The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-07
REV. DIR. DIXON'S
FIRST SERMON
As Pastor Of the Penn Avenue Baptist
Church.
1T WAS PREACHED YESTERDAY
Created More Than a Favorable I'm.
pressiOn..lle Has New Things to
Tell and Crisp Way Of Telling
Thcm..Plend Yesterday for u Com.
binatiOn Of the Spiritual and
Belief.

bination Of the Spiritual and
Belief
Rev. DR.. Joseph X. Dixon yesterday
began his pastOrate of the Penn Ave-
nue. Baptist church. Whatever may
have been the favorable and weishty
reports that had preceded his formal
acceptance of the charge, he succeeded
by means Of his sermon yesterday morn
ing in clinching a tie between himself
and congregation. Previously he had
been heard as a comparative stranger;
yesterday he preached in the capacity
of an established pastor. The result
was more than Favorable impress
sion"
DIR. Dixon preached new things ia a
new way. 1t might be said he preached
''at" his hearers instead of ito" them.
and he did it in a way that was .forcible
and which, did not invite any misunder-
standing. The theme was Equipment
for Service" and was from the text
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since
ye believed?" Acts XIX
BROOKLYN WANTED HIM
1t was less than two weeks ago that
committee from the First Baptist
church of Brooklyn. n. Y, came here
and made an effort to have the Penn
Avenue church release Dr. Dixon from
his acceptance of its call. 1t was, Rev.
DR.. ID. c. Eddy who had been pastor of
the Brooklyn church and Dr. Dixon was
temporarily acting as its pastor DR..
a h., Iau fol I'm, h.a If ia
minister's acceptance of the Scranton
call. The Penn Avenue church officers
convinced the Brooklyn people that
Scranton was quite a city and that DR..
Dixon would have ample opportunity to
exercise his talent here and. after enter
tanning them for a day, sent the Brook
lyn men home again.
While the Penn avenue congregation
has had to be pastorlesS for Il year while
seeking the man it wanted, there now
exists the feeling of satisfaction that
will make up for the annoyance of the
recent past. DR.. Dixon begins his pas
torate under the most favorable aus
pices. There exists the feeling that the
city. too. will share with the church the
benefit of the young minister's presence.
with the world. untiring, energetic, fear
less and crisp.
The new pastor accompanied by Mrs.
Dixon and Alice, one Of their three
young children. reached here saturday.
They will make their home at the Hotel
Jermyn for several weeks until the
house they will occupy on jefferson ave-
nue. Is ready to receive them. Mrs.
Dixon will return to Asbury Park this
week for the two children, Rollin Lester
ana Dorothy, and to complete arrange
ments for occupying their new home in
Scranton.
THE SERMON.
In the course of his sermon yesterday,
DR.. Dixon said:
A company of tourists searching for the
history and beauty Of Geneva. came upon
group of people crowding an cminence
of the city. In front of them was high
board fence covered with bill posters an
nouncing in French and German the al
vantages of an excursion. The people
seemed to be so much interested, Aat.
finally. one of the tourists asked AN officer
what it was Oh the bill boards that hal
such an attraction for the people. In
ainaZemcnt the man replied. those peo-
pie are not looking at anything on that
fence: they are looking over the fence
away yonder at the beauty and glory of
Mount Blanc" And sure enough. stand
ing out there against the blue. like a dome
of molten silver. the monarch of noun
tains was thrusting his soldiers.
In this busy work-a-day world of ours,
we are too many of MS looking at the
fence. our eyes are holden with what
man has written and posted for our delec
tatiOn We are more concerned with the
material and practical than with the IDEAL
and spiritual. We 20 forth into the prime
val forest, thinking more of cor'l-woOd
than of the great brotherhood Of trees.
We put our survey chain along the sides
of an acre Of land and the question arises,
how much wheat will II grow? We need
to know, not so much about the natural
law in The spiritual world as the spirit
ual law in the natural world.
This wise world of ours is clamOring for
the right man. The right man in the right
place is the need of the hour-but the
right man has hold of two worlds and
the right place is where God would have
him and where God can use him, either
where the tides are flowing swift or where
the sands are bleaching white.
THE brethren of Joseph, called the lad a
dreamer. but the boy. with a far-away
look, and the child of visions. and the soul
in touch with God became the most prac-
teal man in all Egypt. The young man
who was mastered by God became master
of vast empire.
DREAMS AND DREAMERS.
Dreams and dreamers never have pleas
ant reception. II is time for us to stop
thinking that the man who has his eye
fixed on the far-away must surely stumble
over the numbering feet of the man VINO
lives between the rising and setting of
the sun. l would rather laugh at the
mathematical man than scOrn the dream
er. Show me the man who has visions
Of the night, the man who is following in
visible leaders and if he be preacher, a
whole pentecost will follow his sermon
II he be an Angelo. a David and a Moses
will leap from his chisel-if he be Raph-
ael TRANSPORTATION will immortalize the
canXas he touches-if he he a Milton, a
Paradise Lost will glorfy literature
My first thought is: 1.-THE Holy Spirit
is the completer of life" To very many
Christians the doctrine of the Holy Spirit
is a sort of north pole region. yet to be
discovered. We can think of Christ as a
person, and from Him we go on in our
thought to God as Father. But the Spirit
seems intangible and unreal We have
asked ourselves so many times. who is the
Holy Spirit? We cannot think Him out
and hold him in our little thought l
love to think of the Holy Spirit as the
manifestation Of the universal presence
of Christie be filled with the Spirit is
to be filed with Christ in whom dwclls
all the fullness Of the Godhead bodily.
Every life is a little world-ts hopes. its
fears. its aims. its Distinguishing che
words Of Paul-"For we are His work
manship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works" The light had been divided
from darkness-the Spirit has hovered
over the chaos of sin and shame, and God
has set the sun of a fadeless light shin