Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-03-18

REV. THOMAS A. DIXON.
 pastorate of the Twenty-third Street BAp- tist church. in which he defended himself from what he called mean and insidious attacks of enemies.
 He closed tho sermon by commenting on "some of tho results of sensationalism, as exemplified by his own work in this city during the six years he has been in charge of the church, from which he TO- tires at the end of the present month.
 Since tho announcement of his resigna- tion, he said, several misStatements had found their way into the newspapers which he had reason to believe emanated from members of the board of trustees of tho Twenty-third Street Baptist church, and which led him to write to the chairman of the board of trustees demanding a state- ment of the relations which had existed betwocn them and the events leading up to his resignation of tho pastorate.
 To Have Women For Deacons.
 "One of tho meanest things said about mo, " said the preacher. lis that draw a salary of SEQ, 900 year from all sources. Now, that is the quinteSsence of moan ness. for at DO time in my life have drawn moro than 80, 900 in one year. Sometimes 1t was as little us $750, but whether the smaller or the largor sum, am never out of debt. Another mean state ment is that live on the fat of the hand. Well, do r look ity'' he asked, rubbing his gaunt sides which created much amuse- ment.
 Mir. Dixon then announced that the Peoples churrh of which he is to be the pastor. will open in the Academy of Music on Sunday morning. April 2. There | would be evening services as soon as the hall could Do obtained for that purpose. | To be n member of it person needed only | to believe i'll Jesus Christ. but to make it | ns comprehensive us possible he would have associated with him Congregational ist minister. who would baptizS those who | did not believe in immersion. The SAcra- ments of baptism and communion would l Do administered there ns in any other church, and it was his purpose to pattern | 1t as much as possible after Beecher's | church and mako one-half of the deacons | women.
 The Kind of Preaching That Pays. l Mir. Dixon then turned his attention to comparison of the sensational style of preaching with tho old method, using | what had boon done in his own church as | tho basis of comparison. During the five years and nine months of bis paStorate. he said, the revenues of the church had amounted to $Sl. 1000, of which SEQ. 900 went to outside charities and SEQ. 900 to the paying oil of n floating debt. This was mOrO than the revenues of the church during the 20 years before and was one justification for the introduction of ssnsa- tionalism into the pulpit
 | Again, while churches below Fourteenth street were going to pieces, his lived and thrived. During tho last five years two down town Baptist churches had been rubbed from she map of the city. and there was now only one self sustaining church of that denomination in the lower part of tho city.
 While, during his paStorAte. the Baptist denomination in the city had dEcrSased 2. 900. h0 had made l, ,6o0 converts. It iG no egotism to say that the church had be- come a powoF in the community. fer while Tammany Hall did not know of the axist- enoe of the Twenty third Street church, there was not fAmmany bravo in the city that had not heaEd of him.