Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-24

REV. THOS. DIXON, JR.
 Of Rev. Thos Dixon, Jr., the young New York prea cher who appears at O'Briens opera house Thursday night Gan. 2S) in his thrilling lecture on Mod ern Babylon" the Detroit Christian Her. aid says:
 pr. Talma ge's pulpit for years has been the Mecca of the stranger in New York. It is now the pulpit of Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr, whose congregation leased the Academy of Music on the removal of the great Brooklyn preacher. This vast au- ditorium is now crowded every Sunday by even greater multitudes than once at- tended pr. Talmage's services.
 MT. Dixon Is undoubtedly very re- marka ble man. His youth, his intellectu- al ability, his gifts of oratory, natural and cultivated and his skill in church management, joined to his determination to succeed as a preacher to the people, make him a power worthy of study.
 He was born in North Carolina, Jan. Il, 1864, entered Wake Forest college, North Carolina, in September, 1879, where he soon became a marked man among pro- fessors and students. During his college course, besides taking five years course in four years, and standing in the fore most rank as a student, he captured from sharp contestants five gold medals. He was graduated with the highest hon ors in June, 1883, and at once entered Johns Hopkins university, Baltimore, for a postgraduate course of one year. At the age of nineteen he went to New York, and spent one year studying dramatic art and oratory. Returning to North Carolina he became interested in politics, and at 20 years of age, before he could vote, was elected a member of the North Carolina legislature, thus making him the youngest legislator in the United States He now determined to become a lawyer and a politician.
 He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but became persuaded that 1t was his duty to preach the Gospel. He filled pastorates in Goldsboro and Raleigh, N. C., doing magnificent work in both places. His fame soon spread, and at 23 years of age he received a call from the Dudley Street Baptist church. Boston, one of the oldest churches in the city. In few weeks every seat and all stand ing room was filled, and it was not un- common for many to be unable to enter the edifice at all owing to the immense congregations. Early in 1889 he accepted a call from small church in New York, believing that New York was the best field in which he could do good. His congregation at the Twenty-third Street Baptist church at once more than doubled, and in September, upon his re- turn from vacation, Association hall was engaged. This hall was taxed to it's ut most capacity for four years.
 April ', 1885, MT. Dixon left the Twenty third street church and founded. in the Academy of Music, the largest auditorium in New York, ~The Peoples Church." on the broad basis of fellowship in the ser vice of Christ. There have been enrolled over seven hundred members during the first nine months, and the movement promises to be great success in the practical realization of Christian unity.
 A feature of Mr. Dxon's great congre- gations is the fact that three-fourths of his hearers are men, while no other New York audience has, it is said, an aver age of over one-third men.
 Since coming to New York MT. Dixon has preached to more people regularly than any other man in the city, and more note has been taken of his work by the Metropolitan press than that of any other clergyman.
 No man in America is more thoroughly hated by certain class of law-breakers, corrupt politicians and blackguard news papers than this young preacher. But vilifica ton, slander, and abuse only in- crease the number of his friends, and augments the pressure of the crowd to gain admission to his services. The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes. the great Methodist preacher of London, recently said of him in an article in his London Times "He is the living embodiment of the convic- tions, ideals and methods by which Christianity will yet triumph in the civil ized world"
 In the fall of 1SS9 amid hostile criticism within his church and denomination, and absolutely alone. he began in the pulpit a determined and bitter series of assaults on Tammany Hall and municipal cor ruption He was leader with Dr. Cros- by in the following unsuccessful cam paign when Scott was the union candi- date for mayor When, three years later, Dr. Parkhurst fired his famous bomb into the city hall, MT. Dixon was the first minister to come to his defense. For this scathing prelude in defense of pr. Park hurst he was arrested the following Tues day on the order of Tammany Hall, on the charge of criminal libel, and was indicted by a packed grand jury two weeks later, and the case was immediately put on the call endar of the court It was a bold at tempt to throttle free speech in New York. and prevent any other ministers Joining the Parkhurst crusade. The next Sunday after the indictment was found. MT. Dixon struggled through the crowd entered his pulpit and boldly denounced the grand jury az packed, and the pre- siding judge as particeps criminis. The effect was electrical. Three days later the indictment was secretly dismissed by the district attorneys own motion. In two months every pulpit in New York was laundering for Dr. Parlshurst and his work. Mir Dixon was the pioneer in New York in bringing to bear the full moral force of the pulpit Itself on burning public questions. He has persistertly de- clared the sacredness of the secular and insisted that politics is religion in action.
 A HEALTH BUILDER.
 A. A.