BY THE REV. A. C. DIXON, D.D., METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE.
WE take the liberty of reprinting the following “Open Letter” from The Sword and the Trowel for December. It raises a good testimony for truth:
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON BUTTS, S.E.,
16th November, 1914.
DEAR SIR,—A few weeks ago you were kind enough to invite me to meet you with a number of pastors for conference concerning the advisability of holding meetings for prayer at noon in the City Temple.
I laid your letter before the Lord for three days, seeking as best I could His guidance; and I felt constrained to write you the following reply:—
[COPY.]
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON BUTTS,
LONDON, S.E., 3rd October, 1914.
Rev. R. J. CAMPBELL, M.A.,
Pastor of the City Temple.
MY DEAR SIR,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your kind invitation to meet you next Monday at 11 a.m. to confer concerning daily meetings for prayer in the City Temple.
Permit me to say that since the War began there has been a meeting for prayer every day at noon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and on the day before the tide turned in favour of the Allies a group of Christians spent much of the day and at least one of them most of the night in prayer that Paris might be spared. We believe that it is not presumptuous to say that God heard them and others over the world who prayed in the name of Christ our God and Saviour.
The last time I heard you preach your subject was “The Ever-vanishing Christ,” and you will forgive me for saying that in your sermon you did great dishonour to our adorable Lord.
And may I be pardoned again for saying, in all love and humility, that if those who have brought dishonour upon Christ in attempting to take from Him the crown of His Deity by denying His supernatural birth, and discredit upon the Holy Scriptures by denying their inspiration and authority, would confess their sin before God and then before men, they would do more to move God to help the Allies than they could do by daily prayer for a lifetime without such confession.—Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) A. C. DIXON.
I know not whether you received this letter. If so, I have not been favoured with an answer. I, therefore, take the liberty of addressing you in this public fashion.
I am aware that Great Britain is engaged in a terrible War, and, though I am an American by birth, my whole heart is with England and her Allies in this struggle against scientific, ethical, and military barbarism. It is no time for squabbling over minor issues; but the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a minor issue, nor is the authority of the Holy Scriptures, for which our English forefathers suffered imprisonment and death. The destiny of the people for time and eternity depends upon these.
If Christ were a mere man, mistaken like other men, and His reported Virgin Birth and bodily Resurrection mere myths, we are of all men most pitiable. And if the Bible, with its sacred promises, is a “scrap of paper” to be torn to pieces at will, we are in a still more pitiable plight. It is more important that Christ should be what He claimed to be, the Son of God who came down from heaven to save the world, than that the Allies should conquer. Better, a thousand times better, that the world should come under the despicable militarism of Germany than that it should be robbed of its Saviour and its revelation from God. Through the power of Christ and the Bible, we might hope for deliverance from any kind of servitude, but if Christ and the Bible be gone, our chains of slavery under any government will soon be forged and riveted upon us for ever.
I am aware that you have been reported as veering back toward the Evangelical faith, and I went to hear you on the occasion I have mentioned, hoping that the report might be confirmed; but I was disappointed. In your sermon, however, as published, some of your most shocking oral utterances were omitted and others were modified. If this indicated that, when you saw your words in cold print, you were yourself sufficiently shocked to omit or modify them, you should have due credit; but I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you have so dishonoured, though in the heat of oral delivery, is worthy of your public confession and apology. If you have been convinced of the falsity of the philosophy which led you to deny the supernatural birth of Christ, would it not be the manly thing for you to say so frankly, and make your retraction as wide as your denial? Such a course would give joy to thousands and command the respect of all.—Yours very truly,
A. C. DIXON.