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[ transcription of Obituary Notice in the Year Book of the Congregational Union of England & Wales for 1896, page 208, from a copy in Dr Williams's Library, London ]
DALE, Robert William, M.A. (London), D.D. (Yale), LL.D. (Glasgow), for many years one of the most prominent and powerful leaders of the Congregational Churches, was born in Bermondsey on December 1st, 1829. He received his early education, first at a Pestalozzian school, and then at a school kept by Mr Willey, a man of strong character, to whom his pupils were attached by a deep and enduring affection. Even as a child he was fond of books, and already gave promise of exceptional ability; indeed, before leaving school at the age of fourteen he had for some time taken charge of some of the more elementary classes. For the next few years he was engaged as an usher at Andover, at Brixton, and subsequently at Leamington, where he remained until the summer of 1847.
His thoughts long ere this had been fixed on the ministry. His parents were members of the church at the Tabernacle, Moorfields, then presided over by Dr John Campbell. He had distinguished himself in the Sunday-school and in the Bible-class. At Andover, where he attended the Rev. J.S. Pearsall's ministry, early religious impressions had taken definite form, and he had united himself with the Congregational Church. He soon threw himself into active work, and became a constant preacher among the village churches; there are still some surviving who can recall the force and the fire of his early sermons. At Brixton, and more especially at Leamington, where the surrounding country offered extended opportunities of service, he continued to preach and to speak with increasing effect; and finally, in the autumn of 1847, the difficulties which stood in the way having been removed by the kindness of friends, he entered the old college at Spring Hill, Birmingham, where he had among his contemporaries the late Dr. Conder, Dr. Paton of Nottingham, and the Rev. R.A. Redford, and for his professors Henry Rogers -- a man of real genius -- Mr Barker, and Mr Watts. His college career was signally successful. In the London University examination for the B.A. degree he won the prize offered for Old Testament Hebrew, New Testament Greek, and Biblical History; and at the close of his course, when graduating as M.A., he carried off the gold medal for Philosophy.
Before his time at college had expired the Rev. John Angell James, whose whole life had been spent at Carr's Lane Chapel, Birmingham, had recognized in the young student a possible successor; and when his course was completed, after a period of probation, Mr Dale was appointed assistant-preacher in 1853, co-pastor in 1854, and at Mr James's death in October, 1858, he succeeded to the pastorate. Although many attempts were made to induce him to leave Birmingham for work elsewhere, and on three occasions not without some prospect of success, the ties then formed were dissolved only by death. But at the very outset of his ministry he received an urgent invitation to settle at Cavendish Square, Manchester, where, as it seemed to him and to many of his friends, he might look for a larger measure of usefulness, and where he would find a church more in sympathy with his own habits of thought and methods of exposition. After long consideration, Mr Dale was left to decide whether he should go or stay, and he pronounced against the change.
In 1862 Mr Dale declined, not without reluctance, an invitation to settle at Melbourne in a position of academic as well as of pastoral responsibility; and later still, when he had become immersed in public life, he was strongly tempted to accept the charge of the church at Upper Clapton, and so to escape from the growing pressure and distraction of affairs. But the tide of feeling which rose in Birmingham at the prospect of separation proved irresistible. The churches of the town, the leaders of the town, the voice of the whole community, declared that the loss would be not only serious but irreparable; and he yielded to the appeal. If in later years any thought of retiring to a position of ;larger leisure and lighter responsibility ever crossed his mind, it was never more than a thought, and his ministry closed where it began.
The history of a pastorate extending over more than forty years cannot be recorded with any fulness of detail. Success is never achieved at a stroke, every young minister who follows a great and famous man has special difficulties to contend with; they were not wanting at Carr's Lane, but they were met and overcome. For a time, too, the church, like all churches established in the centre of a great city, was affected by the continuous migration from the city to the suburbs, and from the suburbs to districts still more remote. Mission stations grew into churches and became independent. New churches, as they were founded, drew many of their most active members from the older community. But a temporary decline in the numbers on the church-roll was followed by a steady increase. Change in the fellowship, change in the diaconate, change in methods of organisation and in the order of service, the new needs which came with new times, all left the peace and the power of the church unimpaired. There was no abatement of trust, no weakening of affection, no decline of sympathy between pastor and people.
It is not difficult to account for the permanence of his power. From first to last, even in his busiest years, the pastor of Carr's Lane never forgot that his chief work, to which all other claims were secondary, lay among his own people. And he always gave them of his best. All his most important discourses were delivered in his own pulpit before publication. Those who listened to him were trained to think upon great subjects of more enduring interest than the topics of the hour. And further, his teaching was continuous and systematic. His own mind from time to time was dominated by a succession of supreme spiritual truths, which followed one another like the constellations of heaven. To these he recurred week after week, stated them in various forms, illustrated them in diverse ways, and followed them in their complex applications, till the idea which possessed him was firmly rooted in the minds of his hearers also. It was his habit to deal with large masses of thought, to take for exposition not isolated texts merely, but passages and even books of Scripture, and thus to give his people a broad as well as a clear outlook upon the realms of Divine revelation.
