the two
things which constitute the business of every Christian in every
Christian act.
The Four Prerequisites to Communion. — Since baptism
precedes communion, every pre-requisite to baptism must also
be a pre-requisite to communion. Thus, repentance and faith,
as well as baptism, are pre-requisites. What next ? Com
munion ? No. There is a step between baptism and com
munion, which, according to Scripture, must be demanded, and
that is church membership. According to the principle of
church fellowship, and not Christian fellowship, this must be so.
Christian communion is not denied to any man who is a
follower of Jesus Christ. But church communion, which the
-Lord's Supper only is, can be partaken of only by those in
church relationship. So now we have the order — the only
order authorized by Scripture — repentance, faith, baptism,
church membership, communion. Here we have it in Acts
ii. 37-42. In verse 37 we have repentance : " Now, when they
heard this they were pricked in their heart." In verse 41,
"Then they that gladly received the word " indicates the second
step, faith ; " were baptized," the third ; " And the same day
there were added to them about three thousand souls " gives the
fourth, church membership. Finally, verse 42 brings us to the
communion, " The breaking of bread." The first four are,
therefore, by Scripture and reason alike, pre-requisite to the
fifth. Let us remember, however, that apart from the will and
command of God, neither baptism nor the Supper has any force
or value ; that will and command enter into every particular
— the signification, the position, the underlying principle, the
pre-requisites — and, in fact, make these things parts, which
themselves together constitute the communion. The only
possible way of observing the Lord's Supper is to observe, in
connection with bread and wine, all that God has placed as
complements to these elements. If it is to be the Supper,
regard must be had to everything which makes up the

1 82 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Scriptural idea of that whose fundamental principles are — not
bread and wine, mere external things— but faith, obedience and
identification with the Church of Christ. The Lord's Supper,
therefore, is restricted to baptized believers in Christ who are
church members.
Not a Law-making Institution — God's Church is not a
law-making institution. It springs out of a code which is
already formed, and its only business with law is to stick to
that which is already written. All the ecclesiastical troubles of
the centuries may be traced to the Church's fondness for
meddling with that which it is out of its province to touch.
What a pity that God's law-making could not be universally
deemed sufficient !
Independency. — Side by side with regenerate church mem
bership and baptism by immersion only, Baptists place the
independency of the individual church.
Our distinctive principles are derived from God's Word, and
we are responsible for the holding them to Him from whom
they came. We cannot commission delegates with powers
which involve the surrender of these principles. Delegates
can no more represent a church as to its independency than as
to its attitude in regard to baptism. Say a congregation of
churches is called to form a basis of union for some special
line of work among all evangelical denominations. Delegates
are sent from a Baptist church among the number. At the
congress persuasive eloquence convinces the Baptist delegates
that it would be in the interest of the general cause to concede
the point, " Believer's Baptism," and after " Blest be the Tie "
is sung, the Baptist delegates return and report. Is the Church
committed to pedobaptism, therefore ? Not so ; the principle
could not be delegated. Just so with independency. No
delegates can bear any representation which would imperil it.
Delegates cannot take to any convention powers which it
is impossible for a church to impose upon them. Church
benevolence lies at the heart of the principle of independency.
As to the giving of money, each church answers alone to God.
Each church must be convinced for itself where its benevolence
ought to be bestowed, and the offering of its gifts is as sacred

THE CHURCH. 183
a service to God as its prayer, and any society has as much
right to dictate in the one case as in the other. The whole
thing belongs to that liberty of conscience without which there
is no Baptist church.
The Bond of Union — What, then, is the bond of union
between Baptist churches, and by what principle do they unite
in common work ? There is, and can be, only one thing, " The
love of Christ constraineth us."
Spiritual vs. Organic Unity  They might, of course, have
an organization as perfect as a railroad company, with presi
dent, secretaries, and all officials down to conductors and
brakesmen, and by this means have every church run upon
the straight lines, and contributions collected as regularly as
railroad fares. But the objection to the whole thing is that it
isn't scriptural, and it will not work, and it ought not to work.
The religion of Jesus Christ is in its every particular something
which appeals to the understanding and conscience, and its
suggestions are to be put in force voluntarily by each individual
as he is moved thereto by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual unity
rather than organic unity is the force which ought to bring
forth fruit unto God. Where this is present God's work will be
done, whether there be apparent organization or not. Where
this is absent, no matter how perfect the organization, it may
be suspected that the results achieved, however great they may
be, are only apparent.
Independency vs. Anarchy — Independency is each church
exercising liberty of conscience, impelled by love to Jesus
Christ, the one Master, and by this bond united in work which
, is common to all. Anarchy may be represented by societies
assuming to themselves powers which it is impossible for them
to exercise, and demanding as theirs a control which it is
impossible for any one church, or any number of churches, to
give them. When a government finds it impossible to exercise
authority, and when the people, in the nature of the case, can
not give them authority, we suppose the condition is one of
anarchy. Independency and Usefulness. — Better sacrifice independ
ency than usefulness. But there is no need of this sacrifice.

1 84 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Systematic methods have operated before in concert with
independency, and can easily again.
Narrow and Broad. — The brethren of Baptists, as of Peter,
are all who have obtained like faith through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Let Baptists recognize
and repudiate what is wrong in the creeds and practices of
others. Let them unflinchingly, even to much-condemned
exclusiveness, stand firm to their conscientious convictions,
but never let them fail in brotherly recognition of any one
whose heart God has touched. When Jesus has entered any
man's heart, that man is a brother of the Lord and of us, in
spite of all we may do or say, and we may as well gladly
recognize the relationship.
Christian Union. — While we see the propriety of union when
union may just as well be consummated as not, and have
long been amazed that in such case lack of union existed as
long, and in many quarters does still exist, we see no propriety
of union when the principles upon which various denominations
are based are such that union, if it exist at all, must be only in
name.

CHAPTER VI.
PREACHERS AND PREACHING.

God's call is a call to heroism or it is nothing. The regatta
business is more fascinating certainly than the life-boat service,
and it is to be feared that its prizes seduce many away from the
lonely signal-house duty. Nevertheless, in the end, who shall
say that faithful discharge of duty, even obscure and lonely
duty, has not secured more in prizes than desertion, even for
peripatetic service, could ever win ? However it may be
with service elsewhere, in Canada for many years to come
peripatetics will not be wanted. Lifeboat men, with clear
heads, stout muscles, and power to endure, the last specially,
will be in demand.
Character the Prime Requisite.— After all it is character
that tells. Any word or work in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ that has not behind it the character of Jesus Christ goes
for very little. Many ministers distinguished for brilliancy and
eloquence have been but distinguished failures, because there
has been no sort of concord between their lives and their words.
Under Christ. — As Captain of "the Lord's Host" Jesus
Christ stands over against us and demands our submission.
Self is to be set aside for Him. His law is imperative, human
will is to be sunk in His, and all faculties are to be made sub
servient to His direction. Ambition is not to be for victory,
but to be made conformable unto Him. He undertakes to lead
in all His work, and our position is always under Him, and is
that of obedience. This relationship holds good in all church
schemes, in all pastoral work, in all denominational enterprises
in sermon-making, and in convert-making. Christ is Captain,
and His will, and that only, is to be consulted and obeyed.
185

1 86 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Before Ordination. — We give our voice very decidedly
against young men assuming the ministerial office before they
have completed their studies. Were circumstances now as
they were not long ago in our denominational history, per
haps we should not feel called upon to speak so decidedly.
Then, educational facilities were not within easy reach of
everybody, and our older ministers have had to regret through
out life that their preparation for ministerial work was so
meagre. There is no longer any necessity for such regret.
The character of our ministry can never reach and maintain
the high standard which we by good right ought to expect of
it, and which is much to the credit of some other denomina
tions, until we insist upon education before ordination. We
hope to see the day when to say that a man is a Baptist
minister will be equivalent to saying that he is an educated
and cultured gentleman.
Ordination a Safeguard. — We have a safeguard in our
ordination to the ministry. Let an unqualified assent to what
has always been fundamental Baptist doctrine be demanded.
Let a pledge be given that these doctrines shall be taught with
out reservation ; and nothing will be demanded which will
interfere with the full liberty of Baptist belief, while a neces
sary check will be given to the tendency of thought which in a
little time must enervate a once robust faith.
Preparation, — We remember encountering the late Professor
Torrance an hour or two before attending together a tea-
meeting in connection with a very unpretentious church, and
we found him hard at work in preparation of his tea-meeting
speech. Astonishment being expressed that he should devote
so much labor upon so small a matter, his reply was that he
made it the rule of his life to do his very best every time. This
reply may be characterized as the golden rule of success,
especially so in the ministerial career. Young preachers
cannot too early lay out their work according to this rule.
They will find that its observance will gradually give them
power that can be had in no other way. And, conversely,
they will find that just as this rule is violated they will become
weak. In this particular the snare of the ministry is in the

PREACHERS AND PREACHING, 187
comparatively small occasions, such as the prayer-meeting
address or the platform speech. For two reasons this is an
unwise course : (1) The selfish reason — it reflects unfavorably
upon one's own position of power ; and (2) it is taking an un
warrantable liberty with one's audience. Perhaps the latter is
the chief reason. If God in His providence brings His minister
face to face with any audience, it matters not how few they
may be, He by so doing directly places an opportunity of use
fulness within reach. He has connected His servant with some
soul, and makes him responsible for all the possibilities of that
contact. Who shall dare treat this opportunity as a little
thing ? Professor Torrance delivering a thoroughly prepared
and very earnest Bible study to a small audience in an
obscure place, presents an example worthy of imitation. The
man who will be listened to in the pulpit, is the one who
gives time to his pulpit work. That sermon is the effective
one which is the result of patient study, prolonged prayer and
carefully observed experience.
The Irreverent Pastor, or the pastor who is otherwise en
gaged during the reverence of other people, is admonished by
" Mentor" in our issue of to-day. The fault to which his
attention is directed is certainly a very serious one, although,
so far as our knowledge goes, not at all a common one. While
we do not lay much stress upon the posture which the body
may assume during public devotions, it is nevertheless true
that heart devotion and attitudes and employments referred to
by " Mentor " are incompatible.
All preparation for the pulpit ministry should be completed
before ascending the platform. Every word from invocation
to benediction should be known and studied beforehand, and
then the pastor will be free to join with the congregation in
worship as well as lead them to it.
Reading the Scripture, — God's Word should be read as
effectively as the preacher's manuscript. It is no preliminary,
it is God speaking, and the heart of the service.
If the Bible reading ranks in importance with the sermon
reading ; if the passage for public reading in the sanctuary is
studied for delivery as faithfully as the manuscript ; if the

1 88 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
thought of God upon the printed page is mastered as thoroughly
as the thought of man upon the written, there can be no con
ceivable reason why God's own Word should not be rendered
as effectively as man's.*
Leading in Prayer. — Next to the reading of God's Word,
which a week ago or so we magnified as the most important
service of the sanctuary, the public prayer is the exercise oi
especial solemnity. These two services, so often regarded as
perfunctory, are indeed the essence of worship. They comprise
the solemn conversation between God and His people. The
former is the veritable voice of Jehovah declaring His will,
uttering His counsel, and proffering His invitations ; the latter
is, or ought to be, the solemn reply of the people going up to
God, declaring the conviction of the inmost heart in regard to
the thing which God has spoken.
Here we are inclined to limit the scope of public prayer. It
is very evident that some limit is necessary, in order that the
service may be made profitable ; otherwise, the multitudinous
desires, confessions and emotions of the soul, publicly expressed,
would tend to lengthen the exercise unduly ; or, from the con
tinual recurrence of the same set of desires, the danger of
falling into monotony could scarcely be avoided, and thus the
service would become spiritless. The mind ought never to
become weary before the throne of grace, but if all that is in
the heart be uttered before the Lord, how can it be otherwise ?
The mind in prayer should be constantly active, but this is im
possible when the form of the supplication has become stereo
typed. Hence we say, let the answer to the Lord conform to
His speech, and these two dangers may be readily obviated.
We believe in making the public prayer a matter of fore
thought and study, as much as we do in the preparation of the
discourse ; and the very same principles which naturally guide
in the preparation of the one, will be found admirably adapted
for the other also. This involves :
i. A knowledge of the requirements of the people.
* Elsewhere he indicates his disapproval of commenting on the
Scripture and of responsive reading, as tending to break the line of
thought.— [Ed.]

PREACHERS AND PREACHING. 1 89
2. The adaptation of God's Word, in view of these special
requirements. 3. Confining the matter of the prayer to the matter of the
Word read. To our thinking, the petition which is arranged
according to the tenor of God's own Word is the prevailing
prayer. We think that in this manner weariness and monotony in
prayer can be easily done away with. Every Sunday there
would be freshness of thought and newness of expression. The
congregation would be led to deeper interest in the act of devo
tion, as one after another their desires of heart took shape
according to the manifest tenor of God's Word. There would
be no "asking amiss"; there would be no "much speaking";
and, above all, there would be the assurance of God hearing
and God answering prayer.
Leave the Hymns Alone. — If the theology does not suit
you, make your selections from among those that are orthodox;
but do not, we beseech you, meddle with familiar lines that
have been read into our hearts and sung out of them from
childhood. The next worst thing to improving the Scriptures
is the attempted improvement of a hymn. A hymn must have
more in it than accuracy of doctrinal statement. It must have
poetic life and soul. It must be so put that it can be sung — its
pathos must have liberty, if not license. It must catch the ear
and touch the heart. It must find its grip by other means than
accuracy of statement. A good hymn is a parable rather than
a dogmatic proposition. The purpose of it is to set forth truth
pictorially, and so effectively that the heart can grasp its
purport without going through the process of word analysis.
Head and Heart. — One must be abreast of the age in regard
to the facts which it has produced, and in regard to its modes
of thought and methods of work, else he must expect to be left
in the race, and his power and influence sadly impaired.
But in order to thus accumulate facts and read through the
men and books, as is demanded in this highly intellectual
age, there is a constant tendency to cultivate the head at the
expense of the heart. Here may be the snare of students and
ministers, and one into which they can scarcely help falling,

190 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
unless all the way through their intellectual strivings they leave
a place constantly open for the incoming of the Son of God.
Books. — Books are the pastor's especial need, and, strange
to say, loving people, who wish to show their appreciation of
his life and work, seldom think of them. Not many things
carry to the pastor's study such happiness ; not many things
repay so largely the congregation.
Spurgeon's Sermon Notes. — Our objection to any book of
this sort is that it provides help for the indolent and dreary-
minded at the point where just such help should be avoided.
The thought part of a sermon is the frame-work — all the rest is
less or more mechanical. If the frame- work is supplied to any
student, and he be encouraged to use it, his sermon-making
will be an easy process, and his power of sermon-making pro
portionately damaged. This book, we suppose, will contain
the best sermon outlines ever written. They will be true to the
Gospel, they will be attractively set, and we fear they will be
widely used. We write them down as a peculiarly seductive
temptation in the way of time-pressed and brain-pressed minis
ters. We wish they were copyrighted internationally and
universally. Freshness. — The demand of the day is for freshness, and
this demand has been very widely answered in the setting forth
of many notions which are fresh, certainly, but, lacking the
inspiration of truth, are worthless. This demand spreads a
sore temptation in the way of many a minister, and, unless
guarded against, will allure to still waters and green pastures
in a sense not biblical, in order that when he opens his mouth
he may always say some new thing.
A better way would be to adhere to doctrines which have
proved their right to the preacher's thought and the hearers'
attention from the very quality for which they are too often set
aside. These doctrines — never mind how familiar they are —
it is the preacher's business to iterate and reiterate. So far as
we know, the simple truths which cluster around the cross,
formulated as they may be on the fingers, are alone suffi
cient for pulpit work, and to these few simple truths the
preacher should bring the heart and brain power of his life.

Preachers and preaching. 191
With these as his centre he should reach out in his reading, in
his thinking, in his social converse for material of any sort with
which to illustrate and enforce them. That is about the sum
of the preacher's work. A lawyer understands the importance
of reiteration when he pleads on behalf of his client before a
jury. He hammers away on the few points which are vital to
his position, and which, if he would succeed, he must make the
jury apprehend fully. So the preacher has only a few points
upon which his case hangs. Let him not be afraid to go at
them and at them, until he reads their import into the hearts
and consciences of those who listen. Nothing else will do
any good.
Thought-provoking.— Let the pastors do their work spe
cially in a manner to provoke thought. Let the simple gospel
be preached with emphasized freshness and power. Let it be
with renewed earnestness and warm with love and prayer.
When there is time to think, the people deserve to have some
thing specially worthy of thought.
Freshness and the Revision. — One practical thing in view
of the Revised Version will be the necessity of making a bon
fire of a great deal of sermonic literature. These revisers have
ruthlessly spoiled many a good discourse which has for years
effectively done duty. And now, the land over, itinerating
clergy may betake themselves again to the midnight oil in the
manufacture of a new supply. And that is a good thing. We
predict that one of the kindly offices of the revision will be the
brightening and freshening of the pulpit.
Interesting to Whom ? — While we concur in everything
said in the Examiner 's article, we wish to emphasize the point in
connection with interesting preaching which has been omitted,
and the point, too, which in our opinion ought to receive the
prominence. In common with every other service of God's
house the sermon forms part of the worship. It must be borne
in mind that God is in the audience, and that the " my
hearers " of the preacher includes Jehovah himself. This fact,
which scarcely anybody will dispute, removes somewhat the
special necessity of the sermon being made so that it will be
interesting to the men and women who form the congregation,

192 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
and fixes the stress upon the fact that the sermon is to be made
so that it will be interesting to God. And to be thus interest
ing, we take it that the thing of first importance about the
sermon should be its fidelity to truth. " Sufficiently sound in
theology," with " sufficiently " having the meaning of " exactly,"
so far as mind and heart, combined with patient study and
prayer, can ensure exactness, about states the case. The
Great Auditor will not be pleased, surely, if the one whom He
has appointed to declare His will, declares before His very face
something that either falls short, or is contrary. A maestro
writes a composition and gives it to a pupil for study, and to
be played before a vast audience, including himself, at some
appointed time. Should the student venture to substitute the
composition of some other master, or should he produce his
task in a bungling fashion without regard to either light or
shade, touch or harmony, he would simply receive and merit
the execration of his master, whose great name he has brought
into ridicule. Somewhat similar we judge to be the relation
between the preacher and God. The latter is the Master and
the Critic, and the One whose honor is at stake, and He must be
pleased, whether anyone else is or not, i.e., the preacher
expounds and interprets the mind of God. Holding this view,
as we do strongly, we cannot but regret the tendency to ignore
doctrinal preaching which at present obtains, and especially do
we deplore the fact that "sound doctrine" is not made the
sine qua non of the pulpit, as it used to be. The pulpit, then,
must be interesting to God, and it can be this only as it faith
fully declares the mind of God. Just so, also, with every other
feature of the service — the prayer, the attitude, the thunderous
organ, or the silver-toned trumpet, the many-voiced chorus, or
the solo from some maiden's cultured throat — all is failure, un
less interesting to God. We do not suppose that the writer of
the paragraph which we quote means that by interesting to the
people, the sermon must be pleasing. Much that will interest
a hearer will not please him. But God must be both interested
and pleased ; as for the rest of the congregation, the preacher,
having pleased God, may rest satisfied if he has interested
them, It is none of his business to please them. If Christ

PREACHERS AND PREACHING. 1 93
and the apostles are our model preachers, it is enough for us
in this day if the results of preaching are as they were then.
They interested their audiences, but seldom pleased. They
had truth to deliver which the natural heart cannot receive ;
which stirred up antagonism ; which in many cases resulted in
uproar. For the preaching it they were neither petted nor en
riched, but cursed and beaten and ostracized. If the preacher
of the same truths in this day fares better than they did, let
him thank God's grace, but never let him, in order that the
results may be different, abate one jot the mind of God. God's
truth will always interest a people, but not always please them.
The encouragement, however, is that as God works through the
truth, and nothing else, this thing that is so unpalatable is
going to be the power of God unto salvation, We thank the
Examiner for emphasizing the matter of interesting preaching.
We may be permitted to ask and answer the pertinent enquiry,
" Interesting to whom? "
Present Day Preaching. — We have not much sympathy
with a great deal that is now being said and written concerning
the shortcomings of the pulpitas compared with its excellencies
of former days. So far as we are able to judge, the Gospel of
God's Son is proclaimed as earnestly, as forcibly, and as intel
ligently at the present day as at any time in the past. It is
true that a great deal of the sermonic literature which is spread
over the country now is pretty poor fare for one whose soul is
panting after God, and that a great deal of what one hears
might as well remain unheard, as far as practical benefit is
concerned ; but it was just so a hundred years ago. The fittest
only of the pulpit work of former days has survived, and the
great mass of our forefathers' work, whose power of thought
and felicity of expression we are called upon to admire and
imitate, has perished. That the best work of to-day will stand
comparison with the best work of any day is our firm conviction.
But we do not wish so much to draw attention to the best
pulpit work of any time, as to the excellency of the common
place, everyday work of common men — a thing which is by
far too little appreciated, if, indeed, it is sufficiently recognized.
We have ministers all over Canada who, one hundred times a
13

194 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
year, and year after year, give interesting, practical and scrip
tural sermons to people who have all the intellectual advantages
which the latter part of the nineteenth century brings them.
This is saying a great deal for the modern minister, both in
regard to what is demanded of him and what he actually accom
plishes. The quality of his work is not to be judged by the
ten sermons put into book form, which are the best things of
some dead man's forty years' labor, and which, finding their
way into somebody's bookcase, serve ever after as the touch
stone by which the ability of successive pastors is tried ; nor is
it to be judged by the three sermons of some living itinerant
revivalist, which were heard upon a certain occasion and made
so deep an impression : they are to be judged by their frequency
of production, by the time at the disposal of their author, by
their general adaptability to the needs of the people and by
their faithfulness to God's truth. And judged thus, we have
no hesitancy in saying that Canadian Baptist churches have a
staff of ministers of which they ought to be proud.
Efforts. — Some of the most magnificently endowed and
useful men in the Christian Church to-day are incapable of
reaching the region where their productions would be regarded
as " efforts " ; contrarily, the man of magnificent presence and
elocutionary culture, commonly endowed otherwise, can make
an "effort" every time and be so reported.
But a greater objection to this popular word is that its con
stant use is an inducement for men to strive for that very thing
which it represents. Popularity is the snare of the ministry.
What minister is there who finds it an easy matter to shake
from his thoughts entirely and to be uninfluenced by the con
siderations which that word "effort" represents? If he can do
it at all times he is a singularly upright soul. The great
majority cannot. Their "like passions" have an inclination
towards the "effort," and we say this, it is simply too bad that
the lure is so constantly set before them.
Moreover, it ignores the Holy Spirit. The " effort," all the
way through, is His power, and is His direct production. He
is mouth and wisdom to the speech-maker, the preacher, and
the man who prevails in prayer before the throne. ...

PREACHERS AND PREACHING. 195
Preachers on vacation or pulpit supplying often mistake in
putting into their satchels the sermons which they have evolved
with extraordinary labor for some special occasion. " Efforts "
have no interest except for the occasion for which they were
prepared. Ordinary Sunday work is generally the best adapted
for supplying purposes. We are disposed to look unfavorably
upon the " effort " sermon for any occasion. Even the great
gatherings of Christians would be more edified by simplicity.
Ministerial Stars. — This new order in the ministry embraces
those who remain with their church some six or seven months
out of the twelve, and for the rest of their time are open to
engagements for lecturing.
We have profound respect for Mr. Spurgeon, who time and
again has returned answer to the overtures of lecture committees
that his business was preaching the Gospel, and not lecturing.
Just now the needs of the world are too pressing to allow of
any talent or energy which has been dedicated to God going
to waste. There is plenty of work to do for every man who is
called to preach the Word, in the special department to which
he has consecrated his life. The more brilliant he is, the more
his power of assembling multitudes, the more he is wanted to
preach the Word. Anyway, outside of ministerial ranks will be
found men enough to discuss science and philosophy, and to
make people laugh.
Ministerial Support — When God calls a man into the
ministry He calls him to preach the Gospel ; the call is not to
emoluments of any kind.
It is clearly the Master's business and according to the bond
to keep His servant supplied with the necessaries of life so long
as that life is valuable. When that life ceases to be valuable,
that is, when the servant can do better for his Lord by dying
than by living, to die is gain in every aspect of the question.
Ministers giving themselves up entirely, as they have done,
to a work of faith must, in a peculiar sense, be contented to
live by faith.
On the other hand, those who preach the Gospel should live
by the Gospel, and live decently and respectably. Our Presby
terian friends have arranged it that the minimum salary of

196 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
every one of their ministers must reach $750 and a parsonage,
and we are very sure that no Baptist minister is less deserving,
nor can he well meet the requirements of his office with any
less. Grades in the Ministry. — There are no graded positions
in the Baptist ministry, or in the general service of our churches,
that we know of. With us the humblest worker for Jesus
Christ is an heir of God and a member of His royal priesthood.
Let him do his work faithfully, and in dignity and honor he
stands as high as any. The terms "going up" and "coming
down" have no real significance when used to indicate position
in Christ's service. The only rank which He recognizes is that
which is given by His "well done " to the "good and faithful
servant." Over Fifty. — The spirit of Rehoboam has not yet died out ;
at least, that phase of it which would have nothing to do with
the counsel of old men. It is a singular thing that this spirit
should limit its attention to the ministers of the Gospel. It has
nothing to say in the case of statesmen. They are but boys at
fifty, youths at sixty, and in their prime at seventy. It never
utters its voice against lawyers. The silvered head is always
considered the fitting incumbent of the bench. Doctors are
rated according to their experience, but ministers are old men
at fifty, and the conviction is growing that after that period of
life their usefulness is gone, and pulpits are pretty generally
closed against them. It may not be known to everyone that
the Baptist denomination of Canada has some of its ablest
ministers forced into inactivity for no apparent reason but that
they have passed the meridian of fifty years.
This is all wrong.
In the first place, it is a wrong to the one who is thus set
aside. In good faith he entered the work, willingly accepted
all its sacrifices, and permitted himself, at the call of his breth
ren, to be set apart. Always provided he lives a life of con
sistent faith and work, he has a right to continue in his chosen
sphere until his powers fade. For this purpose he gave himself
up to God. Upon this understanding hands were laid upon
him, and somebody is morally responsible if, for any inadequate
reason, every door of usefulness is closed upon him.

PREACHERS AND PREACHING. 197
In the second place, it is wrong to our churches. • If our
churches systematically deprive themselves of the wisdom, the
experience, the learning, and the grace of the fathers, they are
missing the cream of consecrated lives, which neither the
enthusiasm nor devotion of youth can replace.
The True Dead Line — Not all old ministers have preserved
their vitality. They have allowed themselves to become old in
mind as well as in body.
Let it be fully understood that in the matter of intellectual
diligence there is no discharge in the ministry. There does
not come any time when books can be laid aside and depend
ence placed upon the labor of past years. At a college a young
man learns how to use his mind, and after he leaves college he
uses it ; and when he ceases to use it, be he young or old, then,
and not till then, is he past service in the ministry.
Thrice blessed is that church who can persuade to minister
unto them in sacred things a man whose heart and mind are
young and fresh, and whose silvered head proclaims these
qualities to be the youth and freshness of old age.
Vacation and Exchanges — Every pastor should have a
vacation. He should breathe different air and get his thought
and circulation familiar with unfamiliar things. He lives at
but a poor dying rate whose life is tied down to never-ending
contact with the same faces and the same food. There is death
in the rut. Always at it, and in the same way, and in the same
place, will bring stagnation upon the brightest and best. Pastors
owe it to their churches and to themselves that they get away
for change of air, scene and food. And country pastors need
change as much as their brethren in the city.
In some cases, of course, there could be no vacation unless
it be brought about by exchange of pulpits. But the good
brethren who are sent away to play, and are provided with the
requisites for making it possible and enjoyable, ought to make
play the serious business of their outing. They should con
scientiously exclude the manuscripts and heavy literature
from their valises. They should religiously keep them
selves at a respectable distance from those brain-tissue exhaus
ters, the summer schools and the Chautauquas, which have

198 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
lately in such numbers sprung up to entice the rest-seeker.
Let the weary pastor get away from books and public assemblies
and give himself up to the rocks and woods, the streams and the
lakes. A month at the shrine of nature will benefit him more
than all his intercourse with his learned fellows. A lusty trout
upon the end of his rod, or his brawn bared to the pure breezes,
will tell more upon his succeeding time of work than all the intel
lectual philanthropy of Drs. Vincent and Harper combined.
Let the royal savage that is in him have a chance for a month.
The Test of Success  The mere fact of one hundred con
verted through anyone's preaching says nothing as to the
superior success of the preacher. This will be better gauged
by taking note of the spiritual life and knowledge of the con
verts, and their power in perpetuating the things which they
have received. Christian workers should labor in view of the
day when every man's work will be tried.

CHAPTER VII.
ON PROBLEMS, PRACTICES, AND OPINIONS
OF THE DAY.
The Day of Rest.— God gave to His creatures an inestim
able boon when He placed in His law that item in regard to the
setting aside of the seventh part of their time as Sabbath. It
has time and again in the history of nations been proved a
necessary measure for man's well-being-; necessary not only to
physical excellence, but also to mental and moral development.
The body needs this stated relaxation from accustomed toil,
that it may recuperate its energies and repair its six days'
waste. It would wear out long before its appointed time if it
were ceaselessly obliged to keep up its working tension. As a
machine needs to be stopped that it may have its bolts and
screws readjusted and be oiled, so this physical organism is the
better for, and demands, its period of rest.
Rest of mind is equally desirable and demanded, and for the
very same reason. Those who are actively engaged in any
daily mental work, in order to develop their full powers, must
have Sabbath. The student of business or of literature can
never keep his powers at the best under constant strain in one
direction, and for this reason a gap has mercifully been pro
vided at the seventh day, over which it is prohibited to stretch
the thinking processes of the other six, lest they be impaired
by the undue strain.
So also the soul must have its rest. Six days let it labor,
bear its burdens, endure its trials and resist its vexations. Six
days are enough for the business worries and the unrest of
pleasure. Six days out in the world, rubbing shoulders with
the covetous, working at the same bench with the godless, in
199

2O0 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
an atmosphere perverted with the laugh of the frivolous and
the jest of those who mock at God ; battling with the tempta
tions of avarice, resisting the promptings of worldly ambition,
in the strife for daily bread endeavoring to keep unspotted
from the world — six days of this encounter is as much as the
average soul can stand. And God well knew it when He pro
vided for man the Sabbath. Such is the necessity and such is
the provision made by God in view of this necessity.
And now for the body, mind and soul the old commandment
retains all its force, " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy." They are to be kept separate on one day in seven from
their accustomed avocation, and devoted wholly to the purpose
for which the Sabbath was ordained. The command in regard
to the body is that it rest. It is not to outdo its six days' exer
tion in Sunday walks or pleasuring, or even going the round of
a city's popular churches, in which pious dissipation this com
mand is all too frequently broken.
Mind and soul, as they differ in their nature from that which
is merely physical, rest also in a manner which differs. Their
rest consists not in cessation from activity, but in change ; and
in regard to a man's mind, the command bids him stop his six
days' thinking and get his mind upon a new theme. It must
separate itself from accounts and speculations, and buying and
selling, and secular teaching and learning, and settle upon the
theme which God has provided. And this change is its rest.
As for the soul, the command enjoins that it quit for a season
the cares which accompany the six days' work, and give itself
wholly unto God. Jesus' words, which can never be inaptly
spoken, apply with peculiar emphasis here, " Come unto me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, . . . and ye shall find
rest unto your souls." *
Temperance and the Churches.— We believe the advocacy
of temperance to be included in the Church's great commission,
and are very much in favor of doing the work, which has for so
long been left almost exclusively to temperance organizations,
* Elsewhere he declares its sacredness to be its best defence as a day
of rest, and opposes Sunday parades, newspapers and cars. — [Ed.]

PRACTICES AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY. 201
through the means of that great institution which Christ de
signed to be the opponent of all worldliness and wickedness.
Our English brethren have the right conception of the agent to
be employed against the giant evil. In their endeavor to stay
the progress of that which more than anything else at the
present day is accountable for the destruction of the bodies and
the souls of men, they think that they are doing God's business
in a way which will be approved of Him.
Is not the example of the English Baptists in this particular
something which could be followed with very great profit ? The
curse of drink is an evil here just as it is in the older country,
and hitherto all organizations brought into being to oppose it
have not succeeded in lessening its power very materially. We
believe the Church of Christ could succeed where other organi
zations have failed. If only Christian people would unite in
their protest against it, and make the Bible deliverances upon
the question a vital article of their creed, the might of their
influence could close the doors of taverns every day as it now
does one day in seven.
In Self-defence. — It is clearly the duty of churches to put
forth every effort to retain, as well as to gain, its membership.
One of its chief functions is to nourish and to cherish those
who, through God's Spirit, have been brought into the fold.
This needs no argument. Rev. Newman Hall, speaking from
accurate statistical information, says that last year the churches
of Great Britain lost from actual membership, through strong
drink, 30,000. These figures are appalling, and they certainly
call for some special feature of gospel work within the Church
itself in some way adequate to this calamity. The insistence
upon temperance principles has long enough been left to out
side organizations. The Church itself through its class-rooms,
its pulpits, or societies within itself, should lay hold of this
matter with a firm hand.
Christianity would be immensely the gainer if drink were
banished the country, and every one who uses his influence
against the bitter curse is by so much advancing the coming of
God's kingdom.

