The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-02-16
DR.. DlxON'S SERMON
ONE OF TIE MOST ELOQUENT
DlSCOURSES EVER HEARD
IN RALEIGH.
His Sermon Was Not Only an Able and
Eloquent Discourse, Bui it
Reached the Hearts of
all Hearers.

The best sermon / ever heard in my
life was preached some five or six years
ago in Central Methodist church in Raj
eigh one Wednesday night to a congre-
CATION of less than seyenty-fve, by Bish-
op Alpheus Wilson, Of the Baltimore
Conference. 1T was on the lessons taught
by the love of the woman, as expressed
in pouring out the box of precious
ointment aud wiping the feet of the
Master.
There is but one true test Of great
sermon. 1t cannot be great without
thought. But great thought alone never
made great sermon. There must be
in it that indefinable essence that takes
hold of the hearer and makes him resolve
deep down in his heart to be a better
man. That was the sort Of sermon DIT.
Il. Il. Dixon preached at Central MethO-
dist church Sunday morning. lit was ORR
ginal in conception, felicitous and Apo
site in expression, and was enriched with
telling illustration as it was a truly God
given message to the hearts of the
hearers. And it went to their hearts, as
well as pleased their intellect. There
was instruction and pleasing incident
chat would have charmed the mere lover
OF the rhetorician and orator: but there
was the deeper spiritual side that warm
ed the heart, fed the soul, and strength
ened the good resolution.
The theme of DR. Dixon was the sell
ing Of the birth-right for the mess OF
pottage-a theme as old as mankind. But
he found lessons in it practical for the
duties of to-day, enumerating some Of
the vanities and the small things for
,sT.l 4 4@a0sv
reputation and character. He touched
up those who sold their votes for ''politi-
cal pie" as we'll as those who destroyed
themselves to crafty their appetites and
passions, and did so with such choice
word-paintings as made the modern
Esau and the modern Jacob living, NOV
/ ing beings.
The central thought in the sermon was
that as no chain is stronger than its
weakest link, so no mans character is
stronger than it weakest point. Easu
would not have sold his birth-right for
a mess of pottage except in an hour OF
hunger and fatigue. Jacob was shrewd
enough Ito tempt him when his physical
condition made his power of resistance
weak Most men who fall do so in an
hour--in a minute-when assaulted at a
point left unprotected. Few men delib~
erately forge, or murder, or steal. He
made thrilling reference to a man now
confined to the penitentiary who was a
good husband and a good father, but who
in a moment of passion killed his fellow
man. Ten minutes before, he could not
have committed that crime; ten minutes
after his life was wrecked by the sin OF
moment DIR. Dixon illustrated the
necessity of a man guarding his weak
points with suggestive and actual hap
penings, recited with power and elo-
quence. He believed that mo man was
so strong that tempta ton could not assail
and overcome him unless he learned
where his moral armOr was weakest and
was on guard at that point. But there
was no point of human weakness against
which man could mot fortify himself, and
and be able to come out conqueror.
This is no synopsis of one Of the oest,
brightest and most original sermons l
have heard since Bishop Wilson's SER
mon in Central Methodist church sew
eral years ago. 1t with stand out in my
memory among the half dozen best SER
mons it has been my good fortune to
hear. Ii DR.. Dixon's throat trouble had
not kept him out OF the ministry, he
would have been one OF the leading di-
wines OF the whole South.