He had an ardent delight in theology; under different conditions he might have taken rank with the most illustrious leaders of speculative thought; and he communicated something of his own ardour to those around him. But at the same time, theology, as he handled it, was brought into close and intimate contact with conduct and life. He grasped Paul with one hand, James with the other; wedded philosophy and fact, speculation and experience, in indissoluble union. Among his contemporaries were preachers of more striking originality, masters of a subtle charm which he did not possess, gifted, it may be, with a richer eloquence; but it was his to move habitually on exalted levels of faith, at home among supreme and essential truth, never remote from men and yet ever near to God.
Dr Dale's work was centred in his own church, but was not confined to it. In all the movements that concerned the community or the nation he took an active part, and gave to public objects a large amount of time and strength. His influence in Birmingham became paramount. Not only in religious effort, but also in politics, in education, in social enterprises, in the administration of great institutions, his leadership was universally acknowledged. For many years he was one of the most active members of the School Board. As a governor of the Grammar School he did much to develop and to extend the usefulness of the great foundation of King Edward the Sixth. In the political activity of the town his part was conspicuous. On the platform his conviction and his eloquence gave him enormous force, and by his public utterances he helped in great measure to mould the thought and faith of his fellow-citizens; in the committee-room his business faculty, his industry, and his breadth of view secured his ascendency.
And though during his later years he withdrew from all political conflict, his influence still remained a power to reckon with. In all matters concerned with education he took the very deepest interest. Religious freedom in the schools of the nation, for teachers and scholars alike, ever found in him a resolute and persistent champion. When the Royal Commission on Elementary Education was appointed in 1886, he was nominated as a member; and but for failing strength he would also have served on the Secondary Education Commission of more recent date.
Of the position which Dr. Dale held among the Congregational churches it is needless to speak at length. Very early in his career he appeared on the platform of the Union. The part which he took in the discussions originated by the Bicentenary commemoration of 1862, gave large promise of future influence. Before he was forty he was elected to the Chair of the Congregational Union. In 1871 he was chosen to preach the annual sermon at the meetings in Swansea. Four years later, as Congregational Lecturer, he delivered his discourses on the Atonement. At the request of the Union Committee he published a "Manual of Congregational Principles." With Mr Albert Spicer, he visited the Australian churches during the commemoration of their Jubilee in the winter months of the years 1887-8. And when the first International Council, representing the Congregational churches of the world, met in London in 1891 he was called to preside over its deliberations.
His devotion to the cause of ministerial education only grew stronger with time. His connection with Spring Hill College remained unbroken. For nearly thirty years he acted as Chairman of the Board of Education, and on two occasions at least he gave courses of lectures to the students. It was largely through his influence that the institution was moved to Oxford and reconstituted on a new basis as Mansfield College. The policy, indeed, was not originated by him; others largely contributed to its success; but it is no exaggeration to say that no other man could have taken his place in reconciling conflicting interests, in conciliating opposition, in carrying through delicate and complex negotiations, and in removing the many obstacles which the scheme had to encounter in its progress. And in addition to these more public services, his advice and help were sought by churches in all parts of the kingdom and in the colonies also, to settle questions of order and usage, to arbitrate in disputes, and to restore unity where peace had been disturbed. The burden of labour and responsibility thus incurred was one of the heaviest which he had to bear.
It is not possible to mention more than a few of his contributions to literature. Very early in his ministry he was associated with Dr. Paton as an editor of the Eclectic Review. For eight years he edited the Congregationalist. He contributed largely not only to denominational organs but to the British Quarterly, the Nineteenth Century, and the Contemporary Review, to Good Words, and the Sunday Magazine. Many of his books have won wide popularity among Churchmen as well as Nonconformists. The lectures on the Atonement have proved to be a permanent contribution to theological literature; the exposition of the Hebrews and the Ephesians, the volume entitled, "The Living Christ and the Four Gospels," and the"Discourses on Christian Doctrine" are hardly less familiar. In his "Week-day Sermons," and "The Laws of Christ for Common Life," he established his reputation as an ethical teacher. The Yale lectures on preaching, delivered on the Lyman Beecher foundation -- he was the first Engl ishman appointed to the Chair -- not only illustrate the methods by which his own success in the pulpit was achieved, but also set forth the lofty ideals which he kept before him in the work of the ministry. He watched in behalf of men's souls, as one that would have to give account.
In the early summer of 1891, signs of serious disease manifested themselves, and it was with the greatest difficulty and at considerable risk that he discharged his duties as President of the International Council. A serious illness followed, and for some days he seemed at the point of death. But the immediate peril passed away, and by slow degrees his strength in part returned. He was able to preach in his own pulpit, with occasional intervals of absence, till within a few weeks of his death. Recovery, however, had never been complete, and during the winter of the year 1894 it was evident that his strength was failing, and that the end could not be remote. He passed away, after a brief struggle, on March 13th, 1895. Among those who were present in the vast congregation which thronged the chapel at the funeral service there must have been many who recalled to memory the closing words of the charge delivered to the young minister by his venerable colleague more than forty years before:
"Long after my memorial shall be added to those inscribed on yonder marble, may you occupy the pulpit that overshadows my tomb, and send forth over my sleeping dust the words of life and immortality. A long, a holy, and a useful career be yours in this place! As it was in my case, so may it be in yours; and this church be your first, your last, your only love. Rich in years, in honours, and in usefulness, may you come, at some far distant day, to your end; and then, after labouring in the same pulpit, come and lie down with me in the same grave at the foot of it; so shall we resemble warriors resting on the field where they fought and conquered."
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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 19/5/03)