202 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The Liberty Argument.— In the sacred name of liberty
liquor once more comes to the front. Lord Stanhope, observ
ing the unhappy results arising from paying workmen wages
in public houses (twice as many crimes are committed on
Saturday as on any other day in the week), endeavored to get
a bill through the Upper House prohibiting the conjunction of
pay-sheets and taverns. Lord Bramwell, who himself char
acterized Saturday as " pay day, drink day, and crime day,"
opposed the measure as inconsistent with "liberty." When
will this silly pretext cease to be regarded whenever an
attempt is made at liquor legislation ? Used in regard to any
other evil it has long since become impotent. Strange that a
plea, that in any other matter would be speedily laughed out of
court, should have vitality enough in the liquor traffic to float
the entire interest ! . . .
The Week, which we are sorry to observe, is employing its
great influence in aid of the traffic in strong drink and against
the temperance sentiment of the country, persistently plays
upon the liberty string with its finger unchangingly upon that
fret which gives the note, liberty to drink. The Week should
shift its finger upon the string occasionally, for it should know
that liberty is at least two-sided. Temperance people ought
not to be thought unreasonable if they, too, put in their claim
for liberty. The claim has been often made, but so far the
Week has taken no notice of it.' Temperance people demand
liberty to walk the streets unmolested by the drunken. They
desire liberty to go upon an excursion and be in no danger of
hearing blasphemy and foul talk. They wish the liberty of
sending their wives and children to places of public resort
without the probability of receiving insults from drunken men.
The liberty of wives who have drinking husbands ought to be
respected. The liberty of children who, in many cases, are
denied clothing and schooling, is something to be considered.
All of which, together with the demand which temperance
people make for exemption from the tax which the liquor traffic
imposes upon us, is at least a phase of liberty worthy of con
sideration. Prohibition, pure and simple, and universal, is the only

PRACTICES AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY. 203
measure that gives promise of ultimate success. High license,
restricted license, and local option, have now been sufficiently
proved useless. The grand measure must be in view hence
forward as the only thing that can give the country security
against its most crying evil. Temperance men— and we hope
that by this time the term includes most of those who have
professed to give their lives to Christ and His kingdom — should
now move forward with a single aim. They may be assured of
a long fight and a hard one, but, if this one thing they do,
they may be assured also of final triumph. And the business
should be gone about immediately. The time and eloquence
that have been wasted in the attempt at educating the people
up to the prohibition idea need not be gone over. The people
to be educated are in every case those whose money is in the
traffic, and their cause is hopeless. There is no longer any
use in waiting for the time that is ripe for the movement. That
time will never come. It is the myth of the "convenient
season." The only hope for prohibition is to go right at pro
hibition, and leave all side issues, such as options and educating
processes, as sufficiently proved worthless.
Shall the Church Entertain ? — We have very decided con
victions in regard to what are called popular amusements being
tolerated in connection with the working of Christian churches.
In our view, whenever the Church meets it does so for edifi
cation in the way of life and for no other purpose. What is
popularly known as recreation consists in what will furnish food
to the intellect of man, or what will be merely emotional
gratification to him. The Church is under no obligation to
provide entertainment for either his head or his legs. Its
business is with his heart life and that alone. If this latter
statement be true, then it follows that all manner of entertain
ments which have not directly the divine life in view and which
are not conformable to spiritual ideas, have no place in the
working of God's Church.
Circumspectly. — Circumspectly is, we suppose, the most
forceful, as it is the fitting term which designates what ought
to be characteristic of every Christian's walk. " See, then,
that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise." That is,

204 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
" Look around you as a wise man looks." Herein is the dis
tinction between the circumspection of the wise and the
foolish. The one starts out with some definite purpose in his
mind or heart, and he keeps his eyes open upon all that sur
rounds him, intent by all means possible to make what he
observes bend to the furtherance of his purposes, or to ward oft
whatever he may judge to be inimical. The other, on the con
trary, starts out purposeless. He takes in, as may come in his
way, whatever presents itself to his view ; but, purpose lacking,
the only impression left is wrong impression. There can be no
doub't that the apostle gave as the rule of Christian life that
circumspection which is characteristic of the wise man in any
walk of life.
Christians enter the business of their new life with new hearts,
new impulses, and a definite aim before them ; and they are
enjoined to look about them and see if in any quarter opportu
nities offer which will further their business, and to keep special
watch upon any circumstance which may impede it. This, we
suppose, is what our fathers meant when they were so earnest
at the throne of grace in the use of this word, and when they
gave it so freely in exhortation. It has the ring Puritanical.
It smacks somewhat of the strait-laced and punctilious. Never
theless it is good scripture, even though somewhat obsolete :
wisely circumspect that man will be who keeps his eyes open
to what each day may bring before him in the way of service
for Christ's sake. He will watch for opportunities ; he will
make opportunities (buy them) ; he will warily defend his pur
pose against everything that has the appearance of being
harmful ; he will have little to do with what is merely neutral,
and certainly nothing to do with that which is questionable.
Just what a wide-awake merchant would do who is gifted with
ordinary wisdom, that thing is enjoined upon the Christian.
But there are Christians who walk circumspectly as fools.
These are they who have not the root of the matter set deeply
within them. They form but indefinite purposes for Christ.
Their new hearts, shortly after conversion, get to be very much
like the old ones, and in respect of the hope of glory they allow
themselves to get very much befogged. These walk aimlessly

PRACTICES AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY. 205
enough. They look around them, but their eyes are in the
ends of the earth. Very little they see of the open doors for
God's service ; very little they consider the relation of oppor
tunities to the business to which, in profession, they dedicated
their lives. But their aimless eyes catch readily, nevertheless,
and their hearts are impressed by, the harmful things which
Satan sees to it are placed conveniently in their way.
No Christian wisely circumspect would dream of giving his
countenance to worldly amusements, or his presence to ques
tionable places. He would not frequent taverns, patronize
horse-racing or theatricals, simply because he would not see
anything in these amusements profitable to the carrying out of
his purpose, and the fact that they are questionable, so adver
tised, would be sufficient reason against them in any case.
But do not Christians countenance the theatre ? Do they
not dance ? and play cards ? and occasionally are they not seen
in bar-rooms and on the race-course ? Oh, yes ! but foolishly
circumspect are such Christians. They look around them, it
is true, but not for the purpose of hastening the kingdom, or
of warding off that which may make toward poverty of soul.
Purpose for God is their great lack.
We unhesitatingly advocate a return to the Puritanical idea
of circumspection. Dancing, betting, drinking, and theatre-
going Christians are a sad damage to the cause whose name
they bear.
Slumming. — The missioner in Trinity Church, New York,
read a letter from the pulpit the other day which caused no
little sensation. It was from a man whose employers had often
detailed him as guide to customers from a distance, through
the gaslight resorts of that wicked city. The letter implored
him to use his influence with merchants and others to stop this
business, as many a young man thus detailed had himself fallen
into the snares which he was showing to others, and the bad
influence of all that was seen and heard was often ruinous to
those accompanying him.
The philanthropic theatre-goer and slum-peregrinator are
employed in dangerous and useless business, — dangerous
because they themselves can never get out of their memory the

206 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
pictures of vice, gilded or otherwise, which they have encoun
tered ; and useless because there is at hand a far better way.
God's book tells all that is worth knowing about human nature ;
and every phase of it, to know which men ostensibly do the
strange things above enumerated, may be readily had therein ;
and at the same time the memory and the heart, and, we may
add, congregations, will be in no risk of pollution.
Religion in Newspapers. — Now all the great papers of the
country think it in no wise beneath them to discuss theoretical
and practical Christianity, and articles such as at one time
were only found on the pages of journals devoted exclusively to
religion now find their way wherever our great dailies go. In
this we do most heartily rejoice ; because, first, the secular
papers, with their great influence and immense circulation, are
spreading Christian truth ; and secondly, because their action
in this regard indicates plainly that the religious sentiment is
increasing. Simplicity at Funerals. — In contrast with the pomp and
circumstance with which men think it decent and fitting to
invest the dead bodies of the great, God's method of performing
the work of an undertaker is notably striking. Once He con
descended to do this business himself, and His example, if not
a rebuke to ostentatious parade, certainly indicates the seemli-
ness of observing simplicity. The greatest statesman that
earth ever produced died upon Mount Nebo. And the stately
record says of his obsequies simply this : "And he buried him
in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor ; but
no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." . . .
Again we express our pleasure that among the Church's great
ones, one, at least, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has declared
in favor of simplicity. Let the same simplicity be taught all
down through the grades of Christian society, and besides a
nearer conformity to the spirit of the Gospel and less violation
to the true attitude of grief, many a heavy burden will be lifted
from those who are already sufficiently bowed down.
The Best Baptists — We object to the term "best" so
applied, and speak of it because it is getting into frequent use.
The best Baptists are they who visit the fatherless and widow

PRACTICES AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY. 207
in their affliction and keep themselves unspotted from the
world. Such people may have been at the lecture referred to,
it is true, but we judge it was not these characteristics which
called forth the superlative of the writer. The best Baptists
are found just as often among washerwomen and soil-delvers as
among those who attend fashionable lectures. Comparisons
are especially invidious when religiously applied.
Hero Nevertheless — The great Christian men of this day
are not all found among the companionable and delightful souls
whom we love for their personal worth and their manifest
benevolent influence. Some of God's grand heroes are rough
and uncouth in speech and action, are offensive, are persons
shunned because of their evident defects ; but every now and
again some grand deed of theirs, some outcome of their doughty
purpose, proclaims the stuff that they are made of, and, in spite
of their defects, lets all who look observe the quality of that
which lies within the homespun of their outward bearing.
Christian duty goes somewhat further than loving those we
like ; it demands that we recognize and appreciate the stamp
of God whether it be found upon gold or what we call baser
metal. " A Grand Sight." — Says Dr. Cuyler : " With my own eyes
I have seen Mr. Gladstone kneel by the side of a common
street-sweeper and pray for the salvation of his soul. I know
of no grander sight than the Premier of England and the lead
ing statesman of the world kneeling by the side of a common
street-sweeper and pouring forth his eloquent appeal to God in
behalf of his humble brother."
This is all nonsense and kindred to the kind of stuff that is
written about Royalty, big and little, when it condescends occa
sionally to do the trivial acts of common humanity. It would
indeed be an amazing thing in Mr. Gladstone if he did not pray
with a common street-sweeper whose soul he knew to be in
danger. Mr. Gladstone is an earnest Christian man who, from
his convictions of the truth of God's Word and his exceptional
advantages of knowing the necessities of wretched humanity,
could hardly be supposed to stifle his best impulses when a
suitable object appealed to them. Of course, Mr. Gladstone

208 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
would pray with a street-sweeper. Queer Christian if he did
not. We fancy the great statesman would not feel particularly
indebted to Dr. Cuyler for setting forth as a " grand sight" one
of the simplest duties and privileges of Christian men. If,
now, the good doctor had told us of the many in humble
English homes, who, although never having seen the great
statesman, take his name upon their lips and daily commend
him to the throne of grace, he would have spoken more to the
purpose, and probably shown us a " grander sight." When will
Christian men cease instituting comparisons between Christians
little and big in the estimation of the world ? God is no
respecter of persons. The soul of Gladstone and the soul of
the crossing sweeper are of equal value in His sight.
Gladstone's Moral Grandeur  The moral grandeur of Mr.
Gladstone's character never shone so conspicuously as now.
He has within his grasp the possibility of ending his illustrious
career most gloriously, as the world counts glory. At his back
is an unlimited exchequer, an unequalled armament by sea
and land, a country which, should he decide for war, would
almost to a man support him, and a foe which is inviting the
contest. Moreover, he is urged upon war by a pressure which
scarcely ever another statesman has felt. The Commons and
the Lords both press him. The Press sneers at him. France
and Germany talk of his cowardice. Russia taunts him with
pusillanimity. Yet, so far as he knows, he will do right. He
prefers righteous arbitration, even though it should go against
the claims of England, to the glories of unrighteous war. Let
Christian people look upon the present attitude of England's
greatest statesman, and take hope for the future from the fact
that, in defiance of public cost and public opinion, it is possible
for a ruler to do right and be sustained.
Home Rule. — After weeks of intense expectation on the part
of the whole British Empire, Mr. Gladstone delivered himself,
last Thursday, on his Irish policy. So far as we have looked
into the provisions of the bill and seen the principles which it
enunciates working in other countries, we cannot think that the
opponents are warranted in their hostility to it. The dismem
berment for which the bill provides is just the dismemberment

PRACTICES AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY. 209
which, if it had taken place two hundred years ago, would have
given Ireland the prosperity of Canada. For many years back
treasure has been squandered, land has been left unproductive,
and blood has been spilled for the idea of union ; and everyone
knows that the union has been but an idea. Gladstone's meas
ure gives the substantial union of freedom, in which we hope to
witness the dawning of Ireland's better day. A similar measure
given in the days of George III. would have preserved the North
American continent British; whereas, the stupid policy of coercion
dismembered what would have been England's chief glory. Of
course, no such measure as the one now proposed can effect
immediately all that is hoped of it. Time must be given for
such blunders and attempts at tyranny as the history of Cana
dian freedom knows not a little of. Doubtless there will be a
dominant party, as there has been in Canada. Doubtless the
weaker will have good reason to protest against the intolerance
of the stronger ; but the end will be there as it has been here —
liberty for all, and a measure of peace on earth and good-will
toward men such as no coercion could ever give. We believe
that Mr. Gladstone is a true statesman ; that his view is broader
than that of those who oppose him ; and that he has ventured to
do right upon a question in which the doing right must necessarily
bring upon him the utmost violence of his natural enemies, as
well as the suspicion and opposition of many of his friends.
The bill, of course, may be open to many modifications, but we
believe that, on the whole, it contains the patriotic and Chris
tian settlement of the Irish question.
Dead Men's Shoes. — It is simply of no use. Standing in
dead men's shoes, sitting upon their chairs, or looking out of
their windows, never helps anybody. To be Calvin, one must
have the soul of Calvin. It was not his Geneva surroundings
nor the aspect of the times in which he lived that made Calvin
what he was. At any time or in any place he would have
carved his character indelibly upon history. He who would in
any way be great, noble, and useful, must get his inspiration, not
from the externals in which great men played their part, but by
drinking deep at the fountain-head whence they derived their
power. 14

210 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Kissing the Book.— Is it not time to do away with a custom
that, in the first place, serves no purpose ; in the second, is the
cause of additional crime ; in the third, is a nasty ceremony ;
and in the fourth, is made a laughing-stock ? If the serious
nature of criminal charges and the gravity of a court of justice
are not sufficient to evoke the truth, the oath as at present
administered will not help matters much.
Opening of the Legislature. — The Montreal Witness is
quite right in poking fun at the ceremonies of opening Parlia
ment observed by the Ontario Legislature. All this gold lace
and plumage, body-guard and artillery, can be looked upon as
nothing but child's play by a democratic people. It may have
been necessary at one time by such means as these to keep up
the dignity of State. At a time when the masses of the people
were in ignorance, royalty and royal representatives could be
distinguished only by brilliancy of plumage, equipage, and
retinue. Hodge & Co. pulled the forelock according to the
display of lace, and the presumption is that the lace existed
simply for the benefit of Hodge and his forelock. Hodge hav
ing departed from this community, at least, the gold lace and
all its accompaniments may as well go after him. The citizens,
who meet on Front Street to do the business of this province,
would lose none of their dignity if they dispensed with the
ceremonies at which now even school-boys laugh.
The Vanderbilt Ball — We shall not go so far as to say that
it was a display of plebeian vulgarity ; it was, however, a display
alike foreign to good sense and the idea which is generally held
of republican proprieties. Flunkeyism in carnival about sums
up the affair. The multiplication of men who are able and will
ing to throw away $50,000 upon mummery means a great deal
in connection with a republic. The thing which brought down
stately Rome is a national principle which holds good to-day ;
and wealth, accumulated and squandered so enormously on the
part of the few, indicates the certain accompaniment of the
reverse of the picture— poverty, wretchedness, and the deep
murmurs of discontent, on the part of the many.
The Street Car Riot of I885 — The company declared its
intention of giving no employment to men who connected them-

PRACTICES AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY. 211
selves with labor organizations, and those who ventured to cross
the company in this regard were summarily dismissed. There
is no excuse for the company's action in this effort to interfere
with personal liberty. That was a bit of petty persecution, the
intolerance of commercial bigotry. The excuse that the men
signed an agreement not to connect themselves with any labor
organization, does not make the company's position any better.
No company has any moral right to submit such a document for
signature. It is too late in the day for the insistence upon any
sort of test act by any corporation, however powerful, which in
any way aims at personal liberty, and we are very glad that the
Toronto Street Railway Company has discovered this. The
company has been beaten in this contest, as it deserved to be ;
and the dismissed men have been taken back, and all is going
on as before. If there is to be another document submitted for
signature which bears upon the private opinions and actions of
either company or men, we suggest that some reference to the
golden rule would appropriately find a place in it.
The Sporting Columns. — It is too bad that papers other
wise of moral and healthful tone should make it easy for their
readers to become familiar with the grovelling scenes and low
vocabulary of the prize-ring and the cock-pit. Such familiarity
bodes no good, especially to the young.
Criminal's Penitence  This parade of saintliness about a
man awaiting execution says nothing for either religion or
morality, and in all cases it would be better to keep criminal
experiences of like nature in the dark.
Petting Criminals. — The times in which we live are calling
loudly for another Howard. Only he is needed to do work
somewhat in a direction contrary to that of his illustrious prede
cessor. . . The outgush of sympathy for the poor prisoner,
which is so prevalent in these days, is sheer silly sentiment, and
he would be a philanthropist who would convince public opinion
of that fact.

CHAPTER VIII.
NUGGETS OF WISDOM AND TOUCHES OF
HUMOR.
Young Men. — Our prosperity as a denomination, our intel
lectual position, and the efficiency of our various organizations,
depend upon the opportunities now given our young men, and
the manner in which they are now encouraged to become famil
iar with, and interested in, the measures of advancement which
we are now pursuing.
Good Words. — A cheery, hearty, cordial greeting to start the
day with, makes the sun all the brighter and the bird's song all
the sweeter. Its influence runs through the day ; and the part
ing word at night, if kindly spoken, makes the sleep all the
sweeter. Good words in the family are precious things ; they
are soothing and refining and love-begetting. No family can
afford to be without them ; they are labor-lightening and trouble-
dispelling. Precious in the home or upon the street, in the shop
or at the social gathering, when are they ever unbecoming ?
When have they not brought sunshine and gladness with them ?
Not Courtier, but Son  God does not want the courtier,
but the son. He sent His Son to get, not the compliments nor
the devout behavior of men towards His law and His person,
but to get the lost souls of men ; and the man who professes
esteem for Jesus Christ and regard for the ordinances of God
while at the same time he refuses his heart, surely does not need
much argument to convince him that his case is a pitiful one,
God's eye being upon him.
Science and the Bible— As science becomes enlightened,
God's Word and she become helpmates in revealing the more
clearly the pathway of God. 212

NUGGETS OF WISDOM. 213
Conscientious Work — Conscientious work from pew and
pulpit will not fail in having its effects upon all departments of
our work.
Christian Breadth.— Let that policy never be thought a
wise one which refuses to recognize goodness and greatness
when existing outside one's own horizon.
Keeping Engagements — Our public meetings depend for
their success upon the presence and the thorough preparation
of those to hear whom trustful people are invited by newspaper
notices and programme sheets, and no small matter can justify
failure in either one or other of these things.
Do it Quickly. — Do it quickly, whatever it is that conscience
approves, or that it ought to approve. Neither time nor desire
will brook any delay, and death comes suddenly. Opportunities
which present themselves for doing special service are like
angels' visits, short and far between. They go among the dead
things if not seized. To-day one may be inclined to speak
some word or do some act which may result in eternal blessing
to some soul ; to-morrow the inclination is silent as the tomb.
Every day the reminder comes that death is no respecter
of persons ; and someone is called home, leaving plans and
purposes behind him all unfulfilled.
Considerateness — It is very important that the Christian
should commend his religion, by sweetening and hallowing
life, through the countless little interchanges of word and act
that go so far towards making it up, for nothing tells so
speedily against the cause he represents as a want of proper
consideration for others that is continually manifesting itself in
the home, the store, or the social circle. " I didn't think " is a
poor excuse, whether offered by the child or the man, and it is
the business of every one of us to use our God-given minds, so
as to remove the reproach of thoughtlessness from us.
Optimistic. — During May and June the religion of Jesus
Christ will be brought into prominence and discussed all over
the world in such assemblies and by such men as will make it
the chief feature in the world's thought. In this we see great
gain. Christianity is marching onward and upward, and those
who take a doleful view of its progress cannot find in these
assemblies very much to bear out their view of the case.

214 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The Mind of Christ.— The thing of value to any gift or any
sort of work done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
Christ-mind which prompts it. That precious box of ointment
with which an obscure, sinful woman honored her Lord will go
on honoring the Lord when the wealth of Pharisees of every
name and nation has been forgotten.
Woman's Prayer. - Woman's prayer has given to the
Church its best men in all ages, and woman's prayer has been at
the back of the Church's best work.
Church Prayer is the united voice of the church in its
organized capacity, whole-hearted pleading for common needs.
In the early days prayer was the church's business, its grand
distinguishing characteristic. To-day God's house is rather
the preaching house than the house of prayer.
His Grande Ligne Mishap. — At 7.30 a prayer-meeting was
held, to be followed by a sermon by the Editor of the Baptist.
The Ottawa bishop and the appointed preacher wended their
way, arm in arm, towards the chapel where the services were
to be held, the former acting as guide through the darkness to
the dim-eyed scribe. A sidewalk was discovered, which the
guiding brother pronounced all right, and the two made for the
light upon the hill. A few yards from their starting point,
however, the sidewalk prematurely terminated, and a seven-foot
abyss began. Were it not for the deep darkness these two
might have been observed, suddenly, though not ungracefully,
let it be hoped, precipitating themselves head foremost into the
abyss. The bishop's head violently investigated a few stones
of goodly size and solidity at the bottom, while the scribe, be it
said, made the profoundest obeisance possible. The results
might have been serious. They were nothing more, however,
than sundry unimportant bruises, some considerable amount of
soiled clothing, some demoralization of the episcopal mitre, and
the loss of the editorial spectacles. Two, at least, were devoutly
grateful for the interposition of kind Providence.
Arrived at the church we found the prayer-meeting in pro
gress, which was characterized by great fervency, and par
ticipated in by many of the brethren. It is to be hoped that
the congregation enjoyed listening to the sermon better than the

TOUCHES OF HUMOR. 21 5
preacher enjoyed delivering it. His late humiliation was but
indifferent preparation. The pulpit lights were placed just
sufficiently below the stand to throw its shadow upon the desk
(this is a hint for more light in the Grande Ligne pulpit), and
no friendly glasses lent their artificial aid. The situation
demanded extempore speech, and the preacher missed his
opportunity. The audience was kindly, however.
Handshaking Excessive. — One can generally screw up
his courage to be shaken even by the brother whose vice-like
grip endangers his bones ; and he can take good-humoredly the
limp and lifeless member that is passively insinuated into his
grasp ; but it requires some moral courage to encounter the
brother who shakes hands everywhere and always. The objec
tion is not to hand-shaking in itself, but to the oppressive
consciousness that there is no escape. We have witnessed
persons actually engaged upon the solution of the problem of
how to circumvent that usher, and we have known of others
retiring in precipitate haste in order to effect a timely escape
from the vestibule, from which cases will be evident the pos
sibility of rendering what is on so many occasions a comely and
beautiful ceremony unedifying.
Church Entertainments. — We answer in regard to the
suicidal play, the negro minstrelsy, and the brimstone business,
that it appears to us that none of these things could be seen or
heard to advantage in the house of God. The scenic pos
sibilities of a pulpit are very meagre, at best ; and the worthy
actors either in brimstone, burnt cork, or firearms, could scarcely
do themselves justice with only Bible, hymn-book, and reading-
desk, as accessories. We opine that with such dismal environ
ments the entertainment did not show to any great advantage.
On the whole, using our best judgment, we give our opinion
that all entertainments of this sort would be better appreciated
if transferred to some properly equipped theatre. There would
be found all the accessories requisite to their proper setting ;
and there only could either audience or actors, who inclined
towards that sort of thing, find a congenial atmosphere.

2l6 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Letter to Sir William Van Home. " 5 Tower Ave.
"Montreal, February 14th, 1899.
" Dear Sir —
" I read with very much pleasure and profit your Quebec
speech. It was patriotic and outlined for Canada a transporta
tion scheme of great attractiveness and magnificence. My
mind, however, while reading, was speculative. How, I thought,
would this speech have been delivered and what effect would it
have had upon his audience, if, stationed twelve yards behind
Sir William, there was one locomotive engine steam belching,
and at the same distance another engaged in yard duty rumb
ling and hissing ; and it struck me that the orator might have
had some difficulty in finding his way through his theme, even
though it lent itself so admirably to the patriotic, the economic
and the romantic ; in short, had the locomotives got in their
work real well, it occurred to me that Sir William might have
become 'rattled' and, to say nothing of his personal reputation
as an orator, the country been the poorer, missing the beauty
and the profit of that which, under happier auspices, has been
received with continental applause.
" Sir William, I am a fellow-pilgrim in the role of speech-
maker. With great care and study, and the use of what ability
I possess, I prepare two addresses weekly, and am expected to
deliver them to some three or four hundred people every
Sunday from the platform of the church on the corner of
Osborne and Mountain streets. The effectiveness of my
address, to say nothing of my personal reputation as a
speaker, depends, as men who, like you, so often command
their fellows in public utterances, know right well, upon
the character of the environment. Respected sir, I crave
from you the falling of a tear while I recount, in one short sen
tence, one feature, at least, of that environment. Sunday after
Sunday, as I speak, one engine is stationed twelve yards behind
me, eruptive and diabolic ; another, peripatetic, belches and
thunders with aggravated diabolism. What is the man on the
platform to do? As best he may, forsooth. Maintain his
equanimity and meander on, though ' rattled.' Exterior, calm ;

TOUCHES OF HUMOR. 217
within, the alarm bells and the depths of perturbation. Alas !
alas !
" Sir William, this epistle breathes no threatenings nor slaugh
ter. It is simply a petition to one to whom the tu quoque
ought to appeal, and its whole tenor and point may be brought
to issue classically, pathetically, emphatically, and surely effec
tively, thus . ' Go a-tiptoe passing the church.'
" With great respect,
" I am, Sir William,
" Yours, etc.,
" To Sir William Van Home." " E. W. Dadson *
"The Canadian Pacific Railway Co.,
"Montreal, February 18th, 1899.
" My Dear Dr. Dadson :
" I am greatly obliged to you for calling my attention to the
annoyance you are suffering through our locomotives. I do not
know how far it may be remedied, but to the extent that it is
possible you may be sure that it shall be done. I have re
quested our officers to give the matter their immediate and per
sonal attention. " Most sincerely yours,
"W. C. Van Horne.
" To Rev. Dr. Dadson,
" 5 Tower Avenue, Montreal."
*The effectiveness of this letter will be seen from the following
gracious reply.

CHAPTER IX.
CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR.

Two New Year's Wishes. — Whether or not it will be a
happy New Year must depend upon how the life plans itself as
to conformity with God's truth. If God's message of salvation
has not been accepted, there can be no true happiness for any
man. This, then, should be the first wish of the New Year's
greeting to every unsaved soul.
To Christians this : " Beloved, I wish above all things that
thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy 'soul pros-
pereth." From John to Gaius these words conveyed exceed
ingly appropriate and comprehensive good wishes. Gaius was
a good man, a bright Christian, a man of healthy soul ; and to
wish him prosperity in business and health of body as he en
joyed prosperity of soul, was a very good wish indeed. And
because this greeting ought to be the best wish to any Chris
tian we use it as our New Year's greeting, in the hope that some
may be induced to make soul prosperity the chief concern, in
order that the general well-being may be in no wise endangered
in being regulated by it.
Help to Make it Happy. — The New Year's benediction
coming from Christian lips involves that boundless charity of
which Paul sings in his inspired and matchless poem. To wish
one a " Happy New Year " cannot be sincerely done unless the
well-wisher gets his heart into sympathy with the well-wished,
and there be some genuine outflow, not only of sentiment, but
also of heart. And further, the " Happy New Year " is but a
puff of good-natured vapor unless he who utters it purposes and
undertakes practically to make it effective. Every one has
218

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR. 21$
some endowment which may contribute to the happiness of his
fellow, and his benediction ought to be regarded as his bond
that such endowment shall be taxed for this purpose.
Review and Resolution.— Let not the review of the past
year pass over unnoticed the mysterious providence which has
kept up the supply of common necessities, both temporal and
spiritual ; these, because of our thoughts upon special incidents,
are apt to be forgotten.
Let the resolutions of this day be the convictions of a pure
heart, and be made as in God's sight, with full reliance on His
power for ability to perform, and the time given to this exercise
will be well spent.
Purpose and Performance.— Let the purpose now be
formed of seeking to know and do more of God's will, of being
willing to be guided by God's Spirit, of cultivating more than
ever the graces which are in Christ Jesus.
On the part of all, of pastors especially, let there be a year ot
persistent plodding, of consistent consecration, of unusual devo
tion to God's Word, and earnest, effectual prayer.
The Unknown Year. — The New Year is to every one as an
unknown country, where field and wood, mountain, precipice,
torrent, and quicksand, can only be guessed at. No man know-
eth what shall be, whether life or death, prosperity or adversity,
fame or disgrace. But we have His sure word of promise, and
we have the teaching of His providence and our experience ;
having which, we do well to face what now is opening upon
us hopefully and gladly, relying upon aid from the Father of
mercies to correct the mistakes of the past and to make further
advances in the business to which He has called us.
Christmas and the Children. — How more can an event be
honored than by making its anniversary the delight of children
and the joy of the home ? Christ's birthday in being thus cele
brated is fittingly honored with our purest and best observance.
Let to-day be a happy one, and merry with children's laughter.
The Lord will be well pleased.
Merry-Heartedness. — A merry Christian, for example,
reaches an ideal just as high as a solemn one. It was a sad
day for what is brightest and best in the religion of our Lord,

220 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
when the notion became fixed that the light heart and sunny
face indicated a levity inconsistent with the momentous concerns
of Christ's kingdom. None like the Christian can so afford to
wear a smile or be merry-hearted. Of all men his laughter may
be the most hearty and innocent. Why not ? That man has
an abiding peace with God. He has a Burden-bearer whom
the world knows not of. His future is assured ; why should he
not be merry-hearted ?
Merry-heartedness is the natural expression of a life at peace
and in innocence ; foolish frivolity is at best forced merriment,
and comes as frequently from unrest as from any other source.
So, when we say " Merry Christmas," we are giving expression
to an eminently Christian sentiment, and really framing a wish
in accord with the most precious gospel truth. We would have
the homes bright and happy with feasting and mirth. We
would have the children made much of. We would have them
go unrestrained to the full extent of innocent merriment. And
all this, while keeping fully in view as the crowning blessing and
chief joy of the day the birth of the Holy Babe of Bethlehem.
Christmas Gifts. —Remember the poor, especially poor
children. The sunlight from the happy homes of Canada is
abundantly strong enough to shed its beams into every dark
place. Let the good cheer, the books and pictures, the toys
and gifts of comfort, go freely from the happy to the wretched.

CHAPTER X.
MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT.
MUCH and frequently as Mr. Dadson bewailed his
failings as a correspondent, in nothing were his ability
and versatility more conspicuous than in his pen-
talks with his friends. No doubt many could furnish
enough of such material to make a most valuable
contribution to this volume ; but it has been deemed
sufficient to select a few characteristic specimens
from an unbroken correspondence of thirty years, in
which not only are the principal events and experi
ences of his life related, but also his varying moods
and growth of mind and heart so faithfully reflected
that one is ready to say, after perusing these letters,
" Here is the real man ! "
It will be noted that these have already been
drawn upon in recalling Woodstock and Toronto
days, and as the very first selection is a breezy out
burst regarding college life in Toronto, it will be
well to preface it by a word of explanation.
The decision of half a dozen Woodstock boys, in
1869, to take a college course, was the result of the
wise foresight and earnest counsel of our beloved
principal, Dr. Fyfe. Moreover, it had been the
cherished plan of the aforesaid " six " to meet and
take a course together at University College, Toronto ;

222 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
but boys' plans do not always materialize, any more
than those of older people, and for awhile it looked,
for one at least, like a great disappointment. Then
came this : "Paris, Ont., September ist, 1869.
" Dear  :
" When I came to that place in your letter where the University
question was satisfactorily settled, I came precious near going
' off the handle.' My old hat will bear testimony — busted !
" All right ! Yesterday I got my ' sheepskin ' from Dr. Fyfe,
with a ' God bless you ' that nearly brought wet to my eyes. I
suppose you have yours by this time, also. When are you for
Toronto ? Are you coming to Paris first, or to Woodstock ? I
am going to loaf around here till they begin at the Institute, then
go up and have a farewell game of base-ball ; and then, hurrah
for university ! . . . Harvest is just over* and I'm a ' free
nigger,' but my fingers are so stiff that writing is hardly possible ;
so you must please excuse this short scribble, for, really, it is the
best I can do till I can supple up a bit.
" Hoping soon to be with you, "Yours as ever, " Ebb."
During college days at Toronto, when vacation
time came, the stream of correspondence began to
flow again, and especially when Mr. Dadson, having
decided to enter the ministry, began to preach. His
first experience, as assistant to Rev. A. A. Cameron,
of Ottawa, is admirably detailed in a series of letters
written in the summer of 1872.
The first, under date of May 27th, is prefaced by a
serio-comic description of his sensations on the way
to his field and work, and then proceeds as follows :
" I have every advantage in the way of study, a splendid
melodeon at my disposal, and plenty of kind words and encour-
*He worked that summer on a farm to raise funds to go to college.

MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT. 223
agement when I am ' down in the mouth.' Situation of the
house is grand and, best of all, the noble old Ottawa tumbles
along just in front of the house. I watch the sun set every even
ing. How I wish you were with me ! The other night 'twas
grand. It fell out of a huge black cloud, and slowly sank behind
a big hill ; it flashed its deep red over the river ; the waters ran
liquid gold ; its beams shot upward, the heavens were ablaze.
Could heaven itself be more beautiful ? Is there more glory
above ? Yes, for the Lord of life and glory is there, and we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Pardon ! I forgot
I was writing. ... I have visited the Chaudiere and Rideau,
and am amazed and gratified with all the natural scenery. . .
. . I have written fifty pages on my first sermon, whereat I
am disgusted, I assure you, and only that I have to preach it
soon, I should assuredly commit it to the flames."
Again he writes :
" Now for yesterday's history ! Rain and mud, or a mixture
of the twain, pervaded the streets. Pshaw ! Toronto isn't a
patch to it. We get the pure article here, and lots of it. Well,
I did service in the city church, that is, hymns, etc., after which
I armed myself with a stout stick and my heaviest boots, and
wended my way to the quarries, which is one-and-a-quarter
hours' walk from the city. I beguiled the way (contending)
with mud and mosquitoes, and about four oclock reached the
house which is my abiding place when out there. The occu
pants thereof, good, kind-hearted folks, do all they can to make
me comfortable. The baby and I are fast friends. I nurse it,
play with it, and feed it bread and molasses ; also, let it puddle
in the mud till it screams again with gladness. I have not gone
so far as to kiss it yet ; that shall be my next achievement. So
I passed the time till tea was announced. The butter was
good, the milk smacked of country bringing-up ; but the bread !
Oh, the bread ! I was hungry, however, and ' fames optimum]
etc., you know, so I ' made out my tea.'
"At 7 o'clock, service in the Temperance Hall — did better than
ever before ; more freedom, not afraid, and, really, I could feel
all I said when I saw how eagerly the people listened to the

224 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
' old, old story." I trudged home, through mud, etc., where I
arrived at about ten, tired, footsore and hungry. ... I
preach in the city next Sunday. 'Fraid ? Yes. God bless you.
Good-bye. Ebb."
A visit to Clarence, on the Ottawa, resulted in a
famous fishing adventure, and for the benefit of all
lovers of the piscatorial art it may here be related :
" Ottawa, August 19th, 1872.
" Oliver * and I arose at four next morning and went a-fish-
ing. I took the oars and he the line. After an hour's not very
good sport, Oliver succeeded in landing a fine pickerel. Hope
revived. I took the line, and after a while experienced the most
alarming bite I ever — ; then a series of pulls and runs that
made me think I was a 'Jonah come for.' I had hooked some
thing wonderful, evidently, for it took boat and all after it ; so,
handing Oliver the line, I took the oars and made for the shore
with the animal in tow. It turned out to be a huge muscalonge.
We sprang ashore, Oliver held him by the snout, and I pried
him ashore with an oar. The fish fought desperately, and we
only secured it by running a rail through its gills and mouth.
Enough fishing. We bore him home in triumph between us,
yelling at the top of our voices and dancing over our prostrate
foe in the presence of the assembled household, who ' Oh !
Oh'd ! ' to our entire satisfaction. The fish weighed 36^ lbs.,
and measured 4 ft. 6 in.; Mr. Edwards t says the largest taken
from the Ottawa in fifty years. Oliver and I bear the palm
until somebody beats that. . . "
Then come two characteristic sentences in closing :
" Have to change my boarding place. Hate to, I'm so com
fortable here. However, not for long, my boy, for in four weeks,
' good-bye ' to summer, joyous and sorrowful, and books ' live '
once more. Do you like the prospect ?
" I anticipate rich things on the ' old bay ' with you for our
* Dr. O. C. Edwards, of Clarence, Ont.
fWm. Edwards, Sr., of Clarence, Ont.

MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT. 225
last season. Last ! How all things earthly have an end ! Yes,
the whole thing will soon be rolled up, and we shall go home to
be with Christ. Let the thought fill our minds, so that we may
work well before the night comes. Good-bye. Ebb."
The summer of 1873, spent at Buckhorn, Ont., was
productive of much experience, some of which is
admirably set forth in the following interesting style :
" Buckhorn, July 21st, 1873.
" My Dear  :
" I need not observe that your letter was welcome. Could I
but have you here for one week ! But, to be practical. This is
Monday night, and I feel gloomy and dull enough. I have to
get up three sermons for next Sunday, and not the first scratch
done on either. I'm pumped dry. Never a fresh idea can I
get out of me. However, I'm in for it, and shall do my best. I
exchanged with  last Sunday. Had a glorious time.
Preached in his three stations, the same sermon each time. Big
congregations and people very attentive. P  gave my Uni-
versalist friends 'everlasting damnation,' and my Methodists
' final perseverance of the saints.' He preached well and
lustily ; but, you may imagine, all hands were down on him, and
when I came back, behold ! a ' hornet's nest.' I'm glad he gave
it to them, and my particular friends say, ' Well, I'm glad 'twas
not our Dadson said them things.' I have nothing interesting
to report about my work. None as yet have been awakened
out of their terrible sleep. This is a horrible state of things.
To see men and women going down to death, and yet believing
there is no punishment for them ; to hear persons whom you
know to be steeped in sin saying that they are not sinful ; their
hearts are nothing like I represent them ; they may have done
wrong occasionally, but as a general thing do right, and are good.
This is the case with one of my best friends here. Nothing can
be done until the Holy Spirit convinces of sin and a judgment
to come.
" I think I am more resigned than when I last wrote. Any
way, having done the first half, I can get through with the
other. Pray, pray for me. Ever yours, Ebb."

226 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Another side-light on his work in this field may be
found in this story, which he frequently told :
" An infirm old lady, whom I used to visit regularly, once said
to me, ' What a happy woman your mother must be, Mr. Dad
son, to have a son who has nothing to do but go around reading
the Bible and praying with folks."
It was on mission fields like this that many of our
Canadian pastors did their first work and gathered
their earliest experience in the ministry, and no
doubt laid, at the same time, the foundations of that
character that has so uniformly distinguished them
and that finds its best and truest reflection in the
growth and present-day position of our denomination.
The next summer found Mr. Dadson at Grafton,*
Ont. Here some new problems presented themselves,
as witness the following : "Grafton, May 26th, 1874.
" Dear  :
" I suppose I may as well hurriedly run over events that have
taken place since my last. On Sunday, 17th, at morning service
I had a very large congregation — church full. I did not do
quite as well as usual, which made me very uncomfortable.
Studied hard all afternoon. It came on raining, and only three
of the ' hardy sons of toil ' dared venture out to church at night.
I left in disgust — no service.
" Whatever I am to do with my prayer-meeting is a mystery
to me. It is as bad as ever. Nobody will do anything. They
tell me they want more urging. I tell them I will not urge
them. So there we sit and look at each other. They all come
about half an hour late, too. I announced from the pulpit that
at seven o'clock we would begin, and quit at eight. I began the
service in the presence of two or three. One after another
* The church is known as the Haldimand church, and is a few miles
from Grafton.

MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT. 227
dropped in all the way through. Some arrived in time for the
benediction, and as I was leaving the church, I saw another
worthy member wending his way thither. I'm bound to keep
this thing up whether they like it or not. . . . Last Sunday,
you know, was Queen's Birthday. I suppose every pulpit
sounded out the praises of Her Majesty. I know mine did; and
for the sermon I received the first word of commendation I
have yet heard. It was from one of my old deacons, and the
language used was : ' Well, Elder, you done bully this morn
ing.' I felt flattered.
" My people are very kind and friendly. I like my situation,
am contented, only hope I may suit them till the end, and be
enabled to do good among them. As ever, Ebb."
A subsequent letter says :
" I am very happy in the termination of my summer's work.
God has blessed it ; some souls have been saved ; this is what
I wanted. Of money, $50 is all I can boast. Not much ; but
if God has called me to this work, He will see me through."
During the winter of 1875-76, Mr. Dadson and the
writer were separated in their studies for the first
time in over seven years. His frequent letters from
Woodstock contained many racy and delightful pen-
pictures of the students and life of the school and his >
own varied experiences as a " theologue." Here are
some of them, taken almost at random :
" September 9th, 1875.
" My Dear  :
" Here I am once more safely ensconsed in ' No. 21.' It has
taken me till now to get my room in order and find my traps.
All right now, however ; and here I sit in my old place. The
room in all particulars is the same, wanting only yourself, books,
and trunks, to be familiar. They are going to put me over into
small building, they say. I won't go ; that is, if I can help it.
" Last night I read my chapter, and knelt to pray alone. I

228 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
cannot say how much I missed you. Your absence was a bur
den to me ; but the privilege of prayer at such a time is sweet,
and I'm sure God heard me on your behalf."
In the next letter, under date of September 20th,
the room question calls forth this paragraph :
"I've had great bother over '21.' Professor McKee and
Doctor almost insisted that I should go to small building.
Finally we affected a compromise. I remain here till circum
stances force me to leave ; so, you see, I hold my room under
protest — the only theologue in the large building."
He also announces his election as base-ball captain
and critic of Adelphian Society in a word or two,
touches on the opening of classes under Dr. Fyfe and
Professor Goodspeed, and anathematizes the revival
of the watching system, especially as " E. W. takes
the last half." Then comes this interesting bit :
" Doctor has given into my charge, until spring, a poor church
in a place called Denfield, twenty miles north of London. I go
on Saturday, 11.20 a.m., drive twenty miles in stage, preach
twice on Sunday,- get back to Woodstock Monday night, $— ;
but you know this must not influence me. I have a chance of
doing good — the care of a church, the responsibility. I take it
as an item of preparation from Him whom to serve I desire to
live." As this was the scene of Mr. Dadson's first
pastorate, the spirit in which he entered upon
this work is worthy of note, and the following
reference to the character of the church explains the
happy relationship that subsequently existed for over
six years :
" The church is usually called the ' London Welsh.' The
people are all Welsh or of Welsh descent, pious and hearty

MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT, 229
Christians. I think they are good workers, and I think, too,
they appreciate the Gospel, no matter how presented, for they
listen eagerly to my written sermons, and press me to return
myself instead of sending another student. Well, I hope I may
teach them in the way of life. I go prayerfully and depending
on God, sure His Word must prevail. The people treat me with
great deference, also, and their kindness is unbounded. I am
very happy in my connection with them."
Mr. Dadson was a good "hearer" as well as
preacher — witness this account of a sermon :
" Goodspeed gave us a powerful sermon yesterday — ' That
ye love one another as I have loved you.' It struck square at
me, and I took it. I shall act upon it, God helping me. He
described the feelings some Christians entertain towards others,
and brought them one by one to the standard, ' As I have loved
you.' I went up every time with — — , and confess myself con
demned — I don't love him as Christ loves me ; but Christ loves
him : that was Goodspeed's point, and a strong one."
" Vow and pay" was a cardinal principle with Mr.
Dadson, and even in matters of comparatively small
importance his fidelity to his word was striking. A
compact about writing was kept in this fashion :
" January 24th, 1876.
" It is now past bed-time, but I can't think of postponing my
letter, although fact is I'm about ' dead beat.' This going out
on Sunday and all day travelling on Monday is wearisome."
And, two weeks later :
" Sometimes we are driven into a corner and cannot help
ourselves. To-night it was nearly twelve o'clock before we got
home. Then I had my lessons for morning to prepare, and
being very sleepy, I went to bed ; but I couldn't sleep. Some
thing was on my mind. All of a sudden ' A — 's letter ' flashed
upon me, and up I sprang, recalling at the same time your

230 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
words, 'if you should ever be tempted,' etc. And now here I
am away into the ' wee, sma' hours,' with the purpose, if not of
interesting, at least of not disappointing you as to the arrival of
this." It would be a delightful task to continue thus to
trace his thought and heart-life through the years
spent in faithful, earnest labor at Denfield, Strathroy,
Toronto, Claremont, and especially at Woodstock,
during his pastorate. But as these are more recent
and will be touched upon by others, they do not need
so much to be recalled in this way. The man, as we
have seen him in the making, continued to develop
along the same well-marked lines until he became
the strong and well-rounded character that so many
knew and loved. It will suffice, therefore, in closing,
to add one remarkable letter written as a labor of
love, between intervals of agony, to his young name
sake, from his summer home in Muskoka. This
message, received when the shadows were already
gathering about his way, is a chief treasure in one
home; and it is believed that many others who read
it will share in the feeling with which it is regarded
and admire the spirit that could so lovingly think of
others and so cheerily minister to their pleasure
under circumstances so trying.
Extract from letter written by Dr. Dadson, August
ioth, 1899, from Hamill's Point, Muskoka, to a boy
in school :
" Thus far I have not been able to do anything. A great
part of my time has been spent in bed. I lie there and look
out over the lake, and rejoice that the Good Father has given
me such glorious surroundings for my sick-bed. I watch the
sky and water, sniff in the pure balsam-laden air, watch the

MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT. 23 1
boats, and am a thankful man, surely. When I left my bed my
easy chair was placed upon the veranda, and all day I sat
with the charming prospect before me. And, as I could do
nothing else, I formed friendships with birds and the small ani
mals, which came to venture near my tent, and have had much
amusement therefrom.
" Do you know anything about birds? Since being laid aside
I derive much enjoyment from their study. When I came here
thirteen years ago there was scarcely a bird note to be heard ;
this was a voiceless and a songless land. But since the islands
have become peopled, the birds have come. The robin came
about three years ago, and his familiar note is heard as the
bugle, ' Awake dull sloth, and early rise.' And we have to
arise, for he is very persistent, and takes his station just outside
the tent. There is another little chap — don't know his name —
wears a cutaway coat and white vest, perfect form and very
dainty. I call him ' Beau Brummel.' He considered me his
enemy at first, but now he comes to my very feet. He is insec
tivorous ; and I am amused at the way he will turn over a stone
and peep under, or strip off a bit of bark and peep in. Some
times he is amazed himself at what the upturned stone will
reveal. Great slugs and centipedes ! and he will fairly run
with fright, but he will return all right before his prey has time
to escape ; arid the way he will enter into combat with a centi
pede is laughable. Having killed him, he carries him off to
wife and babies. Then I have made friends with Mr. Wren.
He is a pretty fellow, with quick movements and upturned tail.
He sits on a limb of tree near Mrs. Wren, who is attending to
domestic duties, and sings so sweetly. Good fellow, isn't he,
to carry his best song and best manners to cheer his wife and
little ones ? He says not a word away from home, but attends
to business right manfully. It is only when he has brought the
fruit of his labor to his wife that he is light-hearted and breaks
into song. Happy Mrs. Wren to have a husband who is all
sunshine and song at home.
"I have another friend, also, in the grosbeak. Did you
ever hear his song ? It is very decided, clear and far-reaching.
It is heard only morning and evening, and its strong, cheery

232 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
melody outtops every other wood note. His mission seems to
be to call the millions of his fellow-citizens (birds, insects, etc.)
from sleep, and he gives them a hearty song as they get them
to their day's toil — ' not bad that ' — and then again, when the
poor tired chaps are weary and worn, and come home in the
gloaming to go to bed in the holes of trees and rocks and
ground, so tired after the day's toil, they must all welcome his
lullaby surely, and so he whistles them to sleep. To give song
in the morning and night, I think, is not a bad life work !
But my favorite of all birds is the little gray, homely, song-spar
row. You know him, I am sure. He is seen everywhere, and his
song is the most frequent and the sweetest of all bird melodies.
Morning and night he is at it, in the sunshine and in the rain ;
it makes no difference. He picks his seed or his ant, and then
tunes his harp. God bless the merry chap, and give us thank
ful hearts for his cheery presence. A beautiful and much-
needed mission his, to flood the world with song, however the
thermometer or barometer may be. Would that we had more
human song-sparrows ! Alas, the crow with his croak is too
often the human type.
" And I watch the kingfisher, too. He sits on a branch, just
opposite my tent, overhanging the water. You would fancy
him to be asleep — motionless, eyes shut, apparently — but, of
a sudden, down he goes like a lump of lead, and comes up swal
lowing, with the tail of a fish sticking out of his mouth. The
fish is quick, but cannot escape him. And he rushes off,
screaming his note of triumph, to disgorge for the benefit of
wife and babies. And a host of other birds visit me. The jay,
beautiful, but a screaming gentleman ; dresses like an Easter
girl, but scolds like a fishwife. The bluebird, also ; quiet, not
much song, but great on good clothes. The oriole, also ; you
know him, deep orange and black, like a gentleman cricketer
from England ; clear note, none clearer ; you can almost hear
him say, ' I sai, matey, be 'ee gowin' to bowl round arm ? '
" I say nothing of ducks and loons and geese and all water
fowl, which we have in abundance.
" I have fun also with the small animals which venture near
me. The larger ones, 'bar' and deer, are becoming scarce,

MR. DADSON AS A CORRESPONDENT. 233
though we used to have them near enough. Chipmunk is a
funny fellow. He has become quite familiar. Pretty little
chap, striped, dainty and amusing. There he is now, peeping
in the door as I write. He scuttles past me, pretending to be
much frightened ; but half way he encounters a huckleberry
and deliberately squats on his haunches, brings the berry to his
mouth with his cute little hands, and enjoys his meal without a
tremor. Little hypocrite ! He is the chap that always has an
eye to the main chance. He would risk his life to gain a dollar.
And the squirrel, also. He is becoming very bold. He uses
bad language also, and often wakes me up with his profanity.
A sad thief also. Before the advent of wicked man to this
place he was always satisfied with cedar buds, acorns, and
beechnuts. He is a notch above that now. He affects man's
wicked ways, and has a strong desire for ham and eggs for
breakfast— ham anyway. I keep my bacon hanging on an oak
tree just outside my door. The reprobate ! The other morning
he gnawed the string and let the whole business fall to the
ground and proceeded to lug it down the path into the woods ;
and my girl had to run to save her bacon. There is a wood-
chuck who has a firm establishment under a rock below my
tent. He has his suspicions that I am a character who will
bear watching, and he keeps his eye upon me pretty closely.
His pasture is a fine huckleberry patch, and he considers it
safe to take his breakfast only in the very early morning. And
sure it is breakfast under difficulties ! Two nibbles at the
berries and then up he goes to see that I am not upon him !
Two more, and up he goes again ! Yet the gentleman is fat
and apparently has no bodily disability. How he found his
way to my vegetable box I don't know ; but he was there the
other day (tempted unduly), and how to get back was the
problem ! He studied it long, for I was in the rocking-chair
between him and his home. The gentleman crept slyly under
the shanty, and then suddenly between my overhanging feet
his black muzzle appeared, and he made a rush for it, singing
out as he ran, ' Home free.' I enjoyed a good laugh at him,
and immediately dubbed him Peter, and pronounced him a free
commoner. He now enjoys the freedom of the camp.

234 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
" The porcupine is an ugly customer, but he has points of
interest nevertheless, and very sharp points, too. I have one
who is a regular visitor, and somewhat of a pest. Have you
ever seen one ? About the size of a cocker spaniel, bristling
with quills, black paws and snout, and heavy tail, very deliberate
in his walk — you can't hurry him. When you approach he
curls himself into a ball with ' fixed bayonets.' You'd better not
kick him then, for however pliable his spears may be when he
is dead, they are stiff enough when living ; and if he uncoils and
brings that heavy tail against your leg you will limp for a while
after, sure. A friend of mine brought here a very beautiful
dog — thoroughbred cocker. My gentleman with the bayonets
paid a visit to the camp at the same time. The friend un
wittingly ' sicked ' him on, and in two minutes there was the
sickest dog in the countryside. The spines went right through
his tongue and pierced his breast and body, so that the poor
fellow had to be shot to put him out of his misery. I do not
know why I am favored with the visits of this queer animal.
He does not care to eat anything I have. He simply comes to
gnaw, so far as I can find out, and the harder the substance
the better he is pleased, apparently. He has gone for most of
my highly-finished hemlock furniture (home-made) ; he has
made his way almost through my refrigerator ; and he is now
engaged upon my bow — hardest hickory ! I fancy he comes to
bring his tools to grind, as he can find nothing sufficiently hard
in the woods.
" And so I might talk to you all day about my beasties, birds,
and fishes, but I fear that I have already wearied you. You
may not be a bit interested in what has served to pass away the
days and weeks of a sick man's otherwise heavy, hanging
hours; but, if you are a good fellow like your father, you will
take it all patiently."

PART III.
THE PREACHER.

" Preach the Word."
" We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord,
and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake."

THE ATONEMENT.
"And the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." —
Isa. liii. 6.
Last Sunday we spoke upon the former part of
this verse, and endeavored from it to set before you
the Scriptural doctrine as to the condition of man
before and after the Fall. The part of this verse then
considered showed us the natural man, depraved,
corrupted, and lost beyond hope. Out there in the
darkness we saw him groping his way to hell, with
his back turned to the glory and his face set upon
destruction. The latter part of the verse, which we
have for our consideration this morning, is filled with
the rescue purpose of the Almighty, and tells in few
words the story of redemptive grace. The atonement
is the centrepiece of the doctrines of God's Book, as
the Cross stands the centrepiece in the history of
God's dealings with man ; and it is consequently a
doctrine of widespread range, and one which touches,
as it spreads, every other feature of redeeming grace.
We shall try in one sermon to set before you the
essential points of this doctrine, and these only as the
text may direct. And —
I. The text has something to say of the AUTHOR
OF THE ATONEMENT. " The Lord hath laid upon
Him the iniquity of us all." Jehovah is the author of
237

238 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the atonement ; and it is the purpose of the Almighty
Father running throughout, to which significance
must now be attached. " God so loved the world."
Never let us forget that the first dawn of hope for
poor fallen man originated in God. God loved ! O
the intensity of the divine love ! Although He cut
the man adrift and sent him to eat the fruit of his
own way, He could not forget that he was His own
creature, formed in His own image. And He yearned
over him with such passion that " He sent His Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish,
but have eternal life." God so loved that poor
wretched man, wandering off there in the darkness,
that He seized upon His Only Begotten and sent
Him into the darkness, to take the place of him who
had gone astray. God did this, so the text declares.
We cannot understand this feature of the wonderful
love ; and indeed it is so strange a feature to some
men that they deny altogether the teaching of the
text, and, for what the text declares, extemporize a
theory of their own. God, say they, could do no
such thing as is here laid down. God, say they, is a
God of love, and any such dealing with His Only
Begotten would make Him tyrannical. Shall the
boatman see his enemy and rival about to perish in
the storm, and shall he thrust out his only and well-
beloved son into the danger of the deep for rescue
purposes ? Shall he not rather let his enemy perish,
sparing his own son rather than his enemy ? And so,
say they, this story of God and His Son is improbable.
But we, who revere every word of the sacred Book,
and stand with bowed heads before what God has

THE ATONEMENT. 239
said, must accept this text as true. And although
the mystery to us is exceeding great, we declare our
conviction in the saying of this verse, " The Lord
hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." And
with this declaration we take in the facts of the case.
When it is said that "The Lord hath put Him to grief,"
we know from the record of what that grief consisted.
He was thrust forth from the heaven of God, having
to forego all the delights of the blessed abode. He
laid down His crown and His dignity, stripped Him
self of His garment of light, gave up His riches and
for our sake became poor, stepped upon the earth an
outcast and wanderer, was smitten and afflicted and
had not where to lay His head. He had to associate
with sinners, and endure their contradiction against
Himself. God's appointed servitors shunned Him,
and left Him to the companionship of publicans and
sinners. His life was filled up with insults ; of kind
ness He knew but little ; and every species of sorrow
filled His breast. " Man of Sorrows," He was rightly
named. No one can paint the agony of that garden
scene ! A heart burden that could force the blood in
sweat drops through the pores is unintelligible to us.
We know little of the agony and tenderness of that
look which was bent on Peter in the judgment hall.
And, finally, what it was to Him to be a gazing stock
and the butt of ridicule and laughter, as He hung
upon the tree, none of us can know. And as the
heavens grew black, and God's face was withdrawn,
and hell came in upon His soul, it is utterly beyond
us to conceive what agony touched the heart of the
Son of God. And now, the thought that God did all

240 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
this, is contrary to many representations of God which
we have received, and contrary perhaps to our own
wish as to what God should be. In the face of all
this, read the chapter from which the text is taken,
and know that the Lord hath laid all this upon Him
— " He hath put Him to grief."
Two things growing out of this consideration I
want to say : what kind of testimony have we here
in regard to the love of Jehovah God for poor sinners ?
He so loved the world that He sent His Son. Some
of you are wondering if God's love could ever light
upon you. You know it is great, but can it reach
your case, so low sunken have you become ? Let the
solemn consideration of God's dealing with His Only
Begotten, prove to the vilest sinner upon earth that
God's love is limitless, absolutely limitless. If, for
the world's sake, He would thus deal with the Eternal
Son, is there one of you here upon whom He does
not look with the intensest of compassionate regard ?
Let, then, this mysterious feature of the atonement
come as a bright ray of hope to the most downcast
sinner. God surely loves Him, or He would not have
put all this upon His Son.
And the second thing I want to say is this : it
evidently will not do for sinful men to trust too much
upon the mercy and love of Jehovah God. God loved
His Son above all else ; no object in the heavens
above or the earth beneath was so near to the heart
of God the Father. The Son was in the Father, and
the Father in the Son. These two from all eternity
had been in the purest companionship — They had per
formed Their creative work together. The One had

THE ATONEMENT. 241
said to the Other as the task was approaching com
pletion, " Let us make man in Our image." In spite
of God's love for His only begotten Son, He laid
upon Him all this that we have seen. " He put Him
to grief." I have magnified His love to you, sinful
man. But now I caution you not to trust it. For
upon One whom He loved with love such as you can
never know, He laid a load which crushed Him.
When will this folly cease among those who should
know better — this folly of trusting to God's love for
salvation — this folly of trusting to God's mercy for
salvation — this folly of thinking God is too good ever
to punish eternally ? In spite of their better know
ledge men will keep at it ; and, against hope, they
will hope that God's goodness will somehow make it
all right with them. O poor sinner, He does not love
you any more than He does your Saviour — and He
will not spare you if He did not spare Him. Don't
think it.
II. The text has something to say about the ACTOR
IN THE ATONEMENT. "The Lord hath laid upon
Him" — His Son Christ Jesus — "the iniquity of us all."
We now divert our minds from the author, God, and
fix them upon the agent, the Son. And the thought
springs up immediately, "Why the Son?" Surely
in the creation of God, the Father might have selected
some other agent for the carrying out of this purpose ;
and the answer comes surely, "Thou alone art worthy."
No one else could ; and so, as the Lord Himself said,
" I must." Consider what was to be done. A ruined
world was to be saved, which God Himself had de
clared must be lost. Sin, indeed, without any declara-
16

242 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
tion from God, by its own might had sunken men
beyond hope of mercy. And now it needed not only
the power, but also the worth, of omnipotence, to
offset the evil that had been done. God's word must
be carried out to the last letter. And the problem
stood. Since the world, every one, had turned to his
own way, every one in the world must meet the fate
which God had said ; or, the universally recognized
alternative, a substitution, in all points equitable, must
be found. But the Almighty might search the
heavens and trie earth to the last created thing, and
this equitable substitution could never be found.
There was only One in the realm of God that could
stand in this regard against the world, and that was
God Himself in the person of His Son. If He put
Himself in the balance against the world, the world
must kick the beam. And this is what He did.
Listen ! " God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself." God gave Himself. God so loved the
world, that He placed Himself under the lash, which
was the world's due. God, in the person of His Son,
did this. And what did His doing this mean as to
the result? It meant that the law of God was
honored in every particular ; it meant that His word
was fulfilled to the letter ; it meant that the debt was
paid to the uttermost farthing. See you that mighty
sacrifice coming from the heavens to stand upon this
earth, the Christ, the Son of God — He who inhabiteth
eternity, without beginning of days or end of years ;
He whose breath spoke into existence all worlds and
all men ; He before whom the countless myriad of
the hosts of heaven veil their faces and cry, " Holy,

THE ATONEMENT. 243
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty " ; spotless from all
eternity, " Who only hath immortality," in Himself.
One glance is sufficient to show that He is of worth
and dignity sufficient to outweigh the universe of
God. The substitution thus offers far more than an
equivalent. Ten thousand worlds could be redeemed
by an offering such as this.
But how could God take punishment from guilty
men and justly lay it upon Him who knew no sin?
Can God inflict punishment justly upon the innocent?
If the innocent can voluntarily assume the sinner's
place, no violence to justice can be done. And Christ
voluntarily died. " I lay down my life of Myself.
No man taketh it from Me. I have power to lay it
down and I have power to take it again." This
voluntary action was the result of that incompre
hensible love. Sooner than let man be lost, Jesus
Christ voluntarily offers to stand in his place. If
there were any compulsion there would have been
injustice. If there were any hidden calamity there
would have been injustice. But our Lord lifted the
burden, knowing the end from the beginning of all
that it contained. Did the burden involve the absence
from glory — the contact with sinners — the spitting
and the shame — the cross and the forsaking of God ?
He knew it all, and, in the face of His knowledge, the
Son of man came to seek and to save that which was
lost. But in His contact with sin did He remain guiltless?
When He was made to be sin for us, when He was
made a curse for us, did He in all these respects
maintain His purity ? " He knew no sin, neither was

244 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
guile found in His mouth." Down to the depths of
depravity He went, right to the extremity of the
consequences He went. He did not restrain His
footsteps one inch, but "was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin." Even to the ex
tremity of spiritual death — the torture of hell, signified
by the withdrawal of the Father's face — went the Son
of God. But through all His progress in sin, and
throughout His experience of the consequence of sin,
He was untouched by sin. Indeed, " perfected was
He through suffering," and proved spotless through
His resurrection from the dead. Here is a piece of
iron. Place it in the water and it goes to the bottom
through its own weight. Let the iron represent sin.
Here is a piece of wood. Place it in the water, and
it floats through its own buoyancy. Let this wood
represent the innocence of the Saviour. But now,
bind you the iron upon the wood, and both sink to
the bottom, because the weight of the iron overcomes
the buoyancy of the wood. Let this combination
represent Christ upon whom was laid the iniquity of
us all. He was crushed to the nethermost part by
the weight of the sin imposed upon Him. Unbind
the cords now from the iron and the wood, and the
former lies still upon the bottom of the water, while
the wood immediately springs to the surface, showing
that its buoyancy was only overcome temporarily
through the bondage of iron imposed upon it. So
with our Saviour. Our iniquity placed upon Him sunk
Him to the region of ruin, forced Him to the most
downward depth of the consequences of the guilt He
carried ; but, when the last depth was reached and

THE ATONEMENT. 245
expiation to the uttermost farthing was made, the
cords which fastened our iniquity upon Him, snapped,
and He burst the bars of death and the grave, and
rose triumphant over sin, and scathless from His con
tact with depravity. O sinful man, it was your sin
and mine for which the Lamb of God patiently bowed
His back. It was your sin and mine that God laid
upon Him ; and thus laden with the world's woe,
yours and mine, He plunged from the pinnacle of
glory into the abyss of desolation, carrying with Him
your sins and mine, sinner, and leaving them there in
the abyss — your sins and mine, sinner. And now,
having paid the debt of your sins and mine, sinner, to
the uttermost farthing, through His own sinlessness
He ascended to the right hand of God where He ever
liveth to make intercession for us.
Now what is the result of all this ; or, in other
words, what is the achievement of the agent in this
matter of atonement ? Clearly it is this : " Who now
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is
Christ' that died, yea rather that is risen again."
Christ was " obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross." Christ became answerable to God for the
sins of the race ; and in that He rose from the dead,
His answer to God was accepted. And now, through
out this world let it be sounded in the ear of poor
lost, hopeless man, that a way has been prepared for
him back out of the darkness ; that the ladder, thrown
down long ago, is now set up again ; and how poor
sinful souls may lay aside their depravity and once
again go up to God. Sin has been atoned for. God
is reconciled to the world. " God was in Christ,

246 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning
unto them their trespasses." As it were, in the mind
of God, now all sin is done away in Christ. And the
many sins have resolved themselves into the one sin.
The one sin not atoned for by the substitution of
Jesus Christ is the sin of final unbelief. All sins lose
themselves in the magnitude of that one. " This is
the condemnation, that light is come into the world
and men loved darkness rather than light. He that
believeth on Him is not condemned ; but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath
not believed on the name of the only begotten
Son of God." To the man that believes, all things
are forgiven — God is reconciled with him, pleads with
him, exhorts him, invites him. But the man who
will not believe finally commits the sin, of all others,
not included in the atonement of Christ, and hath
forgiveness neither in this world nor in the world to
come. O sinner, look at this : "Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Any sin,
every sin, that you have ever committed is atoned for,
save and except your refusal to believe on the Son of
God. O believe Him. O put your faith in Him,
and enter into the blessedness of full and free"
forgiveness. But if, thinking the matter all over,
you conclude to have nothing to do with Christ, you
conclude that you will not believe on His name,
that you will not put yourself under His loving sub
stitution, that you will not recognize Him as your
Burden-bearer — then, O beloved friend, I warn you
that this must be the result in your case. " Every

THE ATONEMENT. 247
man must bear his own burden." Christ, then, repu
diates your sin, and that burden of your guilt, to
gether with the greatest crime known to the universe
of God, the sin of unbelief; that is to say, all your
iniquity will God lay upon you, and thus laden you
will be thrust into the lake of retribution, and the
burden of your sin will sink you to rise no more.
God help you to accept the substitution of Jesus
Christ. God help you not to commit that finally
unpardonable sin, the sin of unbelief. Now having
glanced at the Author of atonement, and at the Agent
through whom it was brought about, the text bids us
to say something upon —
III. The Extent of the Atonement. — "The
Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." This
is a feature of this question that troubles not a few.
A notion has been very prevalent from the logical
deduction of a certain school of theologians, that the
application of the atonement is limited to a certain
few. Dr. Gill, of learned and pious memory, who has
even to this day many followers, put the plan of
redemption simply and logically, if, indeed, unscrip-
turally. " So many were elected unto salvation.
Christ died for that number only. The Holy Spirit
applies the work of Christ to just that number only;
and just that number only, consequently, enter upon
the reward of the blessed." And this limited view of
the atonement has been doing its work ever since,
and has had, and is having, a baleful influence on
many who, because of it, are listless or discouraged,
about further thought for the kingdom. And we,
whose business it is publicly to proclaim the Gospel,

248 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
find the work hindered, the message blunted, the
heart hardened, from the incoming of this very notion.
There are thousands saying to-day, " I bide my time.
If in God's purpose of grace I am to be saved, doubt
less the means by which salvation is to come to me
may well be left in His hands who is to bring it
about. If I am not elected, my sins were not laid
upon Him. And so what's the use." Some sitting
before me are quieting their alarmed hearts after just
this fashion. Many have gone down to death with
their sins crushing them, because of just this. But
evidently this is not the doctrine of the text. " The
Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." Not
" of us elect '' you perceive ; but " of us all." The
" all " of this clause is, of course, to be measured by
the " all " of the former clause. " All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned every one to his
own way." Christ bore the sins of every one who
went astray, of every one who turned to his own way.
As far as the atonement is concerned there can be no
limitation. Every son of Adam is intended. Small
sinners and great, enlightened sinners and ignorant,
princely sinners and beggarly, " He hath laid upon
Him the iniquity of us all." Here proclaim we the
limitless extent of Christ's atoning sacrifice, and here
give we the invitation, " Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely." And we beg you now,
that this view of the atonement may not seem to rest
upon one passage of Scripture, to listen to the follow
ing : " God so loved the world, that whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish but have ever
lasting life." " Who gave Himself a ransom for all."

THE ATONEMENT. 249
" He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world." These
passages of God's Word ought to be enough for you,
sinner, to cause you to know that your sin was
indeed carried to the cross and atoned for by Jesus
Christ your Lord. As God's Word is sure, Christ has
become your propitiation, your substitute, and your
advocate. Will not you come to Him voluntarily,
and claim your share in His advocacy and interces
sion ? By so doing you shall be saved. By refusing
to do so ye shall die in your sins. Bind a piece of
iron upon a block of wood, and cast them into the
water and what happens ? They will sink, wood and
iron together, and the wood because of the iron.
Leave them there for months and years, and what
happens? The wood becomes water-logged, and
cannot rise again though the cords which bound it to
the iron be cut. So must it be with you, sinner ; that
sin of yours will make you eternally heavy. It will
saturate you through and through, so that even were
the bonds severed that bound you to depravity, you
must remain forever cursed, perishing in your own
corruption. There is no other ending for him who
prefers his sin to God.

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS.
" Come, see the place where the Lord lay." — Matt, xxviii. 6.
WALK out to the cemetery here ; sit down by some
grave and think. You have often done so, perhaps.
Many have done so profitably ; perhaps you have.
Many have done so carelessly ; perhaps you have.
Don't be careless to-day. Sit down upon some
turfy mound which covers someone, a stranger to
you. Let your thoughts fillup with the activities of
that vanished life. You may let your imagination
play ; perhaps it will profit you. The dust beneath
you was once prattling childhood, pure and sweet,
and sunshine to all who knew it. You may give your
thought the chubby face and dimpled smile, if you
will ; you may trace it through the rain of tears or
lightsome romp, and note it grow in stature and in
strength. You may see childhood over, and boy
hood begin; and, if you are inquisitive, you may now
note habits forming, passions awaking, and conscience
asserting itself. You may glance from home life to
school life, at task and at sport, until you see boy
hood and youth disappear, and manhood come on,
and the treadle of life is before you : the strong
man's struggles ; the breadwinner's determination ;
the oncoming of care and anxiety ; the new home
established with its many dependencies — prosperity,
250

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 25!
adversity, sickness, sorrow, perchance joy now, or the
sweet calm of assured success. Or you may note the
brown locks turning to white, and the smooth brow
becoming furrowed, or the sturdy strides tottering.
Or you may note the end — the house of mourning,
the funeral procession, the open grave, and the last
sad rite. But your imagination is not able to stop
here. You are pressed forward in spite of yourself.
Your mind has been tracking the life of an immortal,
and for an immortal the end cannot be here. You
take the fleeting spirit upon your thought in spite of
yourself, and track it to the abodes of either the saved
or the lost. In heaven or in hell ? you query when
ever your thought runs thus.
Or, if you sit beside the grave in which repose all
that is mortal of a friend or loved one, whose life you
knew, whose actions were before you day after day,
whose desire, hope, and thought, had often been
familiar, your meditations would not be much other
wise, save as to the last state. And that you would
gauge, comparing the life with the results of living as
they are known to you from the pages of the Book of
God. The grave is, then, the suggestive object — to dumb
natures only does it not tell its story of past or future.
Perhaps it is more suggestive than any other familiar
thing we meet with here. Our text of this morning
has to do with a familiar thing upon earth, an open
grave, and with a familiar theme of Christian doctrine,
the grave of Christ ; and as anyone's grave is sugges
tive of much that is of moment to humanity, and as
the Saviour's grave has attached to it all that is of

252 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
moment above humanity, our meditation this morn
ing ought to furnish us this day with thought
intensely profitable to some life.
The wonderful life of the Son of God upon the
earth was now over. He had made His sad journey
from Bethlehem to Golgotha. He had endured pri
vation, suffering, affliction, and love. He had become
familiar with all sorrow and with all woe. He had
seen with His eye, and touched with His hand the
diseases which sin had caused. He knew what hun
ger was, and cold, and nakedness. He had become
inured to blows and insults. The garden scene was
past now, and the scene of the judgment hall.
They had taken His poor hands and feet and nailed
them to the cross. The agony of the passion had
now ended. The quiet burial scene had taken place,
and now it is the morning of the third day. And
the little company of loved ones, hastening to per
form their last careful ministry, find the Saviour
gone, and a shining one keeping watch over the open
grave, who answers to their inquiring glances, '' He
is not here ; He is risen, even as He said. Come, see
the place where the Lord lay."
This morning it will not be difficult for us to go
back in thought to that day ; nor will it be difficult
for us to hear the angel's voice addressing even us,
" Come, see the place where the Lord lay."
Let us be obedient, then, and take our journey to
the open sepulchre where the Lord lay. And, as we
gaze within the tomb, among the crowd of thoughts
which come pressing upon the mind, this one, surely,
is not the least prominent, nor is it the least in

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 253
importance — this Lord, whose last resting-place we
have come to see, was a human Lord.
I. This open grave tells us the story of
Christ's Humanity. If we would appreciate at
all in its proper relations the necessity and the value
of Christ's mission into this world, we must never
lose sight of the fact with which we are now con
fronted. " The Word became flesh and dwelt among
us." It was no seeming humanity, as many have
taught ; it was not that He chose to envelop His
divinity in the semblance of flesh, that He might
deceive those with whom He came in contact, as
Homer's gods were wont to do. When it is told us
that the Lord Christ became a man, we are to under
stand that He became humanity to the core. And
the first proof of it is this yawning grave before us.
He went the way of all flesh. His eyes became
glassy in death. His limbs stiffened, as ours shall one
day ; and He was put away from the sight of His fel
lows until the third day. The vital spark had fled
that body ; the cruel spear had searched the seat of
life, and blood and water had flowed forth ; and He
had gone to the burial. In His case there was no
escaping the penalty of humanity. Death came by
reason of it, and burial in due course. We want to
get this thought a little deeper down than it usually
goes. It is not that He appeared in fashion as a man
merely ; but it is, " The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us." It is not that the being was untouched
by all the adversity which surrounded that wonderful
life, and that the assumed covering only was suscep
tible to His adverse surroundings. No ; rather, the

254 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Lord had become a human being, and was, just as we
are, keenly sensitive to all which could touch mind,
body, soul, spirit. That body was flesh and blood, as
are our own bodies ; that mind was governed as ours
are, it grew in wisdom ; that heart was filled with
human passions and ambitions, yet without sin. We
want to clear our mind of the thought, that what our
Saviour endured He might easily endure, being God,
and that He had resources that the rest of us could
not have, which would enable Him to endure priva
tion, sickness, pain, and to be brave in death. God,
he was, it is true, yet His divinity did not come to the
help of His humanity. When He suffered, He suf
fered as you or I must, unaided by any power which
is not common to humanity. The Lord Christ, in so
far as His obedience and passion was concerned, did
His atoning work as a man. He kept Himself clear
of His own proper divinity, though He never ceased
to be God ; and went on His way doing, and suffering,
and dying, the man Christ Jesus. How else could
man's penalty for sin be paid ? How else could man's
obedience be wrought? Had He for a moment
brought His divinity into vision, who could have
stood before it ? No man can see God at any time.
Had that voice taken upon it the accents of divinity,
would not the people have trembled, as they did who
stood before the sacred mount ? Had that eye sent
forth its piercing glance, charged with its vision of
omniscience, men would have fallen before its gaze.
As the Servant, and as the Burden-bearer, He was the
man. And it was only when proof was needed of His
divine authority and person, that He laid hold of His

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 255
other self, and produced the resources of a God.
This view we must take, if the character of our great
High Priest is to avail us in our time of need ; and
this is the strong encouragement of those who are
charged with the business of following in His footsteps.
We have not an high priest, who cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmity, but rather One who
was tried in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
Meditate upon that phrase, " like as we are," and so
get close up with the fact, that what is burdensome
to you was burdensome to your Saviour also ; that
what is temptation to you was temptation to your
Saviour also ; that what is persecution to you was
persecution to your Saviour also ; that what pierces
you through with many sorrows pierced Him like
wise ; that what is agony of mind to you was agony
to Him also ; that what would break your heart
would break His also. Barring sin, He was a man
just as you are. And herein is His victory, and your
salvation. The Lord Christ fulfilled God's laws as a
man. The Lord Christ endured God's wrath as a
man. Not as God was the actual work and suffering
done. Else the work and suffering could be no offset
to the failure of my life ; but now, since the Word
became flesh, I see humanity represented in Him pur
poseful, and without failure, in any particulars, walk
ing upon the straight line of the commandments of
God, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left,
taking up every duty and every impost, not omitting
one jot or one tittle — humanity at last, after ages of
failure, walking according to the statutes and the
ordinances of the Lord, blameless. And now, since

256 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the Word became flesh, in the passion of the man
Christ Jesus, I see humanity endure the indignation
and wrath, the tribulation and anguish, the conse
quence of the violated law of God. In that awful
scene in Palestine, I see humanity go to its doom,
and the debt paid, to the uttermost farthing. It is
not divinity hanging there, else I could claim no
fellowship ; but humanity, hence I have hope in His
death. But, as we gaze into this grave where the Lord
lay, do not our thoughts go back to the inquiry,
How comes it that the humanity of the Lord Christ
is brought thus low? His was humanity without
sin, and it is the wages of sin that is death. He
possessed the uncorrupt humanity of Adam before
the fall, and not the depraved humanity that we are
so familiar with. We go back to His birth, and note
the divine-human parentage, and can find no trace of
sin or imperfection. We catch a glimpse of His
boyhood, and see Him at all times subject, and in
obedience, and can detect no trace of varying from
righteousness. We see His thought, and in His own'
Word his heart is laid bare ; yet the scrutiny of
nineteen centuries has not been able to detect a flaw.
There was no depravity in Him, because He was con
ceived by the Holy Ghost ; yet here is the place
where He lay. His birth, His life, His mind and
heart, demanded for Him physical immortality — yet
behold His grave ! Alas, the pity of it for His sake !
Ah, me, the glory of it, for ours ! He died that we
might live. Sin brought Him there, as it brings all
flesh there; but it was sin not His own. That human

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 257
body was deathless in its own nature, and could not
die, save for the touch of sin ; but He, who knew no
sin, became sin for us. Here, as we gaze into that
open grave, let the glorious doctrine of Christ's sub
stitution seize us. Picture the scene as you may.
His dear feet, that for thirty years had borne Him
upon errands of mercy, had been washed from their
blood-stains and decently laid. His tender hands, so
used to the offices of sweet ministry, had been
whitened from their clotted gore, washed with the
tear-drops, doubtless, of her who had, before, thus
washed His feet. His head, divested of its crown of
thorns. And the agony smoothed from His beautiful
face ! O, the tender ministry of those loving hands !
We send our thanks to them back through the cen
turies, and bless them for this beautiful service, not
forgetting how their hearts were wrung in the doing
it. His body now rigid, though beautiful, in death,
is wrapped round and anointed. And with tender
care they place it in the spot at which we are now
gazing. See it there. Sin did it ! Immortal, yet
dead ! Deathless, yet dead ! And let the truth of
the paradox possess you that voluntarily, in confer
ence with the Father, who so loved the world. He
turned Himself towards all the past, and bared His
bosom to receive humanity's curse and woe, from
Eden down to Golgotha ; and, bracing Himself upon
Calvary, voluntarily He stood there with arms
extended towards all future time, inviting the woe and
curse of coming ages to find their target in Him.
And so from the past it came in full measure, and
from the darkness of ages yet to come, and fastened
17

258 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
upon Him the curse and the woe of a lost world.
What wonder the cry, " My God ! my God ! why
hast thou forsaken me ? " Gaze upon Him, men and
women, as there He lies. Sin did it ! Not His own,
but yours and mine, and all sin in humanity's great
sweep. Sin did it, because He permitted it to do so.
Sin did it, because He so loved the world of sinners
that He preferred to bear the curse and the woe,
rather than that poor sinners should thus suffer. He
is the representative man. He represents me — my
penalty for sin ; there it is, paid ! My suffering on
account of sin ; there it is, endured ! The vials of
God's wrath poured out upon me ; there it is, drunk
to the bitterest dregs ! The majesty of the law
which has me in its grasp ; there it is, executed !
And, hark ! from the tomb, if the dead may speak,
" I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do." Sinful man, believest thou this as thou lookest
upon the face of the dead Christ, whom thine imagin
ation has placed within the empty tomb, at which
thou art now gazing ? Believe it, and thou mayest
see thyself there, dead to sin and the curse of the law.
Friend of God, do you look also, and surely there
will come over your spirit the sweet assurance that
all the record of your past guilt has now been washed
away. Of what did He die ? Such is our natural inquiry
whenever we hear of death or view the narrow house
appointed for all living. So may we inquire also as
we look into this place where the Lord lay. Sin, we
say. Yes, but what sin ? Or, how sin ? That brow
is strangely lacerated. That is an ugly wound the

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 259
spear has made right through His heart. We shudder
instinctively as we think upon the nerve centres which
are pierced by the nails whose wounds we see gaping.
What possessed man that mutilation so fiendish could
be devised ? If the outward act is the exponent of
the inner thought, of what character must that heart
be that devised such treatment as is here exhibited ?
These wounds mean bitterness, hatred, and malice, do
they not, on the part of those from whom they came ?
Certainly they do. Of the Roman soldiers ? No, not
particularly. No, no ; as we think this matter through
we find more than one representative scene enacted at
the cross. As Christ was representative, so were they
who executed Him representative. Christ was the
representative man in whom the wrath of God was
fulfilled. That Roman soldier, that procurator, that
high priest were representative men, in whom the
wrath of man against God was fulfilled. Men were,
ever since the coming of depravity, haters of God and
all things good. In them dwelt no good thing, and
in their sight the good could not be tolerated. The
thing most God-like was the thing most hated. They
would kill the prophets ? Yes. And stone those sent
in mercy to them? Yes. Would they break Almighty
Law ? Yes. And thrust their fist in the face of God ?
Yes, yes ; all things they would do ; all things des
perate, all things bloody. Upon God's very throne
they would place their impious hands, did they dare.
Man, in his hatred of God and all things good, through
the ages, was restrained only by fear. So far as he
dared venture against God, so far did he dare. And
the opportunity was the only thing wanting to his

260 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
supreme act of impiety. Not, I say, that those
engaged in the fiendish business of executing the
Saviour knew that He was the God-man, or recog
nized the terrible guilt in which they were being
involved. Of this our Saviour assures us when He
says, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do." But this was the on-reaching of depravity,
the deepening of the world's guilt. If high priest
and ruler did not know that this was the Christ, why
did they not know ? Sin had blinded their eyes and
warped their judgment. They had now got so far
away from the thought of God that its plainest word
ing in their own Scripture could no longer enlighten
them. They would not see God manifest in the flesh
before them according to their own sacred writings.
Here are goodness, purity and truth. Here are mercy,
forgiveness and peace. Here, in human form, were
the power, the wisdom, and the truth, of their own
Jehovah. Yet goodness, and mercy, and wisdom,
were things to be scoffed at and put to open shame,
Representative men they were, standing confronted
by the purity of God, and — " Away with him ! "
" Crucify him ! " Now, don't get away from it, friends ;
the concentrated thought of the humanity of the ages
is represented in that death scene. That is the
universal thought of depraved humanity toward
Almighty God, " for in it [that is, in our flesh] dwell
eth no good thing." The thought is a horrid one,
beyond our comprehension, almost ; but we, who can
look with complacency sometimes upon the suffering
Son of God, should at least endure to look upon its
cause. That man with the hammer there, driving the

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 26l
cruel iron through the sensitive palms of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, is the representative of humanity in its
inmost thought towards God. In an unregenerate
state that man is I, that man is you, in our attitude
towards the Most High. " Away with such a fellow
from the earth," " We will not have this man to reign
over us," has been, is now, and ever shall be, the uni
versal voice of depravity. That man wanted Christ
dead and under ground, and just such is the wish of
this sinful world. Get rid of God, the Being who
shows me my sin. Get rid of God, the One whose
eye is ever upon me, checking the desires of my flesh.
Get rid of God, whose laws are hateful to me and
whose presence is abhorrent. And what is humanity
even now actually engaged in attempting ? And
what has it been doing ever since the day of the sad
fall ? What means this lust for gain that has run to
madness in every Christian land ? This tireless activ
ity of insatiable greed ? This day and night study of
how to be rich ? This wresting of all laws, human
and divine, that six figures may be reached in the
bank account ? There is no time for God's service in
such madness, talk men how they will. There is no
time to become familiar enough with Jehovah to love
Him. In all this mad ambition and avaricious greed
I fancy I see plainly enough the man with the ham
mer, putting out the life of God. What means this
curse of strong drink, patronized by so-called Chris
tian lands, and sent by so-called Christian lands to do
its damnable work to the ends of the earth wherever
a boat crew can affect a landing ? Strong drink !
that is responsible for more lives than the world's

262 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
battles. Strong drink ! that has wrecked more homes
than the combined floods and winds of the world's
history ; that has caused more tears to flow, more
hearts to bleed than anything else has done ; that
costs the world more money in offsetting its crimes
than for any other expenditure. What means the
world in speaking well of this devilish thing ? What
means our Legislature in bowing down before this
image which Satan has set up? What mean the
governments of the world by patting this courtesan
upon the cheek, and bidding her go about her work of
bringing man down to hell ? In that much loved and
daintily dealt with traffic, I fancy I see plainly enough
the man with the hammer, endeavoring to extinguish
the life of God ! What mean those books on infidel
ity, scattered broadcast wherever the Gospel finds its
way ? What means this theology of sweetness and
light, purporting to do divine justice to God by emas
culating the old idea of justice and judgment and
reigning sin ? What means this — the incoming of the
world upon the Church of God, the pressure of formal
ism, of rites and ceremonies, to take the place of
spiritual worship ? What means this — Christians,
Christians, going about all this business ? I fancy I
see, in and through it all, the man with the hammer,
endeavoring to extinguish the life of God ! Is he not
the representative man ? And were he not restrained
by God's grace, would he not blot God from the
universe ? And, ah, me ! is not that hammer stroke
still at work, even among those who look in horror
upon the work of exterminating God, such as we have
just gone over ? What think you, friend ? Is it the

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 263
human nature of Christ or the humanity of God alone
that is susceptible to blow or insult? Is not His
spirit as quick nerved as His body ? Is not His heart
as impressible as His skin ? Is not God now — spirit
that He is — as tenderly environed as was that same
spirit in the human flesh of Jesus Christ ? Who hates
God now ? Know this : that hatred of yours is as keen
an insult as was the spitting in the face of Christ,
Who disobeys God now ? Know this : that disobe
dience of yours is a blow in the face of Almighty God,
as keen-felt an insult as the soldier gave who smote
the Lord, saying, " Prophesy ; who smote thee ? "
Who is denying God now? Who is ashamed of
Christ now ? Know this : that He feels the wound of
your slight as sharply as He did that of Peter in the
judgment hall. Who now is traitor to Christ ? Who
now is living in sin while pretending to be in love
with the Saviour ? Know this : He regards the kisses
of your lips as the sting of the scorpion. Sin is a blow
in the face of Almighty God, and, through it all, I
fancy I see plainly the man with the hammer, trying
to extinguish the life of the Lord. O, he is the repre
sentative man in sin, and every blow he gives to the
nail, as he sends it through the quivering flesh, repre
sents some thought, some wish, some desire of poor
fallen man as he stands related to the holy God. But
now we leave that part of our contemplation, and
looking into the place where the Lord lay,
II. The open and empty grave tells us the
story OF OUR Lord's Divinity. " He is not here ;
He is risen." Survey with wondering eyes the place
where He lay. There are the grave clothes and the

264 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
napkin; yonder, the stone on which His beautiful
head rested. But He is gone. He could not have
been stolen away, for a watch was set, who must
answer with their lives. The mouth of the grave was
sealed, and the most daring Roman, even, would not
have ventured to violate that seal. Let an answer to
your wondering glance come from the shining-faced
one who stands by your side, " He is not here ; He
is risen " ; and from the grave send your glances now
heavenward, and let come into your memory all that
He has told you concerning Himself. He is God as
well as man, and here you are confronting the final
proof of that best-established verity. The grave was
opened. On the third day, according to His word, He
burst the bars of death and the tomb, and came forth,
death's only Conqueror. O, weeping women, your
tears may be dried, surely. O, faint-hearted disciples,
and slow of heart to believe, well may you run to
your companions with the glad tidings, " The Lord is
risen indeed." Let them solace themselves with the
glad tidings while we stay here a moment longer to
meditate — not upon the glorious news of Christ's
resurrection as it may effect our life in Him, both here
and when we go yonder, but as to some features of
His personality which we need to recognize.
The Lord Christ is very God ; of that we may
be assured. Here is proof. Have you noted the
spread of the Unitarian belief of late ? Have you
noted that, in some of our so-called Baptist pulpits,
especially in the Motherland, this central doctrine
of the Church of God is being set aside ; that His
humanity is being beautified at the expense of His

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS. 265
divinity ; and that His moral perfections are being
made the substitute of His Godhead ? Has it oc
curred to you that the Son of man can be so brought
into the foreground as to- cause the Son of God to
retire ? Do you know of the crucial test to which the
old doctrine of the substitution of the Son of God — to
stand in the sinner's place, and to be the only name —
is now being put ? Stand we here, friends, by the
empty grave of our Lord, and be prepared here to
stand, in the knowledge of this eternal truth, con
fronted, as we are, by this proof that Christ is God ;
and let the man with the hammer do his worst : here
we stand secure.
The Lord Christ is still human. So runs the story
spoken by this empty grave ; body and spirit together
are gone. He was seen of many. He was seen of
the apostles. He was seen by the company of the
disciples gathered together. He was seen ascending
into the glory, bearing with Him His human body,
His human mind, His human affections. The God-man
now sits upon His throne in the heavens. Comfort
one another with this thought, brethren. We who
sin so often, we who doubt so often, we who get away
from God so far, often cannot grasp the thought of
the Eternal Spirit caring for us. God is too infinite
for our faith. The mystery of God we cannot pry
into. God is human. There upon the throne, sits
Christ, touched with the feeling of our infirmity, tried
in all points like as we are. Speak to Him as you
would to your brother in the flesh, for He is your
brother and He is clad in humanity.
And standing here by the empty tomb, the

266 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
thought that prevails in and through it all is : Jesus
lives — the Son of the living God, Himself the living
God. Through all persecutions ? Yes. Through the
crucifixion and the grave ? Yes. Through all efforts
of men to put out His life ? Yes. Through all the
twists and turns, deceit and hatred of humanity, from
first to last represented in that man with the hammer ?
Yes. He lives — the God-man lives. Comfort your
heart, believer. " As He lives, ye shall live also." Oh,
sinful man, beware ! You can't kill God ! You may
put Him from your thought, you may desire to put
Him from the world, but in spite cf all your efforts
He lives ; and what you do now you do against the
living God. I beseech you put away your hammer.
Cease driving your nails. You can't kill God ! Rather,
come see the place where the Lord lay ; and, repenting
of your sin, cry you unto the living God for mercy and
pardon and grace. Amen.

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD.

" It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth." — Romans i. 16.

POWER definitely directed for a definite object is
what the text is speaking of.
I. Let US look at THE POWER HERE SPOKEN OF,
endeavoring to characterize it and to distinguish it
from other powers in regard to which there is some
times confusion. God, we know, is the depository of
all power and its sole author, and that power, we know,
is manifested in infinite variety of fashion. There is
His power in creation, by which, in putting forth His
voice or the mere act of volition, whatever is was
brought into existence. There is His power in de
struction, by which men or angels, insects or worlds
go back into the chaos whence they came. There is
His power in sustaining and ruling, by which the
immensity of creation is kept fulfilling the purpose
for which it was brought into existence. There are
His powers visible, which manifest the Almighty's
presence in the terrible displays of His providence ;
and His powers invisible, which we know surround us
and affect us with their potency and influence. But
this power of God of which the text is speaking,
differs from all His other powers, both in character
and potency, in aim and object.267

268 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
(i) See a comparison between this power and the
power of electricity, say, as that has now become the
power of foremost interest in the physical world.
Electricity is the power of God, and, doubtless, a
power which is among the all things working for the
good of those who love God ; but the method of its
operation is vastly distinct from the method of this
thing which the apostle is here glorifying. Electricity
has ever existed, and its subtle or terrific agency has
ever played its part in the affairs of the universe. Its
spark has penetrated to the bowels of the earth and
ignited the accumulated gases there generated, and
men have witnessed with amaze and terror the
belching volcano and rending of earth's foundations.
Its currents have met in mid-heavens, and the forked
tongue of fire has cleft the sky and carried destruc
tion to the earth. In the quiet and mystery of the
frozen north it disports itself gloriously where atmos
phere and temperature blend for its convenience, and
the many-colored and shifting corona tells of the
majesty of the throne whence it emanates. To such
displays this wonderful power of God might ever
have been limited had not the inventive genius
of man laid hold of it and trained its potency for
service in the commercial and mechanical arts.
Observe, man did this. By his persistent application
of sharpened wits he so bore upon the subtle fluid as
to change it from a ruthless tyrant to a submissive
slave. So that now the genius of man pervading it
and controlling it, electricity, this power of God, has
become of human manipulation, the power of man.
Not so the power of God of which the text is speak-

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 269
ing. As in the former case, it, too, had always
existed. The Gospel, the power of God, was pro
claimed in Eden. Its brilliancy and its transforming
touch stamped itself upon the character of the
patriarchs. Wonderfully radiant, so that its bright
ness has not yet faded into oblivion, its virtue shone
out from that Prince of God, whom, upon Mount
Nebo, the Almighty covered from the eyes of men.
Like the lightning's flash or like the aurora, down
through the ages, again and again, in characters such
as David or Elisha, Elijah or Jonathan, Isaiah or
John the Baptist, this power of God was known and
felt, but as yet its displays were erratic, touching or
filling to the full one here or there, compelling the
admiration or the awe of men, and, in isolated cases
where its power was recognized, sending the thought
ful and spirituelle to the quest of its secrets. But
this power of God was nothing akin to electricity.
Sharpened wits might bend themselves to its investi
gation, but in vain. The experience of the ages and
the accumulation of all knowledge were' useless here.
Souls overburdened by the darkness might cry aloud
for the ministry of this secret thing which they saw
here and there displayed, or of whose existence the
mechanism of mind and soul gave them proofless
evidence. No man could manipulate this power of
God as men have done with other powers which
Jehovah has brought into existence. They did their
best. They exhausted the resources of humanity in
the attempt ; but this thing proved itself beyond the
range of the best that man could do. In the fulness
of time, when the nations were perishing, and the

270 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
wretched world, low sunken in the grip of the devil,
was reaching out for some method of escape from the
awfulness of the curse, God brought His power down
within reach of man. But, mark you, the distinction
of method and force. In regard to Jehovah's other
powers, light, heat, electricity, etc., He was content to
hand them over to the dexterity of human will and
fingers, and was contented Himself to retire into the
background, leaving to the skill of brain and will and
muscle the ministry of these tremendous agencies.
Not so with the power of God unto salvation. Into
the entire energy of this fo;ce He preferred to be
ever immanent. The power of God, the Gospel, the
Almighty has reserved for His own manipulation.
Here is the grand distinguishing feature of that which
the text sets forth. Man may direct, control, con
serve other powers. But God reserves this thing for
Himself. Let us now endeavor to display this power
as to its composition and its strikingly unique char
acteristic. (2) See the Gospel as to its message : Glad tidings,
the word itself describes it. Here was the world
lying in the wicked one, strayed from God and low
sunken under the curse, hopeless and nerveless.
Glad tidings — the iron rule of the evil one is to be
broken. All that mass of pollution is to be cleared
away. The pall of sin which shuts out every life-
giving ray is to be lifted, and breath from on high
is to be given to sin-cursed earth. Man has wandered
from his God and gone in hiding with his fellows,
who were alike sin-cursed. His mind was stricken ;
his heart was smitten ; his body was afflicted ; his

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 27 1
poor soul was shut up in darkness ; conscience was
wounding him ; the devil was persecuting him ; God's
wrath was heavy upon him. Glad tidings ! What does
that mean ? What, but that the great enemy is to be
shorn of his power, and the Conqueror is to betake
Himself to where the poor prisoners had been hidden
away in the vileness of corruption, where He will
place His hands upon mind, heart and soul of the
perishing ones, clothe them in seemly garments in
the place of their sinful rags, and lead them out of
their darkness into the light of God. But how could
this be done ? God cannot lie, and His sentence of
cursing has been pronounced. How can sin-cursed
men stand in the presence of the Holy One ? Glad
tidings ! The message condescends to show the
reason, so that the poor sinner may doubt or fear no
longer. " Come, let us reason together, saith the
Lord," and He shows in the substitution of Jesus
Christ how that justice and mercy may meet to
gether, how that God's face turns back in reconcilia
tion, how that degraded man may stand even un-
blushingly in the presence of his Maker. But how
can man receive this grace ? Poor soul, his spiritual
powers are all enervated, his affections are very
feeble, his heart is so filled with other loves. How
shall he do ? Glad tidings ! God sends His own
Spirit, who, with the feebleness and impotency of
poor degenerated man, imparts the strong desire, the
penchant longing, the aspiration after holiness, turn
ing into righteousness the disordered faculties, purg
ing the heart from the baseness of depravity, and so
empowering the perverted will that it yields to the

272 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
touch of God. And all this change which the peni
tence, aspiration and the yielding will indicate, have
their sum and centre in Him who was crucified. He,
the Lord Jesus, is in the foreground and the back
ground. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, out of His own
pitying heart, designed the rescue. He, the Lord
Jesus Christ, alone and single-handed, did the
rescuing. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, dictated the
message. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, energized the
whole with His own good Spirit. As the light rays
from all this vast orb converge to the centre of the
sun, so from all that needed the saving touch—wide
spread as the bounds of earth and sky as they are —
there converge in Him all that is efficacious in the
redemption of humanity. Christ is all and in all.
(3) But you see further in regard to this message.
Notwithstanding the charm of gracious doctrine
emanating from the Holy One Himself, it has pleased
the Author and Captain of our salvation to use the
feeble ministry of poor ransomed sinners in carrying it
into effect. By means of redeemed men the story of
the fall and the rescue and the restoration were fixed
upon the sacred page. The sacred word was given
in trust to redeemed men with the command to
spread it abroad and live its precepts, so that now not
only was the message fixed unalterably upon the
sacred page, but it was fixed also upon the lives of
those who were held in thrall by its teaching. So
that the words which, in one sense, were but dead
representations of living truth became themselves
living words in the messengers. The glad tidings
graven upon human hearts, minds, and consciences,

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 273
ever regulated and corrected and purified by the
unalterably fixed word, is, you will readily perceive,
an addition to, an increase in, the power of the
message, having now in full operation with it all that
is sympathetic, all that is easy of access, all that is
communicable and companionable in the associations
of fallen humanity ; so that now in practical effect the
message and the messenger are one. I speak you a
truth to-day, brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ, which,
in these days of accommodating and popular religion,
is very often far thrown into the shade. I emphasize
before you Paul's doctrine of the living epistle — the
living message of salvation. The message is merged
into the messenger. This holy book of truth is the
plate from which the impress of that which is stamped
upon the Christian, is taken. The plate remains in
the printing office, but the newspaper goes into the
business of men, into /their pleasures, into their homes,
and carries with it its tidings whether good or bad.
This Book of God remains upon our desk or remains
in our chamber, and we Christian men, having received
its stamp, are commanded to go forth as living
epistles known and read of all men, carrying with us
glad tidings into the business, into the pleasures, into
the homes of men. So far, then, we have seen this
power of God, the Gospel, to be not word of mouth
merely, either of man or Jehovah, not spread on
printed page merely, either of man or Jehovah, but
glad tidings incarnate, breathing forth from mind,
heart, and influence, the message to poor sinful men
sent down from the Father of the lights. Christian
men, messages of God, behold you are glad tidings.
18

274 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
(4) But see you, further, one other component part
Of this Gospel which is the power of God. And I put
this last because it is the all-important part, the part
Without which everything else falls to the ground
useless. Imposed upon written word and living
epistle, placed as the foundation upon which rests
written word and living epistle, permeating every
sentence and every faculty of written word and living
epistle, there is the Spirit of God. He is the divine
Operator who brings into relief the meaning of that
which was stamped by the finger of God upon the
sacred page. He is the divine Illuminator who
flashes from the heart, the conscience, the mind, the
walk, the life, the influence of men, the glad tidings
of the truth of God. He is the beginning, the expan
sion, and the convergence of the Gospel. God Him
self is He, the manipulator of this power, who selects
the material upon which it is to operate, who controls
its energy in the operation, and who Himself is the
power that accomplishes all that is done. Here, then,
are the glad tidings, brethren, the Gospel, this power
of God unto salvation. A message of mercy and for
giveness unto you. Do thou rejoice and be glad
thereof. A message incarnate, brethren. Do thou
rejoice with humility because of this honor conferred.
And, through the all-pervading Spirit, a message still
going forth among men as God manifest in the flesh.
Do thou rejoice with trembling because of the weight
of glory and responsibility which thus lies at your
door. S& much for the power of which the text is
speaking. II. Let us now look for a little time and in the

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 275
second place at THE DIRECTION OF THIS POWER. It
is the power of God unto salvation. What is the
good of the Gospel ? What end does it serve ? To
accomplish what purpose has this tremendous energy
come down from the heavens and fastened upon men?
The question is variously answered, as you well know,
but the text answers it in only one way. It is the
power of God unto salvation, and it is to serve no
other purpose.
Says one : Not so, brother ; but the Gospel rather
is the civilizing agency of the world. In it behold
the primal principles of peace on earth and good-will
toward men, which had long been obscured and for
gotten, returning once more to clear away all the
rubbish which the long reign of barbarians produced.
Men had forgotten the first principles of humanity so
far as these related one to the other. The honor
stamp given by their Creator had become defaced ;
and the bad impulses had so long held sway that
necessity cried loudly for a return to these first as the
better way. And so these principles of justness and
fairness, in opposition to the cruelty and oppression
of savagery, in opposition to the power of might
against right, have come ; and who shall say that in
the amelioration of the condition of man since the
Gospel has come, and to be seen wherever the Gospel
goes, this power of God has not had its direction and
its efficiency? So runs the tenor of the popular
estimate of the purpose of God's Gospel. And so
the throne and sceptre of the Bible go together
among the insignia of royalty. And so, " the Bible,
the secret of a nation's greatness," is regarded with

276 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
complacency ; and men who have the rule of king
doms, noting the progress of correct governmental
principles, and seeing the Word of God the founda
tion upon which these are resting, are contented to
let rest just here the mission of glad tidings. The
text says, however, that the Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation.
Says another : Not so, brethren ; the Gospel is the
great refiner and purifier. It is the thing that con
tributes to the kindliness of men toward each other ;
it is the thing which subdues their vulgarities and
sends the mellifluous influence of sweetness and light
pervading their environment. And the Gospel thus
announced is captivating in many ways. See you
the honest man, the benevolent man, the man who
practises the grace of sweet charity among his fel
lows ; he verily is satisfied that the Gospel has per
formed its mission upon him. See you all those who
give the Gospel their respect and patronage, who
wrap themselves in its courtesies, whose exterior
graces and deportment run parallel with the wording
of the beatitudes, who grasp the excellences of its
outward traits, and delight in all its presentations that
are in good form, and that are neither productive of
angularity or over-much virility. Oh, yes, the Gospel
with its peace, with its forgiveness, with its lofty
philosophy, cannot be but for the refinement of man.
But the text is talking not about the refinement of
life, the sweetness of becoming deportment, and that
sort of thing. The text says, it is the power of God
unto salvation.
But, says another : Not so, my brother ; the Gospel

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 277
has surely its mission in the entertainment of those
who are attached to its principles. Is it not that by
means of which those of us who have no taste for the
vicious and low, can find intellectual quickening and
rational recreation ? Can we not make its principles
cover the range of the political, the social, the ethical,
and the sesthetical ? Cannot those in leading of its
tether, associate together and, embraced by its prin
ciple, seek social advantages and intellectual recre
ation ? Is it not so that the institution, the gospel
church, may be legitimately regarded as the success
ful rival of the play-house and the debating club, in
providing recreation, mental or emotional ? And in
this rational and emotional line, has not the Gospel
clearly established its mission as the transcendent
elevating agency ? But, friends, you see one can't so
interpret the text, that's all. The Gospel, according
to the text, is the power of God unto salvation. And
whatever may be the outcome of salvation upon
the governments of the nations, the social, the intel
lectual, or the assthetical life, clearly the thing at
which it is pointing is salvation, and that alone. Oh,
I should like to read this truth deep into the hearts of
men, especially those who esteem and respect and
patronize the message from God ; those who flatter
themselves that their lives are in the direction of its
working ; those who think to exhaust its possibilities
by attention to its social or intellectual permissions ;
those who have a form of godliness, but who deny its
power. If the Gospel has not saved the soul, it has
profited nothing ; and, depend upon it, if only socially,
intellectually, or philosophically, men have received

278 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
benefit, they have missed altogether the power of
God ; and that which has enlivened their graces of
mind, heart or body, has not been the Gospel at all.
The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, man ;
not unto a good time, socially ; not unto intellectual
advancement, not unto sweetness and light. Look at
it ! your poor soul is perishing, your sins are bearing
you fast to hell. Even now your sentence of con
demnation is passed, poor soul. Don't trouble your
self in any way with this power of God except as it
comes to save you from the grip of the devil. Look
at yourself as a lost sinner, and lay hold of this power
of God that it may lift you out of the horrible pit.
Beyond controversy, that is the mission of the Gospel,
so far as you are concerned. Oh, the blunder of
deluded souls who read the message otherwise than
" salvation." Oh, the sin of living epistles, if they pro
claim the message as otherwise than " salvation."
God's Son did not give up His glorious princedom in
the heaven of light and spend thirty-three years
upon this sin-cursed earth, in company with vile sin
ners, daily exposed to blows and insults ; He did not
endure the woe of the world's curse, and the blood
and the shame of Calvary, for anybody's intellectual,
or social, or moral, entertainment. No such thing ;
He saw the human soul which He had created,
immortal. He saw it black with sin, and forever lost,
and that He might save it, and for that object only,
the incarnate God came down.
" Plunged in a gulf of dark despair
We wretched sinners lay,
Without one cheerful beam of hope,
Or spark of glimmering day.

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD. 279
With pitying eyes, the Prince of Peace
Beheld our helpless grief;
He saw, and, O amazing love !
He flew to our relief."
So much for the direction of this power of God.
III. Note now, if you please, and in a few words,
THE OBJECT OF THIS POWER. "It is the power of God
unto salvation, to every one that believeth," says the
text. We have seen the power of God. We have seen
this power restricted as to its direction We shall now
see it restricted as to its object ; and we now proclaim
as the teaching of this Word of God, that the power
of God in salvation is available in him, and to him
only, who believes. Here are glad tidings sent
broadcast through the world ; here is the invitation
universally proclaimed ; here is power sufficient to
lift the universe from its woe ; but no one, except " he
who believes," shall at all profit by this wonderful dis
play. Salvation is restricted to him who is united to
Jesus Christ through faith. Note well the concise
setting of the words, " to every one that believeth."
This is not the popular way of putting it, I am well
aware, but this is God's way, nevertheless.
Poor lost sinners will have it that the power is
available to every one that hopeth. And they hope all
will be well with them at the last day ; they hope to
get into heaven ; they hope God will be merciful to
them ; they hope their sins are not so great as to
overwhelm them, and so they sink gradually into the
restfulness of hope, which is false and fatal.
Poor sinners will have it that the power is available
to every one that worketh. And so through works of

280 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
charity and self-denial, through works of obedience
to God's commands, and through works of mortifi
cation of the flesh, they convince themselves that they
are recipients of salvation, and are resting upon a
conviction which is false and fatal.
Poor sinners will have it that the power is available
to every one that enjoyeth. And so they press to the
services of the church ; they heartily take part in
the prayer and praise ; they esteem the people of
God, and delight in Christian ordinances ; their
feelings are tender, exalted, responsive, and highly
satisfactory; and upon this ground they say, "We
have salvation," and so they restfully enjoy that
which is false and fatal.
The text, with one sweep, ruthlessly sets aside all
these conditions, and fixes one imperative law for the
transmission of the power of God unto salvation : " to
every one that believeth." Every other thing is ruled
out, and faith stands solitary at the entrance into
life. Glad tidings is flashed over the wire from
Quebec to Windsor, but only they whose instruments
tap the current catch the news as it speeds. Destruc
tion struck Egypt like a flood, and only they whose
door showed blood escaped. Faith taps this power
of God, and brings the glad tidings to the ruined soul ;
faith points upward to the blood and the destroying
scourge passes by. Sinning soul, dost thou believe
on the Son of God ? This is " the power of God
unto every one that believeth.''

OUR MOTIVES.*
SOMEONE has said — and the remark has become
the familiar utterance of prayer and platform
addresses — that as yet the Church of God is only
playing at missions. There is, alas, too much truth
in the remark ; but truth, however, which is not to
be confined in its application to the one matter of
foreign missions. Christian work generally may
come under this censure ; for I suppose we shall not
lift up our eyes upon any field of Christian effort,
with even casual scrutiny, but we shall discover, in
regard to its tillage, more play than work, more easy
going carelessness than sturdy burden-bearing, per
haps more selfishness than the esteem of another
rather than self. I suppose that, without injustice,
this is the view which will impress us whatever
outlook we may have upon world-wide Christian
endeavor. If so, and there be any responsibility in
connection therewith, our own churches surely must
needs bear their share. Personally, I am impressed
with the thought that our churches, as a rule, do
not serve enough ; they are resting before they enter
upon the time and place of rest. And God's business
staggers and stops while they play at going to work.
* Presidential address, delivered at the Convention at Waterford
in 1893. 281

282 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
I may be serving the churches in this address, as well
as in any other way, if I may be permitted to ring
the bell whose voice calls away from trifling and
sport to the serious matter of Christian business.
How best I can get the thought of the churches
intent on this matter, is something that especially
concerns me. I know not how better it may be
accomplished than by a review of motives, and this,
though familiar ground, may be well worth traversing
to-day if in any way the process may lead to a
deeper appreciation of the purpose of God's call to
the churches.
Before speaking of motives, we may, in general
terms, premise the purpose of God's call to the
churches to be spiritual. Our work is nothing if not
spiritual. We are coming in these days to be recog
nized as a body of some importance ; we have won
for ourselves, as to consistency of purpose and integ
rity of life, a position which is at least appreciated
even in quarters where heretofore we were accustomed
to but scant courtesy. We have our full share of
Baptist men in public places, and we are conscious of
a thrill of pride, perhaps, when the roll of Baptist
worthies is called; and we know that the world
around us has put upon them the estimation of solid
worth. And in that our denomination has come
from obscurity into a position of recognized influence,
perhaps to somebody it may occur that the end of its
being is reached. The call of God to us is nothing,
if not spiritual ; and the position we have gained is
utterly worthless, unless it can the better conserve the
spiritual interests of the kingdom of Christ. Our

OUR MOTIVES. 283
denomination has not been called into existence to
influence either State or society as such — it lives for
one object only, and that, object is spiritual.
We have come into possession, of late, of fine edu
cational facilities. We have splendid buildings and
grounds at Woodstock, at Toronto, and at Grande
Ligne ; and we have endowments which put us in the
forefront of ecclesiastical, educational possibilities.
And now comes the danger. How easily may the
educational thought of the denomination be diverted
from the one thing for which we exist, into lower and
baser, even if, to the mass of the community, more
desirable channels. Our buildings and grounds exist
to us for that thing which is spiritual ; if not, they
are but useless lumber, cumbering our ground. Upon
our endowments, our facilities, our professoriate, there
must be stamped, " This one thing I do," with the
understanding that this one thing be spiritual. Else,
far better for us the downfall of the entire institution.
We are getting famous church edifices of late. In
the cities and important towns we vie with any de
nomination in beauty and convenience of architecture,
in the attractiveness of our services, and in the
enthusiasm and devotedness of the membership. And
the danger may exist that, instead of thought being
directed away to the things that are spiritual and
eternal, it may find its satisfaction in contemplating
those that are seen and temporal. Church architec
ture, church enthusiasm, church eloquence, either of
song or speech, unless they rest upon that which is
spiritual, surely would serve us better if swept out of
the way so as to make room for that thought which
is fixed upon God only.

284 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
And so also we have mission societies, marvel
lously officered and equipped and successful, with a
splendid body of workmen on the home fields, and
unusual enthusiasm and efficiency abroad. And our
churches love these societies which they have brought
into being, and they prove their love by the magnifi
cent manner in which they have come to their sup
port during all these years. And more than that,
they are proud of these societies, and rejoice greatly
in their magnificent service. They tell over the con
secrated men, they praise God because so many more
young lives are offering for service, and they insti
tute comparisons between our work and the work of
others, and our work now and as it was in bygone
days ; and there is a danger that the thought may
rest upon the efficiency of the agency, and the end
for which it exists be somewhat overlooked, and we
come to exult in the thought of missions, rather than
in the souls who through missions are saved.
We are called to a work that is spiritual, and if I
now place before you some of the motives to that
work, perhaps somebody's thought may be intensi
fied as to the character of service. We are to "go.
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature," and we are told that he that believes shall
be saved, and that he that does not believe shall be
damned. That is our call from God, and that we
may enter upon this service —
1. There is a motive without us, which surely
should be an attraction strong enough to lead the
most careless trifler away from his toys and to set
him in earnest about the work of God. The world is

OUR MOTIVES. 285
lying in wickedness, the nations are perishing ; God's
call tells of those who are being damned — " perish
ing'' is God's expression — and the churches are
called into being, and the members are commissioned
that " men may not perish, but have everlasting
life." Brethren, think it not a strange thing that the
utterance from the position I occupy to-day should
strike the minor key of the world's woe, rather than
some interesting phase of ecclesiasticism. What our
churches, our pastors, our societies, educational and
missionary, and our membership need most to realize
just now, if they are at all to come abreast of God's
call, is that there are people perishing, perishing in
our homes, in our own country, in the far-off lands,
by the millions perishing, and to us comes the call to
save. God give us grace to grasp the thought of lost
souls ! We do not grasp it, of course, or apathy
would cease, and all God's people would quit their
play and enlist upon service. But surely we should
make nearer approaches to having our eyes opened
to the truth God has put into that word " perishing."
Perhaps from two considerations it remains remote
from us.
(1) It is the familiar idea with us ; we can go over
those awful passages of God's Word glibly, and the
crucial word gives no index to the thought of God.
In speech, in exhortation, in prayer, in reading, we
have become so familiar with that word " perishing "
that it has ceased to pierce the mind or to stun the
heart. We are not so familiar even with the thought
of mere bodily perishing ; and consequently physical
pain, ruin, destruction will send to us the thrill of

286 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
agonized sympathy when the loss of a soul will leave
no sign. Let it be that the armies of two nations
come in conflict, and human blood and bodies
redden and heap the field, and there is hardly a cheek
that does not blanch at the thought of the carnage ;
and when we are told that the long line of horsemen
tramples the living and the dead, and how the ponder
ous iron of the gun crushes all that is mortal from the
prone and helpless on the field, there is no breast that
does not dilate with horror. We cannot read of the
bayonet's cruel work nor of the devastation of the
engines of war without appreciating somewhat the
horrors of physical perishing ; but the ten thousand
fold more terrible thought involved in the loss of a
soul misses us, alas, how completely ! or by compari
son, touches us, alas, how inconspicuously ! But,
brethren, we shall not lay hold on our spiritual work
until we grasp as we have not yet done what is God's
thought of the loss of a soul. Oh, that He might open
our eyes to take in something of what this is ! I
fancy we might be helped somewhat by letting go our
universal setting of this world-wide calamity and
gathering our conceptions from individual cases. My
soul is perishing — that which only remains to me
after all that I can see and feel of self has been sent
to its corruption in the grave. That which thinks in
me, and loves, and inspires me toward the nobler and
greater is being destroyed ; that which lives forever
goes on its life in endless death, and forever shall be
destroyed without remedy ; and its vitality shall never
be extinguished, though the light that is in it shall
become darkness. And it shall suffer the torment of

OUR MOTIVES. 287
that place, and its labor shall be the conception of sin
and the bringing forth of sin ; and from the thraldom
of that horrid maternity there shall be no release ;
there it shall endure the endless destruction from the
presence of the Lord. So with myself, if I believe
not ; so with my boy and my girl, if they believe not ;
so with the man who stands upon the farthest remove
from gospel light ; he does not believe, and he per
ishes. Then think through the individual cases to
the millions, and what human carnage shall we speak
of at all comparable in intensity of horrors ? What
glassy, upturned eye or broken bone or spurting blood,
which with amaze so strike us when borne to our ears
from the desolations of earth, should in any way
touch life's sympathy if the soul's final calamity shall
evoke no concern ? Let there be no disguise wrapped
around this awful truth ; let it come, as God intended
it should come, like an alarm peal thundered from
His judgment throne. " The people are perishing ! "
Here in our land, as in the regions beyond ; and in
the universe of God there is but one rescue service
appointed, and that is the service of His Church. Ah,
the sin of those who would hold a veil before the eyes
of God's Church that she should not view the calami
tous ruin of human souls ! Ah, the sin of those who
say in regard to the tones distressing, " Peace, peace,"
when there is no peace ! God with His own hand
leads His people to the brink of the lake of fire, and
bids them look upon what perishing means, that their
minds may be pierced through with the thought of it,
and that their hearts may be struck with amaze, so
that they may quickly and eagerly go working out

288 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
their own salvation with fear and trembling, God
working in them.
(2) The second consideration why, perhaps, the
urgency of God's appeal does not grip may lie in the
fancy that the call is not to the individual but to the
mass, or to the individual elsewhere. There is a long
wharf crowded with people, two hundred at least,
strong, able men. A man falls into the water and is
drowned before the faces of two hundred men. Why ?
Because those at one end thought those at the other
were going to do the rescue work ; and each one
thought the work upon his fellow, and the man per
ished without remedy. I narrate a fact which is
intensified in its responsibility one thousand times in
the matter of perishing immortality. You all know
of fathers who never venture upon the pleading of the
Gospel with their children, hoping somebody else will
do that service ; and their boys perish because the
other people appoint the mission to somebody else.
A church does not go into the dark and unpromising
region that opens to its ministry, in the thought that
surely some other church will occupy that ground ;
but the other church nominates still another to the
service ; and those in that desert region perish. And
the heathen are afar off, and there are Christian
churches so much nearer, or so much wealthier, or with
opportunities so much greater, that the one whom the
Macedonian cry first reaches has very little hesitancy
in relegating the fulfilment of the call to the service of
someone else, and this again to another, until the call,
which was once so loud in entreaty and came over the
waters wafted with the energy of despair, grows

OUR MOTIVES. 289
fainter, and is at last stilled in the silence of eternal
death. Immortals have perished while the Church
has eased her conscience by shelving responsibility or
passing it on to her neighbor. From this place it
ought not to be amiss to remind the brethren, the
churches, the societies, the colleges of our denomina
tion, of the stern demands upon their thought and
labor which come with the word '' perishing."
2. The work given us to do ought to come to us as
God's call, from considerations of a motive within us.
As Baptists, we lay special emphasis upon regenera
tion. We do not admit to membership in our churches
anyone, no matter what may be the beauty or integrity
of his life, in regard to whom there is any doubt con
cerning that sine qua non, the new birth. Of course,
we mistake in some instances ; we cannot read the
heart ; but practically our denomination is made up
of a spiritual membership. Now with us " old things
have become new " ; there can be no longer develop
ment with us along the lines which satisfied the old
nature ; the soul has new impulses, and there are set
before it new objects ; and for the strengthening and
refinement of the new nature there must be the out
going of self upon others. The distinguishing charac
teristic of the new nature is forgetfulness of self, an
outreaching for others' benefit. So with the apostles ;
they forsook all and followed Christ. So with the
early Church ; they thought last of self and first of
loyalty to Christ and God's message to the perishing.
So with any new convert into the kingdom ; the
impulse out of self is first conspicuous, and this
impulse is the outreaching of the new-born soul for
19

290 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
its spiritual nourishment. With every soul who enters
the kingdom it is as it was with Christ. It was His
meat and drink to do the will of Him that sent Him.
Was He not perfected through labor and through
suffering ? Was He not made strong, robust to save,
through the laying aside of His glory and stepping
from the circle of His adoring hosts to go upon that
long, lorn mission of mercy to perishing men ? Was
He not toughening the muscles of even His spiritual
manhood when He was ministering in the temple, at
the well, among the afflicted at Bethesda's pool ; when
His compassionate eyes gave divine pity to distorted
lepers ; when His beautiful hands sent the glad thrill
of health through some disgustingly diseased member;
when His wet cheek told His heart agony over the
determined self-destruction of the much-loved ones
of His own royal city ; and when, in the gloom of
Calvary, He shouldered the world's curse and bound
Himself to the finishing of the work which the Father
gave Him to do ? Feeding Himself, was He ? Was
work like this His meat and drink ? So He Himself
said. By the toil of His ministry He was made strong.
As the instinct after that which will develop bodily
strength is intense within the physical nature, so there
is correspondingly an impulse of soul which renders
the new nature instinct with the forthputting of its
life upon that without itself which God has provided
as its meat and its drink. He is the strong man spir
itually who feeds upon his Master's business ; and that
man sickens and becomes useless for service in whom
the God-placed desire to do as Christ did has become
extinguished. Further, there is that strong impulse

OUR MOTIVES. 291
still within which may be characterized as the selfish
ness of benevolence. This new creation is a creature
of resplendent powers; the heart has been new created.
Old desire, old impurity, old sin stains, old diabolism
have been buried in the grave of the old nature ; and
from it, by the touch of God, there has arisen a new
man in Christ Jesus. And the new man has upon him
the beauty of the Lord our God. In the image of
God he now stands restored. He has been made a
partaker of the divine nature. And now what shall
his pleasure be, and what shall give him satisfaction
of soul ? According to his predestination, he has now
become conformed to the image of God's Son, and
only that thing, which can satisfy the soul of Christ,
can stay the yearning of his soul or can maintain the
beauty, the excellency, and the exaltation, of the new
powers with which he has been endowed. The Lord
of life and glory spared not Himself. He gave Him
self for us. Though He was rich, yet for our sakes
He became poor, that we through His poverty might
be made rich. And having expended His life freely
in that labor which came into vital contact with every
son of Adam who was and who should be ; which
pried into the secret of each heart and knew the sin
and the woe of each ; which exhausted itself in its
ministrations of pity and strengthened itself in lifting
the heavy curse ; which involved the contact with all
that was vile and loathsome ; which busily sought out
all conditions of sorrow ; which assumed the iniquity
of us all ; which patiently bore the world's stripes ;
which involved the terror of the lost and the turning
away of the face of God — in view of all that He, the

292 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Son of God, endured — it is said of Him, "He shall see
of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." The crav
ing of His spirituality was the seeking of others' good,
and His cup of joy filled up as nearer and nearer He
approached the goal of His Father's will. With His
clear-sighted vision He saw the magnitude of the
possibility of God's grace through Himself ; the heart-
cry of His nature proffered this salvation to the ends
of the earth ; and, mounting to His crucifixion throne,
He there surveyed this possibility and progress of His
ministry. He saw salvation, wrought through Him,
winging its way over mountain and moorland, through
stream and tunnel, by land and sea, until the confines
of earth were reached. He saw it hover with its
soft pinion over the drooping life of the first man and
impart to his troubled spirit God's peace. And
through the generations he saw it go ; through age of
clay, age of iron, and golden age ; through ages dark
with superstition and ages bright with intellectual
achievements ; on and on, till the last age was reached
and the last man stood solitary ; until to all men, from
first to last, the grace of God through Him had gone.
And, although His humanity was bound down by the
weight of ignominy and shame, the crowning glory of
His spiritual life had come. '' It is finished ! " That
was a shout of victory. That was the glad joy-bell
note of supreme spiritual achievement ; then, as never
yet, the Lord Christ touched the summit of ecstasy.
His life had reached the last of Adam's race, and,
seeing the travail of His soul, He was satisfied. As
with Christ, so with us ; the self-blessing of benevo
lence is forever the impulse of our new nature. We

OUR MOTIVES. 293
are strong and we are happy, only as we do God's
business. We are robed in beauty and have our song
of gladness, only as we do God's business. We have
spiritual wealth and enlightened spiritual vision, only
as we do God's business. From our nature, then, it
comes to us that the motive within us to do God ser
vice is equally strong with the motive without us.
And here see the benevolent design of God Himself,
in allowing us to be co-workers with Himself in bring
ing many sons into the glory ; nay, in insisting that
the work keep pace with our efforts. By a word He
could have accomplished it all Himself; but His kind
ness to us arranged it otherwise. We could neither
be strong, nor happy, nor beautiful, nor exalted with
out the service His love demands. As with individual
life, so with church life, and mission society life, and
educational life. These organizations are themselves
blessed, only as they unselfishly serve. And if it
should ever come to them that the spiritual yearning
over the souls of men should no longer be an impulse
within them, let them die ; for neither God nor man
has any further need of them. And need I say right
heer that there is a possibility of this inward spiritual
impulse dying out? The very same influence that
will make a Christian life useless will make a church
or university useless. The world, the flesh, and the
devil, can easily destroy the one, and the door of any
Christian institution which is opened by the same
world power, by that same token is hung with crape-
Brethren, as we would preserve the character and
beauty of personal spiritual life, let us see to it that
we forever preserve our institutions by warding off

294 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the world power which can only destroy, and by
fostering in their very fibre the impulse of the far-
reaching grace of God.
3. That we may do our Christian business there is
a motive above us. Paul speaks to us through the
Corinthians, of " the love of Christ which constraineth
us." Not our poor love for Christ ; it does not mean
that puny devotion which grows hot or cold accord
ing as circumstances surround it. Our love for Christ
is no good. Our love for Christ could bring nothing
to pass. But Christ's love for us it surely must be —
that love which is strong as the life of God, and as far-
reaching as the perishing of human souls. Such a
power sent from above is with us, and from that
power there can be no separation. It ever lives upon
the throne of Christ, and it shall ever avail for us.
And surely it shall serve us in good stead when
thoughtlessness of the world's woe causes our zeal to
lag, and heart and mind are becoming dull to the
appeal of the world's perishing millions. Surely it
shall stand us in good stead when starvation is fasten
ing its cruel fangs upon our spiritual and newly-
created impulses. The love of Christ will surely
kindle the beacon which proclaims to the spiritual
vision the sad story of those who are perishing ; and
surely the love of Christ will stand at the door and
knock when the heart is entertaining that which must
destroy its chief blessing. And as with the individual,
so with the organization. Bereft, indeed, of power,
of any influence for good, of spiritual vitality, is that
church, or that mission, or that college, which does
not live in the environment of Christ's love, whose

OUR MOTIVES. 295
apathy is not quickened by the touch divine, and
whose right to be is not fixed alone to the heart of
God. Brethren and fathers, if we love our Church and
our denominational institutions, let us deal with them
as we would deal with our own inner lives. Give
them to God, and by earnest striving and tears so
commend them to His grace that the heart of
Christ may ever hold them. I cannot close without
allusion to
4. The fourth motive which impels us to go about
our Christian business. The commission is in the
imperative. As individuals or as organizations we
live under the command of God. To the individual,
" Son, go work " ; to the organization, " Go ye." And,
I suppose, we must thank God, because in addition to
the constraining power of that which is without, and
that which is within, and that which is above, there
is demand. It is a good thing to be commanded
to do that thing which shall rescue the perishing, and
which shall give satisfaction to the new creation, and
which shall keep us in touch with the constraining
power of Christ's love. We are spiritually dull-witted,
most of us ; so much of the earth, earthy, that the
finer and more delicate impulses scarcely become our
inspiration. If we are to achieve, we are to achieve
under the compelling power of the lash. There is the
regiment of soldiers. You see them going into the
fight. You look over the faces of the thousand men,
and for the most part there is written upon them the
dull stoicism of duty. Why do they go into the
battle ? Because they have to ; because there are

296 LIFE OF..E. W. DADSON.
irons, and the rod, and the cannon's mouth for him
who disobeys. Here and there you may see an eye
enkindled with the high courage of patriotism. Upon
some faces there may be written, " For Country and
for Queen '' ; upon some, the shining forth of heart
enthusiasm. But the mass of the thousand men
"tramp, tramp" to victory or death, because they
have to. And well for our country that the strong
arm of discipline controls our forces as well as the
power of enkindled enthusiasm. So thank God for
the regulations of His service and the distinctness
and energy of His commands. The cry of those who
are perishing does not reach our heavy ears or dull-
witted brain. The ambition to sit in the heavenly
places with Christ Jesus, and with Him be enthrilled
with satisfaction of soul, has lost the power to en
rapture our sleepy hearts. With the constraining
goads, even of Christ's love, we have become weary.
Thank God, there remains yet the " Forward March "
of God Jehovah, and we've got to obey. Brethren,
God won't let the perishing perish, if He can help it.
We've got to obey. Brethren, God won't let us
perish, if He can help it, and we've got to obey. And
so now, as individuals and as churches, as missions
and as colleges, let us face the oncoming year, its
responsibility, its service, its joy, and its inspiration.
Let the motive without attract us this year as never
before. Let the motive within energize our drooping
faith. Let the motive from above graciously hold us
to our purpose and to God's purpose. And if these
all fail, God send, then, thy law to chasten and so
quicken our zeal and our faith. Amen.

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS.
" And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and brought away
captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and she waited
on Naaman's wife. — 2 Kings v. 2.
I. I AM struck first with the notion of solitariness.
" One little maid." She is brought into unique
prominence. In reading the passage from the first
to the fifth verse, she not only takes the prominent
place, but makes the complete figure. Her surround
ings are many and magnificent, but all are in back
ground. Her companions are of rank far more
exalted, and in figure and dress superlatively her
superiors ; but they are unseen or seen but dimly.
The little maid, and she only, arrests thought. The
romance of her history immediately rivets the atten
tion. Whence come? Whither going? What
doing? She is the central figure, surely, and all
other company and surroundings are but dumb show
or shadow. The little maid is the one thought, real
as well as picturesque.
I confess to inability to grasp the thought of the
billion contained in the appeals which reach us so
frequently on behalf of the perishing heathen, and
consequently I have failed to be impressed by them
as I should be. I have conned over the missionary
chart — that paper done into squares, with the two
297

298 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
white spots, surrounded by the vast tracts of black
ink, and the figures indicating the number of millions
of human souls year by year perishing — but I rise
from its contemplation not much edified, although
to an extent appalled at the hopelessness as well as
the awfulness of the picture presented. I read mis
sionary literature, and my attention is chained easily
enough when a person or persons definite are spoken
of; but when the computations are presented and
the argument from the millions is set forth, then the
point tangible is passed with me and my thinking
goes into space. This is mine infirmity doubtless,
and, being such, doubtless will be indulged, while 'this
afternoon I speak upon foreign missions from the
standpoint of the one, rather than of the millions.
There is in India to-day one little maid of whom I
wish to speak, and about whom I am very earnest
that you all should be interested. I wish that you
should separate her from her companions, and fix her
as a personality and as a unit upon your mind. I
should like if we could get our thoughts for a little
while away from her surroundings. Let us not think
of the country now, or of the climate, or of the mis
sionaries, or the fruits, or forests, or rivers, or beasts,
or serpents of that wonderful land where she is living.
Let us fix thought upon one object only. There
to-day exists a little Indian maid. Separating her
from the millions in which her identity is lost, you
may take a mental picture of her w:th some degree
of fidelity. There she is, busy with her play upon
the dusty highway running through her native village.
Her physical features immediately come up before

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 299
you. A dark-skinned little one, well formed, lithe
and supple ; a face black, yet comely ; features
regular, eyes through which intelligence looks keenly ;
and although perhaps in filth and rags, unwashed and
unkempt, through all these defacements a creature
to provoke remark and more than passing scrutiny.
If man's chief study is man, the little one we are now
describing is not unworthy the notice of any one.
To one curious at all in the study of race problems,
here is a creature who demands some attention.
Whence came that cast of countenance ? What the
possibilities of that brow upon coming generations ?
Has not the physical type a story to tell of ages past
and gone ? Will it not under favorable conditions
have even a more wondrous history in the ages yet
to come? Our little maid, playing there, solitary,
upon such considerations alone, is surely not an un
interesting study to any contemplative mind. But
she is not all physical, by any means, as, alas ! by too
many she is regarded, and as many of her sisters in
lands still darker may almost appear to be. Those
lustrous eyes, that quickly expressive face, that ever-
changing and graceful pose, argue anything rather
than stupidity. She comes of a keen-witted race. She
is as quick of thought as of action. You may stop
before her and ply her with questions, and doubtless
you will be convinced that there is something keener
than mere animalism within that dusky frame. Evi
dently there is a mind there, and intellectual powers
keen set, and ready waiting for the impress of good
and evil. What shall we say of her moral features,
so far as we may know them ? Alas ! not much that

3O0 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
is favorable. Will she lie and steal ? Oh, yes. Will
she follow in the footsteps of those who have taught
her the debasements of the horrid permissions of the
people among whom she dwells ? Oh, yes. Bright,
graceful and attractive as to mind and body, as she
may be, any little reflection may point out the course
in which her feet must necessarily follow, under pre
sent conditions ; and as little may show under other
conditions how the possibilities wrapped up within
that dusky little one might, upon coming generations,
lead away from debasements and towards that which
would stamp a higher characteristic upon her race.
But physical, mental, and moral, are not all the
features of our little maid. You cannot speak with
her long, nor look long into those lustrous eyes, be
fore knowing that you are contemplating more than
a thinking animal. Even her childish talk tells you
that, in addition to all these things so readily noticed,
you are confronted, face to face, with an immortal.
Deeper down than the intellectual and the moral
natures, you soon perceive the presence of the
spiritual. This dusky child has upon her the touch
of God. Into her dark being there has been breathed
the breath of immortality. She came from God,
stamped with a life which can never end. An im
mortal, I said, and I said well, for while God lasts,
the pulsations of her existence will throb on. She is
a never-dying one, and in hell or heaven, having
lived, she must live forever. Despise her if you
please, as she sits there in her filth and rags. Or
lose her, if you please, among the indefinite millions
of your thought. Nevertheless, be assured of this :

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 301
she is God's workmanship. And God, even our God,
does not lose her among the millions, but His thought
and His heart are intent upon even her. And He,
not so careless as we, has made plans, has set laws in
operation, has commissioned spirits, has commanded
men, has moved heaven, has restrained hell, for that
dusky little one, to whom we have not yet given
thought sufficient to stamp with unity or individuality.
The thought of an immortal is not one to be
hurried over. Let us pause before her and think
more upon this.
Of what value the soul in that small, dirt-begrimed
body ? Alas ! that so many have regarded the
question as too unimportant even to be presented.
Maidens like this one have been thrown into the
Ganges by the thousands ; maidens like this one have
been exposed for death by thousands ; maidens like
this one have been sold for purposes worse than death
by the thousands ; maidens like this, even now in
that land where she lives, are valued as soulless
things ; and officials, who might influence towards a
better state of things, and governments, who have
power sufficient, do not take into account this feature
of humanity. Governments do not regard men as
immortals, nor does society ; but we, who have God's
Word and believe it, cannot regard them as much
else. Of what value is the soul of yon dusky little
one ? Of what value is the soul of your own child,
whom you think upon as the apple of your eye, and
for whom you would willingly give your life ? You
see its soul sometimes look at you through its pretty
blue eyes as your little one peeps into your face in

302 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the quiet of eventide, and you cannot keep your
thought from its immortality. How tender your
heart grows ! How you pray God for it, that, above
all, the soul of your little one may be saved ! How
precious that immortal life is to you ! And you can
easily, from your position as mother or father of such
a child, get upon the margin of the thought ; how
precious must such a soul be to God its Maker ! I
would have you look from your own child to the
little Indian maiden as to just this particular of which
I am now speaking. The soul in the black skin is
just as precious in God's sight as that within your
own beautiful child. They are alike immortal. They
came alike by the same creative breath. Does God
love the bright little maiden by your side ? He loves
that other little one just as much. Do you fancy the
Spirit's ministry in loving tenderness to be your
child's prerogative ? Oh, no. The Spirit broods in
yearning tenderness over that other little one just as
much. Oh, how precious your little one is to the
blessed Saviour who took just such in His arms and
blessed them. Not more precious, father, mother, to
the blessed Redeemer, than the soul of the filthy
little one out there in' Teluguland. Does this lead
you in any wise to a higher thought in regard to
God's value of this little maiden's soul ? A little,
perhaps ; but this consideration will surely lift you
higher. Of what value that soul ? Of what value
the only begotten Son in presence of the Father ?
God sent His Son out of the heavens that He might
rescue that soul. Of what value to the Father the
comfort and happiness of the Son, the well Beloved ?

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 303
God subjected the Lord Christ to blows and insults,
to hunger and wretchedness, to a life of wandering
and homelessness, to horrid persecutions and a death
of shame, that that dusky little one might live. God
has held His omnipotent justice on the leash for six
thousand years, that that soul might not die but live.
The choir of heaven came down to earth and chanted
the glad tidings, the love-song of God, for that poor
soul. You can hold it in your thought, can you not,
that all this wonderful display of divine pity and
love could be, perhaps, for your own little maiden.
Look beyond yourself, for this hour, I beseech you,
and see all this done for the little one of whom I am
now speaking. Such is God's estimate of the value
of this little one's soul.
But you see further ; that soul is lost. The soul
whom God loves, and for whom He has made all this
sacrifice, has upon it the mark of eternal death ! It
is all black with sin stains. Thus early in life there
is not the faintest trace of any good. Poor little one.
There she is in squalor and wretchedness ; hopeless
as to this life, and doomed, as an immortal must be
who knows not God, to lift up her eyes forever in the
torment of hell. You whose heart would be pierced
through with the bitterest sorrow if you knew this
fate impending over your own dear little one, don't
look coldly, I beseech you, upon the doomed child I
show you to-day, actually awaiting this fate. The
heart of your Saviour is greatly moved, I assure you.
Let yours also be stirred. We cannot, I know, form
any proper estimate of the worth of a soul ; yet, per
haps, if we look at it as individual, and consider that

304 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
for the salvation of just one, and that one, as we call
it, the debased and worthless, God must thrust His
beloved One out from the heavens, the Son of God
must die on Calvary, heaven, earth and hell must
undergo their deepest throe, we perhaps may know
enough to view a soul as a sacred, priceless thing, and
we perhaps may be moved to stand appalled before
it. All this must be done for this poor dusky maiden,
even though no other ever lived upon the earth. So
now, surely it cannot be with indifference that we
realize the fact that there is to-day in India a soul for
whom Christ died, which soul is condemned to the
blackness of darkness forever.
II. Now, looking at the text we may be permitted
to indulge our imagination somewhat in the line of
the inquiry, What if the little Hebrew maid had been
ignorant of God and had no knowledge of the counsels
of His law ? The grand results which she achieved
by her fidelity would never have come to pass. She
would rather most certainly have sunken to the level
of the conditions of Syrian bondage, and have become
a participator in the rites and abominations of idolatry.
Such would certainly have been her career. We need
not draw upon our imagination to predict the sure
fate of the maiden of whom we are now speaking.
She was born in heathenism, and must go on her
course amenable, at every stage of her life, to the
horrors imposed by her birthright. I need not say
much in tracing her history to you who have so often
been impressed with the wretchedness of woman's life
in India. What child-marriage may mean and its
attendant debasements are to be her lot. What

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 305
Indian widowhood may mean and all the desolation
of its servitude is the possible future before her. In
any case there is the servitude incumbent on woman
hood : the life of a beast of burden, or of a soulless
toy. Independence must be early crushed out of her
life. She must have no opinion, to say nothing of
conviction. Her lot in life is to know the wishes of
her lord—her husband — and to do them ; or to receive
his abuse in case of failure. There will never be hope
in her life. No light from eternity can ever cheer her
dark pathway. As she grows older, and her immortal
nature asserts its craving for spiritual food, she will
try to satisfy it by her devotion to her idols or her
priests. Her tears will flow, and her heart will bleed,
but there will be no hope. Poor creature, she will do
her best to struggle against the hardships of her ap
pointed lot ; but it must be a cheerless struggle, having
no God in the world and without hope. And during
this career she will train her sons and daughters as
she has been trained — her sons to carry on such
treatment as she has received, and her daughters to
submit to the fate which has characterized her life.
She has no good thing to teach to those who come
within her influence ; and from God's standpoint her
life must be only evil continually. And the day will
come when her weary limbs must be gathered up in
death, and she will pass into the eternity of the lost.
Such must be her history. Oh, I wish that the sad
story, though familiar to you all, might impress you as
it never yet has done. See that bright-eyed maiden
as she stands before you to-day. I have told you her
history, friends, and have pointed out to you her
eternal doom.
30

306 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
And the other side of the picture. Looking at the
text again, there is upon its face the glorious possi
bility of the value of one young life, if that life but
knows God and is true to His counsels. The Hebrew
maid was a preacher of righteousness in a dark land,
and her sermon, preached so long ago, has ever since
been winning souls to Jesus Christ. Its immediate
effect was the conversion of him who stood next to
the King, and the introduction of the services of the
true God among a heathen people. Its ulterior effects,
who can trace ? Who has not been touched by the
wonderful scene of the Prince of Syria dipping himself
in Jordan and thereby becoming clean of his impurity?
What minister of God since that day has not preached
his sermon with that scene as his text ? What portion
of God's Word has been more prolific in the fruits of
salvation than just this ? And it has sprung, all of it,
indirectly at least, from the fidelity of one maiden
heart, brought to the knowledge of the true God.
As we turn from that one who lived so long ago in
the land of Syria to this one who is living to-day in
India, we are unable to see any reason why the grand
achievement of the one life should not be reproduced
in, and through, the life of the other. What was
possible in the one case is possible in the other, other
things being equal. The knowledge of the true God
and fidelity to His counsel, and this alone, is the factor
required. This being brought within the reach of the
maiden of whom we now speak, according to facts
which we know, and the analogy just given, what
might not be the career and the results of her life ?
Oh, that that immortal soul could be brought to lay

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 307
hold on eternal life ! If she could only know God as
her Hebrew sister knew Him ! If knowing Him
God's grace should so abound in her that her life
would ever shine in fidelity to her God, what might
not result ! See her among her companions, a faith
ful witness to the power of Christ in her. See her as
years move on in her family, moving there, and in
fluencing there, as one over whom grace reigns — her
children brought to Christ, who in their turn, as she
has been, become preachers of the Word — God's
Word her companion, God's Spirit her guide, Christ
within her — her life, throughout, a light shining in a
dark place. I venture the opinion, although speaking
in the presence of those who know this problem far
better than I do, that right here we have touched the
heart of the commission business of the Church .of
God. Early Christianity in heathen lands is of as
great value as in Christian lands. The influence of a
godly woman in heathen lands is the same factor in
the progress of Christianity as here. Christianity in
the home is the hope of the nation ; and the home
pervaded, in thought and act and ministry, by the
light of Christ's Gospel, depends upon the early con
version of the maidens. To my thinking, right here
is the key of the problem.
And now, there she stands before you, that dark-
skinned maiden, lost in the darkness of her supersti
tion and idolatry, to be a curse instead of a blessing
to those who come within reach of her influence ; her
body even to cower in abject slavery ; her bright mind
to be ever more and more debased, as her years
increase ; her moral nature to go on from the corrup-

308 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
tion which is her birthright, to the pollution which
must grow upon her through constant intercourse
with the abominations surrounding her ; and her soul
to go down to the blackness of hell ! Lost in the
darkness is she, yet containing in herself the possibili
ties of so much towards the shining of the light, so
much towards the lifting up of those bound down in
Satan's curse, so much towards the glory of the
precious name ! Isn't it pitiful ? I see her standing
there now, and perchance realizing somewhat of her
desolation, and catching a glimpse, perhaps, of some
what of the light possible. Her hands are stretched
out towards us ; her cheeks are tear-stained, and it is
her voice I hear, " Come over and help me ! "
III. And now what is to be done? Well, what are
the life-boat men to do upon the coast of England ?
They are provided with a magnificent service. Every
station is complete in its appliances — boats, the finest
that science can design or art construct, ropes, rockets,
preservers. Nothing is wanting. Men are secured ;
men of the right stuff, brave fellows, hardy fellows ;
men who have a love for the dangers of the deep ;
men who are in their element when the sea is hissing,
and the waves, splitting on the rocks, are sending the
spray skyward. See the coxswain as with his glass
he scans the horizon ; see the crew eagerly intent
upon his report. What if he says, " An Atlantic liner
yonder with distress flying from the mast-head,"
having on board perhaps a thousand souls ! Or what
if he reports that away yonder upon a floating spar
he sees a solitary distressed one ! What matters it
though a thousand or one. These men don't count

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 3O9
service by numbers ! One soul in danger will thrill
them just as a thousand will ! What they glory in is
their work, and, at sight of that one man upon the
broken spar, every man springs to his place ; every
muscle toughens ; every heart leaps wildly in the
abandon of hope to reach that one man before he
perishes. And they will reach him or die in the
attempt. What now is to be done for the poor lost Indian
maiden ? See her there ! What sorrow is like unto
her sorrow? Not her poor body only is perishing,
but she is an immortal and sinking, fast sinking to
the depths of hell ! Why should she perish ? All
Christendom is well equipped for the service of
rescue ! God Almighty has provided the equipment.
His rescue stations are planted thickly all along the
line of His much favored lands. Everything that
Almighty wisdom could devise, has been furnished.
Here is the Gospel, designed of God, and in all par
ticulars adequate for the service. Here is the Spirit
of God ever present with the word of truth to make
it effective ; and here are men, men and women, of
the. right stuff, called of God specially for this work.
They have God's love dwelling in them, and God's
Spirit, whose business it is to incite them to bravery
and enkindle their courage. Here are men and
women, who if they but yield to their heaven-given
impulses, cannot look out over the dreary waste and
see a fellow-creature sink into hell without springing
to their God-given rescue work. Look at it. God has
put money into the hands of the Christian Church.
What for? If it be not to enable the Church the

3IO LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
better to go about its commissioned business, I know
not what for. God has given vast learning to the
Christian Church. What for ? If it be not for the
purpose of training men and women the better to go
about its commissioned business, I know not what
for. God for eighteen centuries has kept knocking
at the door of the Christian Church, and proclaiming
with the trumpet voice of His herald, Service, service!
Work, work ! Labor, labor ! I know not what for,
if not for this business of rescue. God's Church is
fully equipped : God's Church has the all-command
ing and penetrating Spirit : God's Church is urged on
by the bayonet-pricks of the commission, if the love
of Christ has not sufficient constraining force. The
equipment is in every way complete. Why, then, is
the world not brought to Christ ?
Hear you yon booming over the waters ? Some
poor ship is battling with the billows. See you the
rocket's red glare ? It is the last hope of a despairing
crew to attract attention from the shore, but it is all
in vain. The life-boat men are off duty to-night.
They are celebrating some festive event in the hall
overhead ; and, as the wine and song and jest go
round and the merry feet of the dancers, the signal-
gun and rocket give their death-warning to the winds.
Impossible, you say. Life-boat men are never off
duty. Never a gun is fired or the murky sky lit with
the rocket's glare, but every man is at his post and
bends to his oar with a will. Impossible, then. So
let it be. Would to God that we could say impossible
likewise in the case of the Church of God ! Alas,
alas ! the Church is so often off duty. Alas, alas ! the

THE CHILD FACTOR IN MISSIONS. 31I
Church has so many festal occasions to observe that
the awful signals proclaiming the knell of a soul are
often never heard or thought of. Off duty, and
commissioned of God to watch ! Off duty, and the
Church of God the only agency under heaven that
God has set for rescue purpose ! Off duty, and
souls are perishing for whom there is no other help !
God pity us ; ' we have lighted upon the true reason
why the world has not been brought to Christ.
But when we talk of the Church of God we are in
the realm of the vague and indefinite, just as when we
talk of the millions whom it is called upon to rescue.
Let us get back to the definite and tangible, and talk
of this church and this one lost soul. Here are we,
commissioned of God, the guardsmen of human souls.
God has given us His word, His command and His
Spirit. God has placed within each of us a longing
desire to do efficient service, and a love for perishing
souls. He has done all this or we have not known
the power of the Spirit of God. God has given us
money in abundance. Look into the comforts of our
homes, and see. He has given it to us for this one
purpose. Look into His Word, and see. He has
given us learning and intelligence sufficient. Look
into our college, and see. Now hear the solitary
wailing of that Indian maiden, " Come over and help
me ! " It comes across the waters to this church,
not to Christendom. If we have ears to hear, it is
the voice of God. Listen ! and it means this com
pany of people to the rescue, or the doom of an
immortal soul ! Shall we not now put spirit and zeal
and heart into the response, " Ready, aye, ready," and
give our lives to the saving of that one soul ?

312 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Do you catch the thought, brethren, that the wealth,
and the learning, and the consecrated zeal of the
world would be well expended could that little one
be saved ? Do you catch the thought, brethren, that
every dollar so far collected by every missionary
society would be well expended, could that dusky
little one be brought to Christ ? Do you catch the
thought, brethren, that Christ became bankrupt, that
He did all He could for the salvation of that little
black girl ? And, may I not say it, now her fate de
pends upon you ; and shall it ever be that while the
signal of distress comes wrung from the despairing
heart of that perishing little one, this people are found
off duty ? God forbid. A men.

GOD'S WORKMANSHIP.*
" For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them." — Eph. ii. 10.
I. This passage of Scripture speaks to us first about
GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. In order to understand his
thought we must put ourselves in the apostle's
environment. Throughout the chapter he is con
templating the progress of the Christian from the
debasements of sin to the ecstasy of glory. And his
eye resting upon, and enraptured with, the finished
work of God in the man who is now purified from all
dross, and who is clothed in the righteousness of
Christ, the praise of his heart is not to be restrained.
" We are His workmanship " are the words of one
who is rejoicing in a great benefit received, and, at
the same time, sounding the praises of his benefactor.
A man restored to health, says of his physician, " I
am his workmanship." A magnificent coronet, ex
hibited in a jeweller's showcase, says of its manufac
turer, " I am his workmanship." The ingenious and
delicate piece of mechanism which has brought ease
and comfort to the world's weary workers, says of its
world-famous inventor, " I am his workmanship."
The work gives the praise and glory to the workman.
As field and meadow, sun and stars, tiny rill and
* Baccalaureate Sermon before McMaster University, May, 1895.
3'3

314 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
great ocean say of their Creator, each with its own
voice, "The Hand that made us is divine"; so the
sinner who is saved by grace, and upon whom this
grace has the more abounded, disclaims all part in so
glorious a transformation, and ascribes the grace and
the fashion of it, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto Thy name be the glory." "We are His
workmanship." We can best get the Apostle's setting
of this first thought, if we can review with him the
material out of which this transformation has been
made. We see the finished work — the most splendid
creation of God — the sinner saved by grace. There
he stands, fixed upon the Word of God, as the most
stupendous and best-beloved work of the Almighty.
This language is not too strong, is it ? He is more
brilliant than the sun, for he reflects the glory of the
Father's image. He is more beautiful than the moon,
for he is robed in the garments of Him who is alto
gether lovely. He is more enduring than this round
earth, for when the world shall pass away, and the
glory of it, he who doeth the will of God shall
abide forever. The glory of God's workmanship will
appear if we look for a little at —
I. The material out of which it was fashioned. —
We need not do any guesswork as to this material.
We need not test and try to discover its composition.
The apostle knew all about it, and he has put it
down for us in white and black. See the description.
Unpromising material, is it not? "You hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein in time past ye walked according to the
course of this world, according to the Prince of the

god's workmanship. 315
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience ; among whom also we all
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath even as
others." " We were dead in sins." That is the
description of the material. Now we must be im
pressed with this description before we can appreciate
what follows in the text. Dead : that means useless.
The splendid endowments of God, all gone awreck.
The mind that was created to think God's thoughts,
all wrested and incapable. The heart that was
fashioned to be God's abiding place, all foul with the
corruption of sin. The soul that was created in the
image of God, unresponsive to any touch of the Spirit.
Dead : that means cumbering the ground. There is
no place for dead things upon the earth. They are
in the way wherever they may be found. "Cut it
down, why cumbereth it the ground ? " is said of the
tree. Bury it, is said of all flesh out of which the life
has gone. We were in God's way, we were hindering
His work, the progress of His cause was being stayed
by our dead weight, or by the many active agencies
of our corrupting and opposing sin. Dead : that
means offensive. God is pure, and sin is foul. God's
way is truth, and sin is a lie. God's way is light, and
sin is darkness. " Ye are an offence unto me," was
said not only of Peter. Dead as the iron is dead
which is wrapped up in its ore and laid in the bowels
of the earth. Dead as the coal is dead, which, black
and ugly, runs its seams far into the heart of the
world and lies for the ages unseen and imprisoned

316 LIFE OF E. W; DADSON.
with the weight of the oceans or the mountains upon
it. Dead as the gold is dead, which is fused into the
composition of the great rocks and hidden away from
the common gaze of men. Dead as the diamond is
dead, which the adventurer kicks with his foot in
South Africa, in the highway which runs through the
native village, or which the children are tossing to
each other as they sit in the dust at their play. These
are all dead and useless things. No good in the
commerce and manufactures of men, bearing no good
cheer or gladness to anybody. Hidden, and if dis
closed, unsightly. So once were we dead. In all
God's universe, so far as bearing aid to anyone, so far
as fulfilling the purpose of our creation, so far as
glorifying the Father in heaven is concerned, we were
as dead men. " Dead in trespasses and sin." Such
material only had God out of which to fashion His
most glorious work. We ought not to hurry over
this thought. No man can appreciate God's good
work until he first sees the material out of which it
was made. No man can long for the transforming
touch of God until he sees himself the dead sinner
which he really is. Now we shall the more appreciate
God's workmanship if we view, with the apostle,
God's next step of progress in His work. Here it is.
2. Dead material was made alive. — " You who were
dead in sin hath he quickened." Here is not only
the miraculous but the chief miracle of God. It
required omnipotent power to bring this stupendous
world into being out of nothingness ; but, even so,
the task were greater to new create it out of material,
that had gone awreck, or that had become lost. The

god's workmanship. 317
woodsman can the more easily build his hut, which
the overflowing stream has swept away, by going at
work upon the standing trees close by him, than by
chasing his wreckage down the stream and bringing
it, bit by bit, with laborious toil, back to the place
from which it started. Man was lost, you see, and
his Maker had to find him. His powers of mind and
soul were broken, befouled and dissipated, and God
had to recall them from their wandering, cleanse them
and mend them. It might be comparatively easy to
speak into existence new-created life, but it was
another matter to make this dead thing live. Well,
" You hath he quickened." There is assurance that
this miracle has been performed.
Made alive. Now that means that man has been
put in right relationship toward God. The faculties
of his mind have come back home again. Those
dissipated powers have been recalled. The mind
that was enmity has now thrown down its arms. The
faculties of his soul have come up worshipful out of
their degradation. They have been cleansed by
divine grace, purified, and now made meet for the
Master's use. Lost capacity, lost desire, lost appre
ciation, and lost love, have been found and brought
back. And the whole man has again been set in
order before his God. And the Spirit of God brood
ing over him, thus reclaimed, warms into life that
thing that was dead, so that the man arises and walks
in newness of life.
He is like the dead iron that has been made alive.
For may not iron be so called after it has been taken
from a mine, a dead, shapeless mass, and passed

318 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
through the blast furnace, and gone its course through
the foundry and the machine shop ; and there stands
now that perfection of mechanical skill, ingenuity
and beauty ? See its motion — so smooth, so regular,
so exact. See its beauty — not a speck, nor a flaw, nor
any such thing. See its power — it sets in operation
the vast system of wheels and belts and machines ;
or it carries its long train of passengers or freight
over thousands of miles, from coast to coast ; or it
sends the huge steamship from continent to continent,
plowing the trackless bosom of oceans. So is the
sinner saved by grace. Has he not beauty? In
God's eye, I mean, who sees upon him now the
radiant features of His Son. Has he not power ? He
has the power of Abraham, to stay the fire of God ;
and the power of Jacob, to wrestle with God and
prevail ; and the power of Elijah, to bring earthward
the Almighty's providences. I sometimes cease to
wonder that the Church of Rome is fascinated by its
doctrine of the intercession of saints, when I remem
ber what one faithful man is able to bring from the
throne. And has he not influence ? Is he not set in
the church and ordained of God that his voice may
go out to the ends of the earth, and that he may
bring the nations to see the salvation of our God ?
He is like the dead coal that has been made alive.
Men have taken it, dead and ugly, from its deep
hiding-place, and they have sent it through the earth
on its mission of warmth-bearing and light-giving.
We may call coal alive, may we not, when we see its
embers glowing upon the world's hearths, giving the
genial atmosphere to the palaces of the wealthy, and

god's workmanship. 319
making tolerable the chill air where the poverty-
stricken huddle around their solitary comfort ; or
when we consider that it prepares the food for the
millions of the inhabitants of the earth ? We may
call coal alive, too, may we not, when we regard it as
the power which gives light to all the dark places of
earth? By its aid the great factory may carry its
enterprise far into the night ; the student may pursue
his task after the sun has gone to rest ; the midnight
flush upon the pale invalid's cheek may be noted ;
the glare of the great danger signals may warn of
hidden destruction ; in short, half the world's work
and comfort may be made possible. Is it not very
much so when we look upon those " who were dead,
whom he hath quickened " ? The sinner saved by
grace is appointed now to go upon a mission of love
and light. " A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another." " Love is the fulfilling of
the law." " See then that ye love one another." And
that dead, useless sinner is transformed into the
minister of love. He is commissioned with the glad
tidings, and he is told to carry the sweetness and
beauty of his message to every creature. And he has
gone about his ministry with a glad heart, and to-day
where is the land that has not been trodden by his
footsteps ? He has freely entered the abodes of sin,
and with the touch of Christ's love he has lifted up
the fallen. He has gone where men have been set at
variance against each other, and he has united their
hands in friendship. He has gone where the earth
has been filled with the habitations of cruelty, and
for the love he bore the perishing, he has toiled

320 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
amidst all hardships until there have resulted peace
and good-will among men. The genial warmth of
the constraining love of Christ has carried joy and
gladness wherever it has been received. And the
sinner, saved by grace, has been used by God as the
almoner of this joy. And then, has not this dead man,
made alive, been ordained of God to be His light-
bearer ? Has He not named them, if not Lucifer in
the good meaning of that term, at least Christopher ?
" Ye are the lights of the world." " Ye are a city set
upon a hill, whose light cannot be hid." "Let your
light so shine that others may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." And
to redeemed men is granted the privilege of carrying
light into the darkness and the Christ to joyless
souls. So that all over the earth now the busy
torches of God are shining at their Master's bidding,
" binding up the broken hearted," " giving deliverance
to the captive," " preaching the acceptable year of the
Lord," " ministering to the widow and the fatherless " ;
so that now, all over the earth, the beacon lights are
blazing, warning of danger, and ruin, and the " wrath
of God " ; so that now, all over the earth, the lower
lights are burning, indicating the sure passage into
the safe harbor of God.
And the man dead, who has come to life in Jesus
Christ, is like the dead gold which has been made to
live, or the dead diamond whose utility and value
have been discovered. For surely the figure is not
inapt to distinguish between the gold hidden in the
mine or ore, or the gold battered, tarnished and
befouled, which the goldsmith has purchased in the

GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. 32 1
form of ruined trinkets, or the diamond through
whose abraded surface one can just catch a suspicion
of the hidden glory — to distinguish between these, I
say, and that magnificent coronet, gold-bound and
bejewelled, which has been the chief work of the
goldsmith's art. See it gleaming there within its
casket, and bright with its myriad facets. If in the
one position it may be called dead, surely now it may
be called alive. So it is with the sinner saved by
grace. God brought him up from the horrible pit
and the miry clay. All his faculties were dirt-
begrimed and befouled — sad, broken, soiled trinkets,
representing the wealth of glory that had departed.
And God broke him up and put him into His
crucible, and behold there came out this, which shall
shine as the stars forever, and in which even God's
all-piercing eye, looking upon it, can discover neither
spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing. God's jewel.
So He calls it. And as iron and coal, and gold and
diamond, are touched into another life by the genius
of man, so poor, dead sinners are brought out of the
corruption of their prison-house, the shackles and
grave-clothes of their death are taken away, and,
receiving the touch of the Divine Spirit, they waken
into newness of life and go on their way until the end
shall come, giving power and energy in the kingdom
of God, carrying the light and the Christ to the ends
of the earth, and showing the beauty of the Lord
wherever their lot may be cast.
But we have viewed God's workmanship only on
two sides as yet. There remains at least another,
which we must not fail to observe. The apostle

322 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
reveals God's work in another state of progress, when
he shows us not only dead sinners made alive, but
also —
3. Dead Sinners Exalted. — Resurrection from the
dead is a marvellous thing. Resurrection unto new
ness and beauty and activity of life, is a still more
marvellous thing. But now the Apostle shows us a
greater wonder — sinners, saved by grace, being
" raised up together and made to sit in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." The statement has to do with
present experience, and it is also prophetic. It is the
present experience of those who have fellowship with
Jesus Christ, and are fellow-laborers with Him in His
great work of bringing a lost world to God. A seat
in the heavenlies with Christ is the joyous and refresh
ing privilege of those who, with Him, have been raised
from the dead. The business given us to do is not
all bright, cheery, happy. The discouragements are
many, the opposition is determined. There frequently
comes weariness over heart and mind, and the soul
often grows tired in the service. It will ever be with
us as it was with the Master. There will be need of
rest and fellowship and the intimacy of love. So the
disciples found it, and the blessed Saviour took them
apart into the mountain, and there, in that loving
intimacy, He taught them of himself and of His
glory — surrounding them with the halo of His pre
vailing prayer when their faith needed strengthening ;
giving them a glance into His glory when their hope
needed brightening, being transfigured before them ;
or, calling them together at the sacred feast, He
revealed to them the mystery of the Comforter, and

GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. 323
strengthened their hearts for the world's encounter by
the loving tenderness of His heart-felt sympathy
Even while they were yet on the earth they fre
quently sat with Him in the heavenlies. And just
that thing is the privilege of God's people to-day.
O, what is it to be a companion of the King ! O,
what is it to sit in this close intimacy with Jesus
Christ ! O, what is it, when weary and worn and sad,
with the work and worry and disappointments of the
service, to be given the privilege of resting ourselves
in His presence, of being surrounded with the atmos
phere of His prayer, of catching the enraptured
vision of His glory ! That is the heavenly place up
to which you and I have often been led, and we know
something about the refreshing of soul which has at
such times been our experience. But then the honor
and the exaltation of it ! A sinner saved by grace,
to thus sit in intimacy with his Lord !
And the words are prophetic, also, for John saw
them hard by the throne of God, in the chiefest circle
of heaven's glory. And one of the elders asked him,
saying, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and
whence came they ? " And John said to him, you
remember, " Sir, thou knowest." And the elder said :
" These are they who have come out of the great tribu
lation, and have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they
before the throne of God, and serve Him day and
night in His temple. And He that sitteth on the
throne shall dwell among them, and they shall hunger
no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the
sun light on them nor any heat, for the Lamb which

324 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall
lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." It is the
prophecy of the exaltation to which he shall finally
ascend, who was that poor dead sinner, saved by
God's grace. So much for the workmanship of God,
the sinner saved by grace whose progress, with the
apostle, we have traced from the mouth of hell to
the gate of glory. And now —
II. This passage of Scripture speaks to us of God's
WORKSHOP. I do not know that the word I use is
skilfully chosen, or that it has anything in the way of
elegance to recommend it. I choose it to fasten the
mind upon the place in which God's workmanship
was perfected. We call that the workshop where the
material and workman meet together. "We were
created in Christ Jesus," the text says. In Him the
lost was found, the ruined was restored, the corruption
was cleansed, the poor, lost sinner was changed from
being a child of the devil into being a child of God.
All this took place in Christ, that is to say, we were
in Him. He represented us during all the process
and progress of the work of restoration. Of course,
this doctrine of the representative Christ is too big for
us. We contemplate the manger scene, and are at a
loss to understand how the baby Christ represents
the weakness and helplessness of all humanity. We
contemplate the life of probity and filial obedience
during the journey of thirty years, and we do not
know how that stainless walk should represent the
integrity of the world. We contemplate the three
and a half years of His latter ministry, in which the

GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. 325
t
Son of man subjected himself to toil, hardship,
suffering and death, and we are at a loss to see how
in this fashion " the iniquity of all was laid upon
him." So far as we can see, here was a common
place Galilean peasant, a good man and upright, it is
true, wise also and devoted. Yet we cannot under
stand how the wealth of the prophecies rested upon
Him. But if we believe God's Word, and we do, we,
sinful men, were in Christ during all the progress of
His painful and humiliating ministry. His subjection
under the law was our subjection under the law.
His obedient life was the offset to our disobedience.
His fidelity unto death was because of our faithless
ness. By the nails, and spear, and thorns, God put
Him to grief and we were in Him, and at that awful
hour when He was forsaken by His God, it was God's
face turned away from our sin, which had thus cursed
the life of the only begotten Son. So in Him was
obedience reckoned unto us, and so in Him was there
expiation for our guilt. But not only so, this also ;
on the morning of the third day, when He rose
triumphant, and ascended, spotless Son of God, to the
bosom of the Father, we were in Him brought up to
the blessedness and light of God's glory. It is to us
incomprehensible. I say, nevertheless, so it was. As
in the workshop the rough material is cut, and planed,
and fashioned, and polished, so we in Christ were
cleansed and purified, straightened, mended, polished
and fitted for the place He has prepared for those
who love Him. But the thought that should move
our hearts and touch the life with pity, is that all the
pain and suffering, all the sorrow and agony, all the

326 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
desolation and abandonment which His preparation of
the material involved, was the exquisite torture of
Him who was our substitute, and the pain of it, and
the shame of it, we escaped.
But see you now not only the material of the work
shop ; look also at the workman. " God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, and not
imputing their trespasses unto them." Again we
cannot comprehend it, of course, but in the entire
reclamation of lost sinners God was present and made
bare His mighty arm. We talk of Christ, and we talk
of the Spirit, in connection with the great work of
salvation, and we do well, for so God talks, but we
must never obscure the fact that " God so loved the
world " ; that the Almighty Father was at the back
of it all ; that it was His heart that pitied ; that it
was His strong right arm that brought salvation; and
all this, when there was no eye to pity and no arm to
save. God was in Christ, the great Master-workman,
creating us anew ; making us, whose beauty had
faded, whose utility had vanished and whose glory
had departed — making us again to be well pleasing
in His sight. " God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself." And here see the pity of it —
Christ and we were so blended in one, so complete
was the union, that He became bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh. So complete was the union that,
in fashioning us to this reconciliation, every stroke of
mallet and chisel, saw, plane, and hammer, went into
the life of the Son of God. " He bore our griefs ;
He carried our sorrows ; He was oppressed ; He was
afflicted ; He was cut off out of the land of the living."

GOD*S WORKMANSHIP. 327
So we have seen God's workmanship, and so we have
opened the door and looked upon His workshop.
And now —
III. This passage of Scripture speaks to us of THE
PURPOSE OF God's work. All the process and
the progress of the work which we have had
under review according to the text was for a
definite purpose. " Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works." God's purpose in saving us was not
salvation merely— not merely that we might have
the spiritual nature renovated and be so purified
for our final abode. It were a blunder to rest
upon that notion. The matter is put otherwise in
these words " Created unto good works." The
coal under the mountain and the iron distributed
through the rocks, the gold hidden away in the earth
and the diamond, were created by God not to abide
forever hidden and useless. With their composition
so packed with wealth of service to man, they were
created rather " unto good work." And so the text
brings into prominence the fact that God has stamped
upon all His workmanship, " Manufactured for good
work." And there is great need that this feature
in the mind of God be abundantly proclaimed, for
His children have not yet caught the idea that they
have been new-created for service. Oh, the mass of
useless Christian lives ! Satisfied with salvation and
not caring to serve, and all having upon them the
handiwork of God and the stamp of His name !
Created unto good work ! So is that beautiful piece
of mechanism there — an engine, say. It's all cleaned
and bright and polished, but it won't work ; and the

328 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
wheels and machines of the great factory are still,-
because it won't work. You read upon it the name of
the manufacturer, and say, " It does not reflect much
credit upon its maker." And so of coal that won't
burn, and diamonds that won't shine. This is the
practical part of the text : God's work in the world
demands service. God has made for Himself those
who are fitted to serve; and He has stamped every one
of them with His name, and placed them where they
can set in motion the forces of His kingdom and
bring spiritual things to pass. Each man saved by
grace is appointed by God to be a power in His
kingdom ; and we are surrounded by the great cloud
of witnesses. Christ and the angels, and the saints
and the martyrs look on ; evil men and the bad
spirits, the world, the flesh and the devil, look on.
And if the power, which the Christian man is, does its
work, how great the joy among the redeemed ; but if
the power stops, won't go, breaks down, hear the
laughter of those upon the one hand, and the sighs of
those upon the other. Oh, that the cloud of witnesses
when they gaze may find us engaged in good work !
We come now to the last point of the text, which
speaks to us about —
IV. God's work being all prepared. We are
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which good
works are before prepared by God for us to walk in.
We see here that God does not leave every man to
be a law unto himself. He is not converted and then
allowed to do just as he pleases, or to do nothing, as
suits him best. The way in which he walks is laid
down for him ; the work which he is to perform is

GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. 329
mapped out for him ; the life that he is to live is be
forehand prepared for him ; the thoughts that he is to
think are already fixed for him. The converted heart
and the Christian walk are the design of the one
mind, and are part and parcel of the same work.
Regeneration is God's work ; and the straight and
narrow way upon which the regenerated are to go is
God's work also ; and the one is the complement of
the other — one work ! The engine which was built
in the Grand Trunk workshops and the steel rails
which stretch from here to Montreal were designed
and completed by the one company to achieve the
one purpose. The rail is the complement of the
engine ; either, without the other, would be useless.
The converted heart and the Christian life go to
gether ; each, without the other, is useless. The
Christian life has been prepared for the soul who was
created unto good works, to the end that the good
works might be developed and be. manifested. And
as to this Christian life that has been prepared, I can
not, of course, particularize. Suffice it to say that
there are along that narrow way God's Church, God's
ordinances, God's doctrine, fellowship with God's
people, which has been ordained ; the separation
from the world, the teaching to obey all things, the
absolute fidelity to God and His Word. And in
regard to walking upon that way, Christ is set for our
example. We are to " lay aside every weight and
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with
patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus.
the Captain and Finisher of our faith." The good
works of the text lie in the direction here indicated :

330 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
the Christian man is to go upon the track laid down
for him ; he is to stop at the stations God has marked
out for him ; any other course must result in wreck
and disaster to his Christian life, and ruin to those
who are following in the wake of his influence. God
has lifted up a poor, lost sinner ; He has crowned him
with immortal glory and honor ; He has richly en
dowed him for the good work of His kingdom ; He
has specified to him and prepared the work that He
wishes him to accomplish. Now may God grant that
Christian men go about their business. This finishes
the text. It is our duty now to give it its special
application to the circumstances under which we are
met to-night.
P.S. — The application is omitted to save space, since his educational
views are given more fully in the following address. — [Ed.]

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS.*
I. Why McMaster University Exists. — Mc
Master University occupies a unique position among
colleges, as Baptists hold a unique position among
the Christian denominations. Its schools are in
tensely Biblical and religious ; and they are the
schools of a people who are in the forefront of those
who demand for the people purely secular schools,
having nothing whatever to do with any sort of relig
ious or Biblical training. This seeming paradox is
to be explained by the conception which Baptists
have of the twofold position and responsibility of
every Christian man. He is at once a citizen and a
churchman. He has duties absolute and imperative
upon either hand. He is bound to consider the edu
cational problem of the State, and in that considera
tion his view must be as broad as the citizenship of
the State. His thought must be upon illiteracy, and
he must judge of how active a factor that is in the
insubordination and crime which curse any country.
He must have his thought upon the elevation made
possible by the diffusion of education, and must
consider that there is always a barrier to progress
beyond a certain circumscribed limit, if there be any
bar to literacy. And so he advocates, in all his
* Delivered at the Convention in Brantford in 1892.
331

332 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
circles of citizenship, education — the best, the most
complete, and the most universal. His hand is
always raised for the expenditure of public moneys
for educational purposes ; and he never grumbles
when he must give from his own pocket the tax which
his advocacy necessitates. But as a citizen he is
bound to consider the rights of those who have citizen
ship with him. The agnostic, the infidel, the religionist
of other creed, dwell by his side and are fellow-citizens
of equal consideration with himself. He must advo
cate no burden for them which he would repudiate
should they advocate it for him. He cannot shirk
responsibility in State education, but his responsibility
ceases with the limit of the ground touched by his
citizenship. Citizenship does not enter the realm of
conscience, nor has it anything to do with the inter
pretation of the law of God. " Conscience is free."
" Freedom to worship God," at this day, surely, needs
no special plea to preserve it inviolate from the touch
of parliaments. So the Christian citizen has responsi
bility in connection with State education which he
cannot set aside, and that responsibility ceases with
what we call secular education.
But he has his duty and responsibility as a church
man also. As a churchman he enters the realm of
conscience, and dwells in the thought of God ; and
here, not by coercion, not by anything savoring of the
secular arm, but by free choice, as his mind shall be
opened by the thought of God. Secular education is,
of necessity, compulsory. The education for which
the churchman is responsible is of an entirely different
character. In it he is to keep his conscience void of

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS. 333
offence towards God, as in the former case he is to
see to it that other consciences are kept void of offence.
So while in the one case he is bound to educate for
the well-being of the State, in the other he is bound
to educate for the well-being of that kingdom which
is not of this world. As a churchman he is bound to
deal with the matters of education which are entirely
without the province of tke State. He is bound to
exhort, instruct, teach in spiritual things, according
as God has revealed His law and will to him. If he
be alive to his responsibility in this matter, he will be
earnestly solicitous that all who reach his influence
shall, so far as he may be able, get the thought of
God. He will begin his work in his family. As a
churchman he will be high priest there. He will see
to it that the Gospel of God's grace is provided for
all for whom he is responsible. God's own institu
tions, the sabbath, the sanctuary, etc., will be used
to the utmost towards this end. He personally will
see to it that every channel of God's grace is set wide
open, that spiritual influences may flow through in
rich blessing. To this end he provides the stated
service around the home altar, and he is conscientious
in his ministry to those of his own house. To this
end he lifts up his eyes and beholds the fields white
unto harvest, and he considers what more can yet be
done that his responsibility as a churchman may be
the more fulfilled. With his intense views as to
untrammelled secular education and his intense views
as to the necessity of spiritual instruction, there
remains to him but one thing : he must voluntarily
assume the combination of these two things. He

334 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
dare not withdraw his support from State education,
else he would fail sadly in his duties of citizenship.
He cannot ask the State to pay for that which he
voluntarily has assumed, and in regard to which the
State has not been consulted, and in regard to which,
too, he denies the State's right to interfere. He has
simply to project and pay for this combination him
self. And so our University, in all its branches, has
been organized. Not that we may turn our back
upon the glorious work which, as citizens, we hold it
our duty and privilege to perform ; but that, in addi
tion to that work, we may attend to that soul culture
for which nobody but ourselves is responsible. There
is our institution then, completely controlled by our
selves, where brain culture and that of heart go hand
in hand, where secular and sacred books lie side by
side, where praise and prayer are as familiar as the
college song or the undergraduates' shout. There
are our institutions — separate schools — which we
have deemed of all importance in our work, and which
we are content that our own pockets should support.
Baptists should not fail to regard the unique position
of their institutions.
II. And as they think upon their University they
should not fail to keep in mind ITS DESTINED
INFLUENCE. I. In the first place it has come to stay. It has
passed its time of probation. There is no longer
peradventure as to its continuance. True, should the
time ever come when God has no use for it, He can
blot it out easily enough, in spite of its prosperity and
endowments. Yet, so far as we can discern, it is here

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS. 335
to abide, and must ever remain a potent factor in all
our work. We cannot reckon in any church or de
nominational problem without taking it into the
account. It is a factor that can never be eliminated
any more, a factor for good or for evil which has
come to stay. The Canadian husbandman in all his
agricultural problems has to reckon with the ever-
abiding heat or cold ; so this University shall forever
set the temperature for all our operations. It may
send a genial warmth throughout our entire con
stitution ; or it may breathe upon us all with its
frozen breath, and stagnate our vitality. It has
come to stay, like the sun in the arctics as it peeps
above the horizon, and dispels the six months' night.
The ice and snow, for a little, refuse to yield to it ; but,
day after day, the persistent beams shine down, and
there is a softening of the surface of ice and snow ;
and soon tiny rivulets begin to run, and in a little
while great rivers, and soon the floods break up the
fields of ice ; and then the faint green appears upon the
hill-tops, and it is not long before the grass and the
song bird proclaim that summer has come. So with
the persistency of a great beneficial force which has
come to stay ; it is resistless for good. But you see
again, in that same region ; the sun has dropped out of
the heavens again, and departed upon his six months'
wandering, with what result ? The frost king begins
his reign ; and little by little the entire region is held
in his deathless grip, and the streams and the rivers
and the great ocean are bound fast ; and what can
stand before his cold ? So with the persistency of a
baleful influence which has come to stay ; it is

336 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
resistless for evil. This University has come to stay,
and must always be reckoned with.
2. But the mere thought of coming to stay illus
trated by things inanimate does not sufficiently meet
the case either. It has come to stay, itself a living
thing. Corporations are soulless things, they say.
It is not true of a university ; there pervades every
such institution a dominant thought which is ever
beating with the pulsations of soul life, for which very
reason it is no light thing that a young man come in
contact with any such institution ; nor is it a light
matter that a denomination, or for that matter a
country, have upon it, with lasting persistency, the
heart-beat of such soul force. For what are the
characteristics of soul ? All that a man touches with
mind, or heart, or body, goes to make it up. What a
man sees, what a man hears, what a man feels, what
a man loves, find through their appropriate channels
their abiding place upon the soul, and thus determine
its character, so that the man is, and influences, accord
ing to the resultant and dominant soul thought. It
cannot be otherwise with our University. It is a
thing of life whose soul thought is made up of the
particulars of its environment, and whose power upon
men and upon the churches will be according to the
resultant of all that comes upon it to form its life.
The professors are doing their part in the preparation
of that soul-throb ; the students are doing their part ;
the Senate and Board of Governors are imparting to
it their own lines, and what it is and what it will do
is the resultant of all these forces. So it can never
only influence as, say, a statue might. There stands

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS. 337
the statue ; you see it set up in some public garden, and,
although dead, lifeless, not without some power ; for
he who passes it every day is somewhat impressed
daily, and loveliness of form and feature cannot wholly
escape him ; or the heroic from marble statesman or
warrior puts its touch upon the heroism within. But
the soul life of the College shall give its power as the
living man whose thought and life are ceaselessly
doing their work upon his fellows. We have a living
thing with tremendous soul power amongst us ; that's
the thought.
3. But it isn't enough either to conceive as we
have done the power and force of this institution ; it
has more than staying power ; it has more than life.
// is life-giving. Compare it to the heart, if you will, as
to its bodily function, and the lungs, whose business
it is to aerate the blood and send it on its mission of
life throughout the body. This institution must
pump its life through our missionary work, our
church work, our families, as that life will be, accord
ing to the spirit breathed upon it from the fountain
head. A fetid atmosphere means bad blood, and
bad blood means degenerate life throughout the body ;
and so we have it now that the atmosphere of the
College is generating life after its own kind through
all our organizations and churches.
III. What the Churches Demand of It. — In
view of all this, then, what in the first place should
our churches demand of this institution? And I
answer : simplicity, integrity, and efficiency — simplicity
of manner, integrity of purpose, and efficiency of
work.

338 LIFE OF e. w. dadson.
i. Simplicity is a New Testament characteristic.
The great Master was its personification. Of poor
and humble parentage, of quiet habits, Jesus was a
man of simple tastes. By choice He remained apart
from the worldly, influential, wise and wealthy. By
choice He gave His companionship to the poor,
humble, lowly. He is the example for His Church.
Yet in the midst of surroundings such as He chose for
Himself, He maintained the dignity and courtesy of
one who was full of grace and truth. In this, also, He
is an example to His people. His dress was simple,
His habits were simple, His speech was simple. He
affected no mincing, nothing tawdry, no display.
He held out no allurements to the world. He dis
played no colors, no bunting. His one attraction
was himself. He is our example, and the churches
demand of our University — since it occupies the po
tential position which it needs must, and since it has
come to stay — that it teach with fidelity the simplicity
of our Lord. Our Lord was a man of simple tastes ;
and who is to maintain and hand down this charac
teristic, if the churches cannot depend upon their
University so to do ? I suppose it is true that one
feature of the folly of Christendom is extravagance, is
luxurious indulgence, is the love of display. Our
missionary secretaries tell us that the doors are open
for unbounded success on foreign fields, that men by
the hundreds stand waiting, urgently anxious to be
sent to the work ; but that Christian money, instead
of being put into the treasury of God for the purpose
for which He has made it so plentiful, is absorbed in
houses, decorations, display, and dress, and half of it

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS. 339
gone for mere show. Some power, God-commis
sioned, has to teach the Christian Church all over
again the great lesson of our Lord's simplicity, and
we look to our University to lead us by example and
instruct us by doctrine. What it teaches in this
regard is going to find its way into our homes, is
going to put its mark upon our young people, is going
to characterize our church life, is going to become
significant of the Baptist people. Upon the one
hand there is opportunity for display, extravagance,
and the vain glory of life, thus shrivelling, wasting,
and rendering impotent the splendid endowments of
the Church. On the other, there is opportunity for
the accumulation of God's money consistent with the
simplicity of life, which will effectually send the heart
of the Church into the perishing nations, and, with it,
God's gospel of pardon and redemption.
2. The churches demand of McMaster University
the integrity of the faith. We need not go far to find
out that university influence is almost omnipotent
here. In Germany university thought has colored
the religion of the country and we here have for years
been battling with its overflow. Individual colleges
have left their mark upon whole communities and
upon whole denominations. The dominant thought
there finds its way to the extremity. Brown Univer
sity, under the influence of Manning, Chaplin Smith
and others, was a tower of strength to the Christian
faith of the New England States. What cannot be
said of other colleges, which have made shipwreck
of faith ? How they have sent through their circula
tion spiritual disease and death, or, if not this, the

34° LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
utter coldness and warping of the energies of Chris
tian life ! We demand of our University that it hold
the sacred oracles in their integrity ; that it keep its
hands off and suffer no spoliation. We demand that
it insist upon obedience to God's Word, that it keep
the faith, that it contend earnestly for the faith, that
it submit itself under the mighty hand of God and
stay there.
3. And in the third place the churches demand
efficiency at the hands of McMaster University. Our
churches are jealous for God and for His truth. It
has ever been their delight and their effort to know
the deep things of God. They are not content with
superficiality. They want to know the Master's will.
The milk and the strong meat they demand as their
daily portion. If our University can train our young
men to love God's truth, to dig deep into God's truth,
to find out the hidden treasures in God's truth, we
will bless it as a real help that God has given us. We
care not so much for the trappings in which the truth
comes — these we will appreciate as they are decorous,
seemly, and just. If they enforce the truth, all right ;
but it is the truth we want. And so we demand
efficiency of work. And this not only in the specially
spiritual realm of the College. In all its branches we
demand efficiency. Our University stands side by
side with others — others which have the prestige of
years of spendid work. It must never be that our
sons and daughters fare worse in any sense by enter
ing our school. Our University is yet to make its
record. I covet for it that its record should be made
upon the lines of efficient work There must be no

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS. 34I
discounting of its degrees. Its students must stand
shoulder to shoulder with other students. And what
ever may be the cause which forces us as a people to
stand alone in our educational work, that cause should
never affect the ability of our men to reach the high
est place. The churches demand that in Preparatory
work, in Arts and in Theology, our colleges do
efficient work.
III. What it Demands of the Churches.—
Now we may consider what this institution de
mands of our churches : sympathy, loyalty, and
unanimity — these three things.
1. If we, as the churches, are alive to our own inter
ests we shall demand great things of our University,
and we shall not rest content with anything short of
our demands. But there is the other side. We have
brought into being an institution whose life is not
self-perpetuating, but is, through necessity, dependent.
Our University is organized for the service of our
churches, and is under the supervision and control of
our churches. If it be true that its life is destined to
influence our churches for all time, it is equally true
that our life is to be potent upon its affairs for the
same duration. The institution demands of us our
sympathy. We have brought it into being. We owe
it love, fellowship, thoughtful consideration. We
stand related to it otherwise than outward expression
may indicate. It has been laid upon heart and con
science, and we have accepted responsibility for it.
Such being the case it demands sympathy. Now,
with certain limitations to be noted hereafter, affairs
are brought about as sympathy for them is intense.

342 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
The favorable direction of thought is an impelling
power. Even one man can achieve wonders who
persistently thinks and turns towards one object.
We demand life, and truth, and power of this institu
tion. And it is our business with heart and brain to
force life, and truth, and power through its channels.
How is this to be done ? There is but one Spirit of
life, one Spirit of truth, one Spirit of power, and that
is the Spirit of God. And God's Spirit comes
through prayer — prayer, not perfunctory, not isolated,
but the great prayer of the churches going upward in
sympathy for the object which is upon the thought
and heart. If this institution could be touched with
the prayer breath of 40,000 Baptists, nobody need
even trouble for its simplicity, integrity or efficiency.
God's Spirit only can create, can vitalize its circula
tion. The churches must pray into it its proper
atmosphere ; so that its lungs may take into it the
life of God. From our pulpits, our prayer-meetings,
and our home altars, this institution should be held
in sympathetic remembrance.
2. But again, it demands not only sympathy but
loyalty. Loyalty is sympathy in action — its outward
expression. One may be sympathetic and nobody
else be the wiser. Loyalty stands in, visibly, bodily,
expressionably, with the object loved. And so sym
pathy has its limitation in the absence of loyalty.
What this institution needs, then, is that those who
have it in thought and sympathy stand by it — in its
successes and reverses, in its cloud or sunshine,
among its friends and among its foes. Some one
should speak about it, and for it, in every church. It

EDUCATIONAL ADDRESS. 343
should have its representative in every community ;
and it should be the purpose of us all, outwardly and
demonstrably, to do our part in winning for it the
consideration and enthusiasm which are necessary to
its highest service. Loyalty ! It is bound to show
at times some phases of weakness. Hearts and brains
ought to be plenty, to renew its strength. Loyalty !
It is possible for it to swerve from the right path.
There ought to be broad shoulders and hands in
plenty to set it again upon the track. Loyalty !
There may develop upon it some feature of unsound
ness, some unsightly scar or wound. Loyal hearts
there are enough to crowd around it and cover it, that
the shame of its nakedness do not appear. Let its
wounds be dressed in private. Our institutions need
loyalty, not only of heart, but of tongue and pen,
person and purpose. And now —
3. Our University demands unanimity. The absence
of this factor must be another limitation to the power
of the sympathy already referred to. And what can
one say in regard to this feature prerequisite to the
highest success, which is forced upon our considera
tion ? The old saw and the wise one is, union is
strength. Our institutions need unanimity of sym
pathy, prayer, thought, purpose ; and wherever there
is lack our work is, of necessity, by so much the less
masterful. This institution was not launched upon a
peaceful sea. Perhaps God's hand was in that. Some
of the brethren did not consider that the best thing
was done, and it may be that by reason of heated
controversy hearts were alienated, sympathy became
dead, purpose and prayer ceased, and to that extent

344 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
there is lack of power, and to that extent the churches
cannot have from the University what they demand
of it. Its full-orbed service can only be guided by
full-measured unanimity. Dr. Fyfe, whose savor
abides in this city, used to tell us that it was better
to unite in the thing that was second best than to
divide upon that which was first. So if there be a
wound not healed up, let it be healed on this line. If
there still be a thought that the best thing has failed,
let the second best be abundantly and loyally pushed
to success. If there be apathy anywhere, let it give
place to zeal. If the unsympathetic or the unprayer-
ful has been in any quarter characteristic, let it mend
its manners and come up to our help. And why ?
This institution has come to stay, and the kind of
life, and the force of life which the churches give it, it
will continuously put back into their circulation.
Give it nerveless life, and nerveless force will be the
result. Give it deficient life, and deficient life it will
put upon the churches. Keep from it the abounding
of the Spirit, through lack of abounding ministry of
prayer, and its life will flow from other spirits. Let
its atmosphere become stagnated, through the lack of
the only vivifying Spirit of God, which is prayer-
breathed, and only stagnated life can flow through its
channels. It is here to stay ! And its life, of what
ever kind, must go on, beat, beat, beat upon you
and yours ; your churches, your families, your life —
unceasingly. Its influence, who can measure? Its
demand comes to you : give me life, and truth, and
power ; and to you I will return life, and truth, and
power — good measure, heaped up, pressed down, and
running over. Amen.

ENDURE HARDNESS*
" Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus." — 2 Tim. ii. 3.
The text I have read was addressed first to a
young man having the activities of- the Christian
ministry in view ; and through Timothy, as the imme
diate occasion of its utterance, it is addressed to
every Christian man and woman. While this text
shall have its application as directed to you all who
are soldiers of the Cross, for all who name His name
have the mark set upon them which stamps them
soldiers, and not any easier designation, it is per
mitted me, by your invitation, to exhibit its teaching
to those who, like Timothy, have the settled purpose
in view of being separated unto the work of the
ministry. You are missionaries, young brethren, and I, who
through God's grace may humbly acknowledge that
name also, may at the outset, that the clear purpose of
our calling, while we talk, may stand in relief before
us, venture to emphasize the thought contained in
this designation. We are missionaries of the Cross,
not of any other thing. We are commissioned to go
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
* Preached before the Fyfe Missionary Society of McMaster Uni
versity. 345

346 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
creature. Our business is the business of rescue to
those who are perishing. The word which we have
named upon ourselves, by our own choice, separates
us from many things in which our brethren legi
timately engage, to the doing of this one thing, con
cerning which the Spirit has surely said to us, " Give
thyself wholly to it," and for which things' sake, so
we believe, the Lord has put us into the ministry.
Our preaching is to be this gospel ; our one theme is
to be "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." And in
obedience to the commission, whithersoever we go,
our thought, and our speech, and our walk, are to be
characterized by the fulness of the blessing of the
Gospel of Christ. We are to be known as they who
are sent, not as they who go or come of their own
motion, as they who are God-sent, commissioned
neither by our own thought or impulse, nor by any
authority of our fellows as those who are God-sent to
do a certain thing, and to do not any other thing.
We are ambassadors, not plenipotentiaries ; and we
have pledged ourselves to abide by our commission.
What may not this word " missionary " involve ?
What prescribed line of thinking ? What monotony
of action, perhaps ? What circumscription of being ?
You stand pledged to go at the bidding of God, and
to preach the preaching which He bids you. You are
missionaries — not your own ; bought, bought with a
price ; .blood-bought. And here surely is the place,
and now the time to say it. It is incumbent upon
you to say good-bye to any thought or desire in your
intellectual or emotional make-up, which cannot stand
the test of the rigid reading of your commission. If

ENDURE HARDNESS. 347
you have any aspiration above the seeking to save
that which is lost, say it now, good-bye, or get your
selves beyond the thrall of this commission. If you
have ambition to preach a higher wisdom than the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, now is the time for
you to sever your connection with, that thing which
restricts you to the one theme ; or, if there is any
other name which you can preach, have done with one
or the other now, for you cannot serve two masters.
Your designation, " missionary," means something.
It means a man God-sent on specific business. You
and I will do well to observe the significance of this
word, and to be resolved either to abide by it or to
cast it off.
You call yourselves also by the designation of your
society, " Fyfe Missionaries." You had all the names
in the world to choose from, and you chose this.
There is something in a name. I judge that this
name was not selected by you at guess, but rather
that some sound reason guided your choice. You
call yourselves after a man who was God-sent on
specific business, after a name which in this church,*
I doubt not, is held in veneration. You put that
name upon your society, I suppose, in order that the
heroism of that character may incite your following,
even as he followed Christ. If the name " Fyfe "
means anything in connection with your organization,
it means that you stand pledged after some sort to
the dominant thought, to the zeal and to the sacrifice,
which characterized the life of him whose name you
bear. This is not the place to recite to you the story
* Jarvis Street, Toronto.

348 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
of his life. A few features of it will sufficiently indi
cate to you the import of the name under which you
are organized. Within the memory of some who
hear me, the Baptist cause in this fair city was at the
antipodes of the position it occupies to-day. An
obscure people worshipped in an obscure meeting
house, on an obscure street, and Mr. Fyfe was their
minister. I call your attention to the fact that at
that time there were many strong, wealthy churches
on this continent, on the look-out for just such a man
as Dr. Fyfe ; and there were many attractions elsewhere
that touched his ambition. But duty pointed where
there was scarcely an attractive feature ; and Dr. Fyfe
selected March Street, Toronto, as the field of his
labor. And his name thus pledges you to duty in
the face of sacrifice. In the early days of Dr. Fyfe's
ministry there was the great Church and State con
troversy known to us as the " Clergy Reserves Ques
tion." There were other controversies more distinctly
religious, involving the life of the principles to which
we adhere. Dr. Fyfe gave himself with all his powers
to the defence of righteousness, and we in Canada
to-day — and we Baptists especially — owe more than
we think to his fearless and telling advocacy at the
time of which we speak ; and his name thus pledges
you to unswerving fidelity in the advocacy of right
eousness. Dr. Fyfe was called from the pastorate to
the inauguration of our educational work — I say
educational work, for it was that, his life through, in
the intensest degree. There was neither attraction
of position, attraction of salary, nor attraction of
materials. He was asked to work — simply this and

ENDURE HARDNESS. 349
nothing more — for Christ's sake, and for the sake of
our Baptist churches. And he worked, through dis
couragements which would have wrecked the faith
of smaller men, in the face of opposition sometimes
bitter, and sometimes apparently cruel. With little
help, and sometimes with little sympathy, he worked,
summer and winter, through the long years, while
our educational thought and institutions were gather
ing out of chaos. And when sickness came upon him,
still he worked ; and when it was suggested to him
by a dear friend that he must stop, if he hoped to
live, his answer came, not hastily but thoughtfully,
" I should rather die than give up work." His name
thus pledges you to work for Christ's sake and for
Baptist churches, until God calls you to enter upon
His rest. And so considering what you are as mis
sionaries, and to what you are pledged by the name
you bear, we show an apostolic motto, which, if the
unfolding be of God, will surely further that for which
you and your society exist.
The text bids us speak of Christian endurance, the
grace or the virtue which is necessary to any fashion
of eminence in Christian life, and which is specially
the thing to be cultivated by him who presumes to
be a leader of others towards that eminence. " Suffer
hardship," " Endure hardness " is the apostolic in
junction to the young man who has the ministry in
view. This exhortation was not given without reason.
The Christian ministry at the day this epistle was
written had no place for a weakling, offered no induce
ments to the limp and nerveless, presented no sphere
to the man who had not made up his mind to go and

350 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
to come at the command of his Lord without con
sidering the cost to himself. The man who was
called to this work must count upon the opposition
of friends and kinsfolk ; must consider that the state
and society would be against him ; must be alike
ready for the sneer or the scourge ; need not reckon
upon emoluments ; must suffer persecution ; must, if
God willed — and He often wills it so — take his place
in that sad procession which the eleventh chapter of
Hebrews marshals before us ; and, of course, conse
quently, the Christian minister must needs be coun
selled to endure hardness. The Christian ministry
to-day is about the same thing that it was in Timothy's
day. Its environment may differ in appearance and
in degree, but not in kind. The fashion of the ministry
is the same as to its temptations, as to its thought,
as to its work, as to its opposition ; and, consequently,
the qualifications of the Christian ministry are the
very same qualifications that Paul emphasized to
Timothy. Now in speaking upon —
I. The Exhortation to Christian Endur
ance, it may be well to translate the first century
into the nineteenth ; and it will be seen that the causes
which prompted the exhortation to Timothy are
operative still in the case of those who are in prepara
tion for similar life-work. You, young brethren, in
this day of the progress of Christianity will not be
called upon to toughen your spiritual manhood in the
conflict with beast, or sword, or stake, or the fury
either of State or bigotry. But perhaps the conflict
to which you are addressed will demand of you the
forth-putting of just as true a heroism, and will call

ENDURE HARDNESS. 351
for as decided moral and spiritual brawn, as that
which was being induced upon Timothy through the
training of the Apostle Paul.
(i) Suffer hardship, then, because of hard doctrine.
You are to receive hard spiritual discipline, and
you are to teach others the doctrines which you
yourselves have received. You are to be governed
by the truth as found in the Word ; you are to teach
to others no other thing ; and your teaching will be in
regard to those things which are unpalatable to the
natural taste, and which the carnal mind is not sub
ject to, neither indeed can be. You will have to
speak of things hard of interpretation, wherein are
things hard to be understood by those whose ears
are dull of hearing, and concerning which it will be
said to you time and again, " This is a hard saying,
who can hear it?" If you were allowed discretionary
powers in regard to this matter, there might be no
special reason for the text being written. If you
were allowed to pick and choose, if you had latitude
to select your themes from where you may, if you
were not tied down to the one Name and to the one
theme, you might run with liberty and license as you
pleased, and find neither hardship nor suffering in
your course, But you are to preach the whole coun
sel of God, and to preach the preaching which God
bids you. See what this preaching involves. You
are to preach of sin, and that is hard doctrine ; and
you are not to soften or palliate it, or excuse it. Its
origin, its inherence, its consequences, its immortality
are to be, in straight fashion, adhered to by you, and
taught, You are to preach of righteousness, and

352 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
that is hard doctrine, setting forth clearly to the
people the straight line upon which only sin's remedy
can be procured. The righteous God, the righteous
law, the righteous sacrifice, all must be exhibited, and
that infinite justice magnified whereby poor sinners,
such as we are, may be lifted from the horrible pit,
and made to sit in the heavenly places. Preach you
that doctrine faithfully, and you will find the ears of
the people dull to receive it. It strips humanity of
all its glory ; and hence the natural mind doesn't
want it. It lays hold upon One — One only — and of
all mankind besides, it says, " There is none that doeth
good, no, not one " ; and the natural heart will not
have it. You are to preach of the judgment to come,
and you are not to hold back one jot or one tittle of
all that is revealed of the mind of God concerning
that stupendous event ; and that is hard doctrine.
However it may be with others who take to them
selves the liberty of any departure from God's Word,
you must speak of that hard doctrine which admits
of no future probation, and you must tell the woeful
story of the endless departure of the sinning soul
from the smile of God. You must say to the wicked,
it shall be ill with him. And as you thus deal faith.
fully with the Word of God and with the souls of
men, you will doubtless find that the subject-matter
of this text will about meet the needs of the case.
But perhaps I may be allowed in this connection
to draw your attention to the doctrines which spe
cially distinguish us as a denomination of Christians,
and to the name by which we are scripturally and
historically called, for the defence of which, as you

ENDURE HARDNESS. 353
stand contrasted with other bodies of Christians, you
are specially set. I take it that there is good reason
why we Baptists are so called, and I take it that there
is good reason for the tenets which distinguish our
body. I am not sure that we hold to these reasons
with as sturdy a grip as our forefathers did, or that
we are, in regard to them, as uncompromising. Per
haps in this we do not well ; for, if we have reason to
be Baptists, that reason should grip us intensely in
all our religious convictions. But is it not becoming
fashionable to silence our distinctive principles some
what, perhaps in deference to that intensely longed-
for Christian Union of which we hear so much in the
present day ? The word " Baptist " is looked upon
as a continual menace to that consummation ; and is
it not often thought the part of wisdom to keep dis
tinctive doctrine in abeyance, and to say " Hush!" to
every specifically Baptist notion for fear of becloud
ing the dawn of the longed-for Union day ?
Young brethren, let me say in regard to the name
"Baptist" which you bear, you had all the denomin
ational names in Christendom before you as your
choice, and for conscientious reasons you chose
Baptist, and by that choice distinguished and separ
ated yourselves in essential respects from other bodies
of Christians of whatever name ; and, if the reason
that guided you was truth, separate and distinct you
must remain. Not as to the great doctrines of grace,
thank God ; no, we are hand to hand with all who
name Christ's name as to these. Not as to Christian
fellowship, good-will and love, thank God ; no, we
have one Lord and one faith as to these. But there
23

354 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
are doctrines upon which they and we differ ; and
as our difference is based upon the understanding
of the Word of God, differ we must. We do not
hold to our distinguishing system because we prefer
it merely, nor because on the whole it best suits
our convenience. We are what we are because we
can be nothing else. We have inquired of God
through His Word, and we have our answer which
sets us apart from our fellows in separate denomina
tional life and work. If this is not so, then it is high
time that we go over the ground again and ascertain
whether or not there is any reason why we should be
Baptist and not anything else. The sin of dividing
the body of Christ is no light sin, and, if we can be
anything else, we sin in being Baptist. Why are we
to stand apart from our brethren if there be no sound
reason for it ? We are Baptists because God's Word
compels us to be. If this be not so, let us drop our
contention at once ; and, finding our church home
and work elsewhere, get from off our shoulders the
responsibility of this grievous sin of schism. But, if
we must abide by the principles we profess, then let
us be brave about them, and not be forever hushful
about them. If these principles are of worth sufficient
to divide the body of Christ, then certainly they are
worth strenuous advocacy and unflinching defence.
But they involve hard doctrine, nevertheless, and
much, as far as this world goes, that is unpalatable
and unprofitable. You, young brethren, must be
prepared to advocate a regenerate church member
ship, and that only, contrary to the thought of the
majority of your Christian brethren. You must be

ENDURE HARDNESS. 355
prepared to stand by the issue you raise of soul
liberty in the face of king or priest. You must be
prepared to say, contrary to the opinion of the vast
majority of your fellow-Christians, that immersion
only is baptism. And you must be prepared finally
for the logical sequence of your position in regard to
the further ordinances of your Saviour. And you
will find the holding of these views as against Chris
tendom to be hard doctrine, and you will find in your
ministry the advocacy of them to be the teaching of
hard doctrine. And the apostle knew it. He had
unpalatable truths to preach, he had unpopular
notions to advocate, and the scourge and the chain
and the inner prison cell gave their witness to the
fact that he preached hard doctrine. And when he
says to Timothy, and to you, " Endure hardness," he
does not give you the exhortation without good
reason. (2) " Suffer hardship " again, perhaps, because of the
hard fields upon which you are called to labor.
You have all been struck with the affectionate manner
of address from Paul to Timothy — how the veteran
loved the new recruit, how he yearns over him as a
father, as he calls him his son Timothy. Paul knew
what lay before the boy — the perils that he should
encounter, the persecutions, the treachery, and he
well may have surmised in regard to his martyrdom.
Paul knew Ephesus, and the labor which would
devolve upon the youthful bishop. He knew the
temptations, the idolatry, the vain philosophies and
the depravities of that luxurious city. And in full
view of the hardships surrounding his pathway, he

356 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
writes to him, " Endure hardness." And so he writes
to you, and for a similar reason. You have hard
fields set before you, and all your life you will have
hard work. Suppose, now, you are filling yourselves
full of the divine thought in regard to your message,
and you have determined to go upon your business
upon scriptural lines only. You may know from the
outset that you will not go with the multitude, nor
will the multitude go with you ; but your every gain
will be by the persistency of your faith and your
hard work. But to speak of the particular work that
is specially inviting your thought and your life — I
mean the work that is lying before Canadian Baptist
ministers now, and the fields upon which that work is
to be done. We Baptists in Canada are a feeble folk
in a great many ways. Of late we have been grow
ing in some directions, it is true ; yet, comparatively
speaking, we are few and feeble. We have not many
large churches which offer the inducements of salary,
society, and comfort. You can count them all on the
fingers of your hand. And, by the way, let me say
here, that you need not be specially solicitous in
regard to the leadership of such churches. As a rule,
there are always plenty of men ready and able for the
labor which they entail. But the work which will
specially engage your attention, and which is even
now crying out for your help, is the work in the back
townships ; is the work in the Province of Quebec ; is
the work upon the prairies of the North- West ; where
our people are few and scattered ; where they are poor
in this world's goods ; where there is a great deal of
ignorance and a great deal of superstition ; where

ENDURE HARDNESS. 357
there is no inspiration from society, from literature,
from art ; where the Sunday congregations are very
small, and the prayer-meeting is attended by the twos
and the threes ; where the pastor must rigorously
regard the little items of economy, and get himself,
down to sacrifice for Christ's sake. Our Canadian
Baptist work is to be done in such places by men
who are able thus to spend and be spent for Christ.
And for this work there is needed your discipline and
your special training. The thought has somehow got
abroad that we need' our college graduates specially
in the city, and that very ordinary men will do for our
frontier regions. That is a blunder — not that we
need education less in the city, but that we need it
more in the rural districts. From the rural homes
come the men who fill your halls of learning here,
who take the places in your professions and legislature,
who form the backbone of your country — a series of
facts which, doubtless, has often been pointed out to
you. This fact, however, you have not so often heard,
viz., that your thoughtful and cultured ministry should
impress itself upon the spring of such life ; and, con
sequently, we need our full-trained ministry in those
places where the labor is great and the stipend small,
and where every day is filled with opportunities of
burden-bearing and self-denial, but where, after all,
the great work for the kingdom can be done by that <
man who chooses to think first of his Lord, and next
of his neighbor. And for many years to come in
Canada the conditions will be as I name them to-day,
as far as our work is concerned. The churches which
offer the inducement of salary, of comfort, of associa-

358 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
tion with things congenial to cultivated taste and
habit, will continue to be few in number ; and the
work of our denomination, for years to come, must be
done upon the hard fields, if it is to be done at all.
Now, in view of this fact, the apostolic injunction
comes home with peculiar force to you, young men —
endure this hardness. Be content to stay here in
this country and spend your life, if need ' be, in doing
the foundation work for the churches that are to exist
in the years to come. Be content to get away back
from the centres of influence and culture ; and let
your light shine where it will be so much needed, and
where almost certainly you will need the under-
thought of this text to brace you.
(3) And now certainly Paul spoke these words to
Timothy in view of the fact that even from his
brethren there was hard treatment of some sort to
be endured. " All that were in Asia turned away
from me," he says. " Do thy diligence to come
shortly to me," he says in the fourth chapter, " for
Demas forsook me, having loved this present world."
"Alexander, the coppersmith, did me much evil."
Paul points out to Timothy, indirectly at least, that
among the hard things for him to bear will be the
turning away of dear friends, will be the opposition
of some of those who have pledged themselves to the
same Lord. And you shall not find it much dis
similar to-day, young brethren. If, in fidelity to
Jesus Christ, you are going to preach His word, you
are going to be misunderstood, and you are going to
be opposed. If you are determined to live godly in
Christ Jesus, you are going to suffer persecution, not

ENDURE HARDNESS. 359
from the enemies of the Cross only, but from your
brethren in the Lord. I have simply to remind you
that, in apostolic days, there was a sect everywhere
spoken against ; and in this last decade of the nine
teenth century there are a people still who shall
certainly escape the woe of the Gospel pronounced
upon those who are everywhere spoken well of. You,
young brethren, as you go preaching the Gospel,
filled, let us ever hope, with the constraining love of
Christ 'and that broad charity which takes in every
child of God, will doubtless be made to feel the
opprobrium with which even Christians sometimes
visit that people who, in some particulars, stand
alone and opposed to universal Christendom. In
regard to this feature of your coming life, you will
need, time and again, to lean upon this text.
II. In the second place, this text has something to
say in regard to fellowship in Christian en
durance. The reading preferred in the Revision is
translated, " Suffer hardship with me," thus, you will
notice, laying stress upon fellowship or co-operation
in this endurance. Paul, you will remember, was in
Rome, an old man, in prison, ready to be offered ;
and Timothy was in Ephesus, a young man, free,
ambitious, we may think, of spending himself to the
utmost upon the various duties of his arduous office,
keen to lay hold of the advantages of beautiful and
intellectual Ephesus, as well as heart-sick at the
depravity surrounding him. And Paul's epistle to
him is a reminder that he is not alone ; that the
work given him to do is not given to a unit merely ;
and that he is not to be absorbed in his own special

360 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
concern, forgetful of his brethren elsewhere, who
together with him have been appointed also unto the
service of the Lord. He is to remember that the one
body is made up of many members ; and that each
member is affected by every other.member, and this
so intimately that the plying of the scourge at Rome
should be felt tingling throughout the membership at
Ephesus, and so that the heart sympathy and tears of
Ephesus should be as the ministry of balm at Rome.
" Endure hardship with me," says the aged apostle.
And the meaning of it is, " Get you so close to my
life, be so united with me in thought, in work, in
purpose, in fidelity to Christian loyalty to the prin
ciples of His truth, that you and I shall steady one
the other, shall stand together, or together shall fall ;
" Endure hardness with me." I could wish that the
thought of this text in regard to fellowship in endur
ance should strike home, for it ever shall be with us
as it was in the apostle's day. Those who have to
preach hard doctrine upon hard fields in the presence
of the opposing thought of the majority, need to have
fellowship in this endurance ; and there will ever be
found cause and occasion for the use of this text as
representing one's own thought sent out in entreaty
to his brethren the country over. " Endure hardness
with me." I need not say very much to enforce the
point I am now making. Preaching the Gospel and
teaching the people the world over to observe all
things commanded, is our business ; and we bear in
mind that this command comes not to the individual
as an individual, but to the individual associated as
the Church, as the body of Christ. I need not point
out to you the weakness of singular and disjointed

ENDURE HARDNESS. 361
effort, nor need I enforce upon you the strength of
unity. Let me say it all in this. Our cause, which we
firmly believe is the cause of Jesus Christ, advances
as we go in touch with our brethren and our Elder
Brother. Your line of infantry will march with one
thought and purpose, go through the evolutions of
peace or war, and keep the line unbroken, simply by
each man feeling the touch of his comrade's elbow.
So bear you in mind that the touch of your brother
is needful to you as it is needful to him. Some of
you in your future work in dark Quebec, or in far-off
India, or upon the blizzard-drifted prairies of the
North- West, will some day, perchance, send to this
church, or to others which fancy, perhaps, that they
are to stand alone, the thrilling reminder of this text,
" Suffer hardship with me"; and these churches
which seem to be so independent shall need the
discipline and the blessing of that fellowship in
endurance as free Timothy in Ephesus needed that
which came from the bound prisoner at Rome. " The
foot cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee."
We suffer together and we are built up together.
When the pastor* of this church last winter empha
sized the straight Baptist position, his fellowship
with us gave strength throughout our brotherhood.
Let him, however, speak, as I am sure he never will,
disparagingly, slightingly or ignoringly of any prin
ciple for the defence of which we are set, and he
would add affliction to our bonds all along the line.
Young brethren, you are to endure hardness one
with the other. Be in touch with your brother in
* Rev. B. D. Thomas, D.D.

362 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Quebec, in India, in Manitoba, in Ontario, as to
doctrine, as to work, as to sacrifice. All this surely is
in the apostle's exhortation. And now —
III. Lastly, THE REASONS FOR THE EXHORTATION
TO ENDURANCE. " Suffer hardship with me as a
good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ." Because you
are a good soldier of Christ Jesus, therefore suffer
hardship. Timothy had won his spurs early in life.
He had received loving and faithful training from his
mother, Eunice, and from his grandmother, Lois, — a
choice young man picked from among all his fellows
to bear the burden, to fight the battles, and to endure
the hardships of the kingdom. Yonder is a difficult
bit of military service. Some point is to be taken
against tremendous odds. Withal, but few men must
do it, and the commander runs his eye over his forces
and picks his men. So Paul in his epistle shows us
occasionally, and names them, his picked men for
special service. Timothy stands foremost among
them, a young man, picked, tried, and proved ; and
Paul says to him, " Timothy, endure hardness with
me, because you are a picked man." Young breth
ren, you are picked men ; don't forget it, don't ignore
it. You who have the ministry in view have heard
the divine voice of your captain calling you out, and
detailing you for special service ; and, moreover, your
brethren and sisters hi the particular churches whence
you came to this place, solemnly gave their sanction
to what you testified in regard to the voice of God.
And here you are, by your brethren and by the voice
of the Master, already stamped good soldiers of
Christ Jesus. So now, as to Timothy, let God's voice

ENDURE HARDNESS. 363
reach you also. Endure hardness, because you are
good soldiers of Christ Jesus. The good soldier is
the man who is detailed for hard service and never
the weakling. You are good soldiers. Therefore, to
the hard service ! The call does not come to you to
man the easy churches ; the call does not come to
you to lounge in undress, or forever to parade on
peace footing. The spiritually nerveless, delicate, and
ever-halting brother will do the home and show ser
vice just as well as you can. But the call comes to
you for that kind of service which can be performed
only by brawn and pluck and endurance. The Life
Guards are not chosen because they are good soldiers,
but because they are handsome fellows ; and they are
chosen for display service and not for war. But the
47th Highlanders, the Black Watch, are chosen,
every man of them, because he is a good soldier ; and
they are picked, every man of them, to endure hard
ness ; and the Black Watch have gone the round of
the Queen's dominions ; and, wherever there has been
hard service, the Black Watch have been in the fore
front. The Guards have never seen blood these fifty
years, nor known hardship. The Black Watch has
known little else. Well, they are picked men for
hard service. You, young brethren, are picked men
for hard service. Let that thought be fastened early,
and then there will not be the restlessness of a peri
patetic ministry, and a constant exodus to what
some may think a more favored land. While men
tioning, a little ago, some of the features of the hard
service in which you will be called upon to engage, I
said nothing of the hardship of obscurity ; and yet,

364 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
perhaps, this is a feature of service prominent enough
to have some mention. We all like the praise of
men; we all like some little attention, some recog
nition of service well done ; and it is hardness to
many a man who has gone down into the conflict to
discover his life wearing away and his name left in
! perpetual obscurity. Well, good soldiers, many of
¦: them, are never heard of; they go to their duty and
their death by the hundreds ; their names never
appear in the despatches, while many an inferior man,
through other means than bravery, presses to the
front. The good soldier, as often as not, sleeps his
last sleep in the trench where his comrades by the
hundreds lie buried, and so shall sleep, unhonored
and unsung, till the battle-fields of earth give up their
dead. It may be just so with the good soldier of
Christ Jesus. He is in the forefront of the conflict now,
and like a hero is enduring hardness. Perhaps less
worthy men have risen to prominence, perhaps men of
half his grit and grace. He does not sing his own
praises, and there is nobody who sings them for him ;
but he is content to do his duty and to die for Christ's
sake, and for the name by which we are called. I
crave the privilege of using the opportunity which this
pulpit affords me of bearing testimony to the worth
and the heroism of some Canadian Baptist ministers
whose work we generally never know of, whose
sacrifice and self-denial have never entered our
thoughts, whose names we never hear, yet who are
standard-bearers in our cause and give their lives
right willingly, content to know that their names,
though appearing with praise and honor upon no

ENDURE HARDNESS. 365
earthly record, are nevertheless written upon the
Lamb's Book of Life, and are received there with the
divine " Well done, good and faithful servant." My
young brethren, tutor yourselves as to this thing also
to " endure hardness."
Now, in drawing my remarks to conclusion, let me
say that there is a vast difference between the volun- ,
teer and the regular service, and that you belong to
the regulars. The volunteer plays at soldiering. To
the regular there is no play about it. It is his life or
his death ; and he endures hardness for " Queen and
country." There is no play about the service to which
you are called. It is all in dead earnest, this fight of
faith. You have Christ's banner to keep and to de
fend ; and unto you is committed the rescue of those
for whom Christ died, now held in the enemy's grip.
You are detailed for Lucknow service, and in obedience
to your Captain's command, and in the defence of His
banner, and in the rescue work with which you are
charged, from start to finish of your career, you must
endure hardness, because you are picked men for that
very purpose ; and so may you prove yourselves to
be good soldiers of Christ Jesus. Amen.

AFFLICTION AND GLORY.
"For our light affliction, which is but for the moment,
worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of
glory." — 2 Cor. iv. 17.
God's Word in more ways than one is a pattern
and guide for us. Not only is it valuable to us as
being the true indicator of that perfect way which
leadeth unto everlasting life, but also it is valuable
as the treasury of pure things, rich things, beautiful
things in the way of thought, language and literature.
It contains the oldest poem and, critics admit, the
finest poem that has ever been written. Its thought
is the grandest, and critics admit its language is the
most stately. The themes it deals with are the near
est to the human heart, and critics admit its allusions
to them to be the most eloquent. Not to specify
other instances of the beauty, the power, and the
stateliness of scriptural language, the verse which we
have read will stand side by side with any writing of
man and not be eclipsed. See the beauty. Present
afflictions are always visions of discomforting
ugliness ; they have the power of fixing the faculties
upon themselves alone, to the exclusion of what
pleasanter things there may be in the surroundings.
Present afflictions have to do with the troubles, the
sorrows, and the disgraces of life ; present afflictions
366

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 367
are the things above all others which seem the least
productive of good. Present afflictions more than
anything else draw the dark gloomy veil between us
and the bright angel of hope. Yet the apostle, by
his masterly touch in this verse, gives a coloring to
the deepest sorrow which makes it appear in any
case a trivial thing in comparison with the glory
which it is outworking. See the power. His words
do not appeal to the senses nor to the mind par
ticularly, they go straight to the heart. Our light
affliction, he says — speaking not only personally to
whomsoever these words were read, but singling
out, as it were, from all individual distresses the
prominent affliction which was then most felt ; our
light affliction — referring to the engrossing sorrow
that was then overshadowing the individual mind.
Words are powerful as they thus seize upon some
heart-affection, having separated it from all else, and
address thought to this. These words are in the
highest degree selective ; their appeal is directly
addressed ; hence their power. But both beauty of
language and power are of little moment, when we
consider the depth of meaning which these words
contain. This verse is an illustration of the apostle's
strong contrasts. See the words as they stand in
juxtaposition, and at one glance you will be able to
pry somewhat into their comprehensive meaning —
affliction, glory ; light affliction, weighty glory ;
momentary light affliction and that weight and that
eternity of glory not only eminent, but eminent in the
highest degree.
I. The Affliction. — What does the apostle

368 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
mean here by those afflictions which he characterizes
as light and momentary ? Can it be that he has any
reference to those heart sorrows which, whenever
they come upon us, appear to us to be the most
terrible burdens that man is ever called upon to en
dure ? Yes, he means those very things. There is
no child's sorrow, who is mourning over the death of
a loved parent, to whom the world now is desolate
and friendless, who is cast an orphan into its cold
embrace, but what is included in these words.
There is no widow, who has sought the seclusion
of her chamber after the earth has covered all that
was mortal of her husband, whose burden is not in
cluded in these words. There are no tears or sobs
of a loving sister over the downfall of a brother
from the path of rectitude but these words include.
Can it be there is any reference here to the mental
distresess which are almost the universal lot of
mortals ? Does this include doubts and fears which
more or less come upon us all ? The perplexing
problem of our faith, the harassing intricacies of
temporal life? Yes, these also. There is no poor
Christian struggling with his fears, who lives in a
state of chronic darkness, to whom only now and
again are permitted the bright and gladdening rays,
but whose doubts are included here. There is no
Christian whose mind is continually vaccillating be
tween the attributes of God and man and perplexed
beyond measure that he can find no reconcilement,
but whose difficulty is represented here. There is
no Christian so hampered in worldly affairs, whose
life is one long exertion to keep above actual want,

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 369
upon whom fortune seems never to smile, whose
schemes are all failures, whose prosperity is forever
checked, but whose difficulties are represented here.
Is this not so ? Consider who speaks. Was it not
the apostle Paul, who next to Christ was the great
sufferer for His cause, the great burden bearer, the
sorrowful and afflicted man ? I need not enumerate
to you his sufferings ; all here are familiar with them.
Trace his history from his conversion on the way to
Damascus, till we leave him the lone prisoner at
Rome. And does it fall to the common lot of man
to endure what he did not endure ? Do we ever find
man more greatly afflicted ? Who carries a heavier
weight of care ? Yet it was the apostle Paul who
writes these words : " For our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceed
ing and eternal weight of glory." His stripes and
imprisonments and death — light afflictions ! His
scourgings and stonings and shipwrecks — light afflic
tions ! His perils and weariness, hunger, cold and
nakedness — -light afflictions ! His bodily sickness, the
thorn in his flesh, his care of all the churches — light
afflictions ! Evidently he so considered them, for he
says, " our light afflictions." Let us say then, gener
ally, that every sorrow of the Christian man is
included in the words of the text, and particularly
that sorrow which is his present distress.
But now as to this affliction. How comes it that
the apostle characterizes it as light when, by his own
showing in his personal experience, it sometimes
reached the extreme of human woe? His grand
reason, of course, is in the contrasted glory, about
24

370 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
which we will presently speak ; but, meanwhile, note
three reasons for esteeming it light, which certainly
were never overlooked by the apostle.
I. Let human sorrow be what it will, it might have
been far worse. Paul's stripes, his stonings, his ship
wrecks, were limited to a certain number. They
might have been inflicted tenfold. His perils were
not constant. They might have been. His care was
not too much for his reason. It might have been.
Said a certain wise Greek, " I was always murmur
ing because of my inability to keep my feet respect
ably clad — until I met a man who had no feet." The
saying points the moral to this part of the discourse.
However we may be afflicted, things are never at their
worst. And in comparison with what might be, the
present affliction is light. The thing is so clear that
it is almost needless to apply it practically. Here is
a man who has made an idol of his gold, who finds
suddenly that his riches have taken to themselves
wings and flown away. He looks upon it as a terrible
calamity, and so it is for him. But he has health and
strength and reason still, and what is the former in
comparison with the latter ? Touch one of the latter
and we know he would be a more miserable man.
Touch them all, and we know he would be undone.
Is he not a happy man in comparison with what he
easily might be ? Here is a bedridden man. For
years he has lain helpless, cared for by those who
tenderly love him. He sees his means melting away,
his loved ones becoming poverty pinched. And he has
no hope of bettering their condition. Ah, this is the
sorrow that is weighing upon him. Yes, but what if

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 371
he had no loving ones to care for him ? Or what is
their burden now to what it might be if his sickness
removed him from their care, either to the grave or
to the madhouse ? In contrast with either of these
alternatives, both he and they are happy. Or
here is one sorrowing on account of the death of
someone well-beloved and Christ-beloved. Never so
sad a calamity in this particular but what it might
have been worse. He who mourns the departure of
a Christian, is a happy man contrasted with him
who mourns without hope. Light afflictions ! And
surely they are light when we weigh the possibilities
which might outweigh them one hundredfold.
2 The affliction is light to the Christian man because
of the increased strength within his reach, which will
enable him to endure. Here is a heavy iron block
which it is entirely beyond your strength to move.
With the assistance of a lever you can easily bear it
up. The Apostle speaks of " grace to help in time of
need." God has recorded through him, " My grace
is sufficient for you." God's grace is the lever by
which any affliction may be borne. There are two
ways of removing a burden from a man : one, by
taking it from him ; the other, by so strengthening
him that it is no longer felt to be a burden. The
camel which sinks beneath its load upon the desert
sands, after being refreshed by the water collected
for it, steps off lightly as if unladen. God generally
acts similarly in the case of man and his afflictions.
He does not premise to remove the cause of the
present grief, but He promises such strength as will
cause it to cease to be a burden. Who of you

372 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
Christian men and women have not proved this in
your experience ? How was it in your heart sorrows,
with which, doubtless, many of you have been bur
dened ? They have never crushed you quite. You
have always been able to rise superior to them. How
about your mental perplexities ? In the case of the
most troubled of you, God's grace has saved you from
distraction. And what about your physical ills ?
You have received grace and strength to endure and
come through them all.
3. But, thirdly, no affliction of man is as great as he
deserves. You are bowed down with heart sorrow ;
your dearest friend has died, you have suffered the
loss of all things, you are forsaken, alone and heart
broken. Let us say that your affliction equals that
of the patriarch Job, who, stripped of all things lovely,
and cursed with all things loathsome, sat down in
dust and ashes and cursed his day. You are unhappy,
wretched, despairing. Let me show you what you
deserve. It is midnight at noonday at Jerusalem.
There stands the Saviour's cross on the hill of
Calvary. There hangs the bleeding victim. Nails
and thorns, scourge and fist, though unsparingly
bestowed, are entirely unnecessary for the taking of
the life of that sacrifice. A surer weapon is doing
the work of death. Its presence was indicated by the
withdrawal of the sun, by the shaking of the earth,
by the opening of the graves, by the Egyptian dark
ness into which the earth was plunged. The weapon
of death which took the life of our crucified Lord was
neither cross, nor thorn, nor spear, but God's depar
ture ! God who cannot look upon sin did not endure

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 373
the presence of the Sin-bearer. There hung Christ
bearing the world's sin, laden with it, degraded with
it, cursed with it. God left Him alone to perish.
Friends, can you weigh the agony of soul which His
expiring cry, " Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," expresses ?
God forsook Him, and this culminating sorrow was
too great. He bowed. His head and gave up the
ghost. You cannot measure that sorrow. You can
not conceive of its weight. Yet all that it was, you
and I deserve. In contrast to which, surely the heart
sorrow which is now endured is light affliction. The
sun has not yet refused to shine upon us. Earth still
is solid. And graves still are undisturbed on our
account. Friends, none of us are God-forsaken. Ah,
how richly we deserve such fate.
Perhaps your mental perplexity is the burden of
your distress. It may be from spiritual doubt, or
temporal care. Let yours be an extreme case. It
still is light in comparison with what you deserve.
Let me show you what this is. Look at the familiar
garden scene. Our Saviour is alone. His three thus
far faithful followers have sunk into sleep. Well He
knows the treachery that soon will have Him in its
toils. Well He knows what lies before Him in the
judgment hall. The cross is present to His view.
He anticipates the last dread act, and His mind is
hither and thither in search of some relief. " Father,"
He cries in agony, " If it be possible, let this cup pass
from Me. Nevertheless not My will but Thine be
done." And, as He resigns Himself to His Father's
will, His mental anguish is so great that it starts the
bloody sweat which fell upon the ground. Friends,

374 LIFE OF, E. W. DADSON.
can you weigh that awful sorrow ? Can you go to
the depths of mental anguish such as this ? You can
neither measure it nor conceive of it. Either of heart
or of mind it was sorrow of a nature purer, more
delicately nerved, incomparably more refined, than
yours. In your deepest thought you cannot reach it.
In your loftiest imagination you cannot touch it.
The sorrows of the Son of God, like His wisdom and
love, are unsearchable, past finding out. In com
parison with that which covered the ground in Geth-
semane's garden with gory sweat, dear friend, what is
the measure of your most terrible mental distress ?
What does it weigh ? Light ! Light affliction ! For
all that Christ, the Son of God, endured, you deserve.
Perhaps you are a victim of physical distress —
disease may have claimed you for its prey. You may
have walked hand in hand with pestilence or famine.
You may be suffering now in secret agonies that no
mortal eye can detect. Let yours be an extreme
case, a complication of every ill that flesh is heir to,
if you please. Doubtless your burden is heavy, friend ;
but it is light. It is light, if you but compare it with
what you deserve. Let me show you this. " He was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for
our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was
upon him, and by his stripes we are healed," writes
the prophet. Take in the import of these words,
that you may get a somewhat just view of our
Saviour's physical torture. Remember His physical
refinement. Remember that all His sensibility o
nerve was unimpaired by sin. Remember that per
fect humanity is capable of suffering pangs unknown

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 375
to the sin-cursed. And then consider that the
Saviour's wounds were given Him according to the
measure of our transgressions ; that the Saviour's
bruises were inflicted according to the weight of our
iniquities ; that the number of His stripes were
graduated according to that in us which needed
healing, viz., our sin. And this may open our eyes
somewhat to the suffering which He endured. Add
to which the other incidents of His painful life of
thirty-three years. Take into account the weariness,
the hunger, the thirst, His sickness, the blows with
fist and reed and scourge. Forget not the thorns and
the nails and the heavy burden of the cursed tree,
and you have a picture of human suffering certainly
unequalled upon the earth. Can you measure it or
weigh it, or can your imagination conceive of it ? Ah,
uo, friends ; this is something beyond us all, but such
as it was we most righteously deserve. In comparison
with which, dear friends, is not the present affliction
a light and trivial affair ?
4. But another characteristic which the apostle
gives in belittlement of the present affliction is, it is
momentary. " For our light affliction which is but
for a moment."
Only a few words as to this. The thought is a
very comforting one to the afflicted if they can only
be brought to realize it. " But for a moment." It
may be endured bravely ; for it is soon over. It need
not give rise to melancholy or despair ; for it is soon
over. It need not forever start the fountain of tears,
nor shut out the bright sun rays with black clouds ;
for it is soon over. " But for a moment." Look at
this momentary affliction in two aspects.

376 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
First, it cannot last longer than life, threescore
years and ten at most — a moment surely in view of
the eternity in which there can be neither sickness
nor death, neither sorrow nor crying, and when God
shall wipe away the tears from every eye. Endure
it bravely, friend, whatever it be ; for death ends it,
and then the joy of the reward.
Secondly, even this momentary thing God has
graciously curtailed. He has kindly narrowed down
to possible limits every human sorrow. Who among
men is a sufferer for threescore years and ten ? Very
few are required to fill out all their moments of
sorrow. How small a percentage of humanity
reaches seventy years, even suppose all these years
were allotted to grief. And this last supposition, how
seldom is it the case ? What man has spent a seventh
of his days in sorrow? And then the individual
sorrow ; it cannot last long. God mercifully has so
constituted us that we can get the better of our
heaviest grief. There may come upon us a blow of
some sudden calamity, stunning, crushing, over
whelming ; for the time we are prostrated ; but, while
never forgetting the dreadful cause of our affliction,
God lifts us out of the depths by permitting the
sorrow to wear away. Thus we are constituted.
While not forgetting, we are enabled to rise superior
to our affliction, and thus the affliction which can be
at most but for a moment, has accompanying it many
circumstances which lighten it, shorten it, and make
it to be endured.
II. But now THE GLORY of which the apostle
speaks. I need not stop to describe it. You all

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 377
know to what the language refers — Heaven, New
Jerusalem, the prepared mansion, the inheritance in
corruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away.
Upon this we cannot enlarge as we have done upon
the affliction, because our information is meagre, and
what we have is in a great degree incomprehensible.
All we can do is to read John's picture of it, together
with other Scripture explanatory of it, and then stay
filled with wonder, love, and praise. Eye cannot see
its glories, ear cannot understand its wonders. What
is there reserved hath not entered into the heart of
man. Two facts we know, however, of it for a surety ;
and these the text indicates. Its glory is weighty ; its
glory is eternal. A grand word is this weighty for a
description of glory. Victoria sits upon a glorious
throne. So does some petty monarch of some
eastern kingdom ; and the probability is that the
tinsel and trappings of the latter will far outshine the
former ; but you would scarcely apply to the latter's
throne the epithet " weighty." The word may aptly
indicate Victoria's. It implies something substantial
something honorable, something respected.
The value of gold is determined by its weight.
You prove jewelry to be genuine by its heaviness.
The apostle's allusion here is most probably to the
state garment of an eastern prince woven with
threads of solid gold, sparkling with gems of untold
worth. The poor man, who was compelled to wear
it in the regal pageant, could well understand this
figure of a " weight of glory." You remember the
robe of King Herod, which shone with gold and pre
cious stones in the sun's rays as he stood before the

378 LIFE OF E. W. DADSON.
people to make his last oration. His weight of glory
as well as his speech caused the people to deify him,
for accepting which adoration he was eaten with
worms and died. From this figure learn :
i. The glory which we receive in exchange for the
affliction is a substantial thing. It is no toy or pretty
bauble that pleases for an hour and then wearies us.
It is a solid joy, fitted for every requirement of our
nature. 2. It is an honorable thing. Heirs of God, joint
heirs with Christ, of the heavenly inheritance, how
could it be otherwise ?
3. It is a valuable thing, priceless, bought for us
by the precious blood of Christ, worth to us what
God's Son was to His Father. How we should
esteem it, and count ourselves blessed that we are
named among the sanctified !
4. The apostle's other characteristic of it is that it
is eternal. Words are unnecessary here ; it does not
fade ; it does not diminish ; it has no end — three
characteristics of every earthly joy.
III. And now, in conclusion, the point of the whole
verse. THIS LIGHT, TRIVIAL THING WHICH IS
CALLED AFFLICTION IS WORKING OUT FOR US THIS
ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. Surely a small capital
for such vast returns ; surely great interest upon the
principal. Looking at the glory in store, and con
sidering all the possibilities of that glory, how small
the price we pay for it ! How light the affliction !
And now the exhortation to any who may be
afflicted. This light affliction of yours is working out
this weight of glory. Suffer God's providence, my

AFFLICTION AND GLORY. 379
friend. Endure it ; bear it bravely ; don't interfere
with its operation. For you know there may be
something in the thought that your weight of glory
will be proportionate to your affliction. A brick of
pure gold weighs far more than a brick of impure
cast in the same mould. As its weight was increased
by the fierce fire which burned and purified it, let
the afflicted one rejoice in that he is afflicted, for
let him know that God is thereby sanctifying him,
making him pure, and fitting him for a sphere which
perhaps the unafflicted brother can never occupy.
" And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,
What are these which are arrayed in white robes; and
whence came they ? And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. These are they which came out of great
tribulation and have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are
they before the throne of God and serve Him day
and night in His temple. And He that sitteth upon
the throne shall dwell among them ; they shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall
the sun light upon them, nor any heat. For the
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed
them, and He shall lead them unto living fountains of
water. And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes."

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¦'I||j!l!l III