THE

METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1849.

ARTICLE I-REV. JAMES DIXON, D. D.*

THE visit of the Rev. Dr. Dixon to the United States, as the accredited messenger of the Wesleyan Church of Great Britain to the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, has left a very agreeable impression, not only upon the members of the General Conference, but upon all who met him in personal intercourse. In expressing this opinion, we apprehend that we echo the universal sentiment of the church he was deputed to visit. Certainly we have heard nothing to the contrary. Although thoroughly Anglican in his feelings, a right loyal subject of the British crown, and a sincere and ardent admirer of the British constitution, as he was always prompt to avow; there was yet so much of urbanity and kindness, of candour and liberality, of Christian courtesy and meekness, in his brief intercourse with his American brethren, and such cordial, unaffected sympathy with their religious sentiments and feelings, that national peculiarities were mutually forgotten, and he sojourned among them only as a friend and "brother beloved," a member of the same household of faith, a partaker of the common salvation, and a co-inheritor of the same blessed promises.

Individually, we scarcely anticipated so perfect and cordial a unity between Dr. Dixon and his cis-Atlantic brethren. Our knowledge of him, as has been elsewhere said, was slight, and came rather in the form of observation than of personal acquaintance; but we were not alone in the almost apprehensions we entertained upon the subject. Unanimous as was the British Conference in the selection of him as

The writer of this article published some time since, among other sketches, one of the Rev. Dr. Dixon. It was very brief and imperfect, and was in consequence omitted from his volume of "Sketches of Wesleyan Preachers." Much additional information, and a more correct estimate of his subject, have, the writer conceives, been wrought into the present "sketch."

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their representative, there were those in this country, who, like ourselves had some knowledge of the Doctor, who doubted the wisdom of the choice. The principal reason for this opinion, was a fear that the reverend gentleman could not readily adapt himself to American habits of thought and action. He was known to be a loyalist of the most loyal sort; and it was scarcely to be expected, judging from experience, that such a one would see or acknowledge any good in this Nazareth of a republic. We did the gentleman an injustice by these surmisings; an injustice founded upon a forgetfulness of the mature Christian graces that adorn his character. We regard the bearing of Dr. Dixon, during the whole of his sojourn in the United States, as a fine exemplification of that ripe fruit of a regenerate heart--that true meekness of spirit that is perfected only by deep personal piety and rich experience in the things of God-which in honour prefers another to itself. Coming from that which we recognize as the parent country to one yet in the first century of its national existence, the institutions and people of which are in his own land greatly misunderstood and often misrepresented; delegated in the supreme legislature of the English Wesleyan Church to visit, as their representative, their sister churches on this continent, himself having once filled the highest office in the gift of that venerable body; it would have excited little surprise had he manifested some hesitation about acknowledging the good he saw, or had he seen it only with an uncongenial and distrustful bias. But he manifested no such disposition. He mingled with the Christian families, stood in the holy sanctuaries dispensing the bread of life, sat in the church councils of a rival country, and saw her prosperity under institutions, civil, political, and ecclesiastical, adverse, it may almost be said, to those of his native land, not only without "envy, jealousy, and uncharitableness," but with a sympathetic joy that often found willing utterance in sincere and hearty congratulations. For these and other sufficient reasons, it seems "meet and right" that a biographical sketch of Dr. Dixon should accompany the fine portrait which our publishers, with commendable enterprise, have imported as an embellishment for the present number of the Review.

The Rev. Dr. Dixon commenced his itinerancy in 1812, and prior to the Conference of 1824 had travelled in the following circuits:Hereford, Kington, Brecon, Cardiff, Luton, and Gloucester. We have not access to any records of these early years of his ministerial life, but conclude that his labours were more than usually acceptable, as we find him fulfilling a second appointment of two years in one of the circuits, after an absence of only four years. The appointments themselves are not important, but this is no criterion by which

to judge of a young preacher's talents or general qualifications in that day. To an extent much beyond the present practice, young men were then required to spend their first. ten or twelve years in what are technically called "hard," or poor," or "country" circuits. Experience is, we fear, developing the serious inconveniences of a departure from this practice on the part of the British Conference. Within the last fifteen or twenty years a class of young men have entered the Wesleyan ministry, in education and attainments superior to the majority of their predecessors. These; of course, have been eagerly sought after by the larger towns and circuits, the influential and official men of which have earnestly pressed their claims upon the Conference. Those claims have in a variety of instances been acceded to, as the annual stations of the preachers prove. The character of the Wesleyan ministry has within the time named undergone, and is still undergoing, an important change. The Theological Institution, originally, doubtless, an effect of the very change that was going on, has become a most potent cause of the transformation which is in progress. Every year adds to the number of educated men in the British itinerancy; and every year the claims of the larger towns and circuits interfere more and more with the business of stationing the preachers. The difficulties experienced by the Conference of 1848, in this respect, are represented to have been greater than at any former time. This demand for young preachers was at the foundation of the difficulty. Whether it is possible now to return to the original custom, or whether it is "too late," it is difficult to say. Uneasiness will be experienced in either case. If the Conference resolve to retrace their steps, they will be strongly opposed by those who are now accommodated; while to abide by the modern practice will augment the embarrassments which already press heavily upon the appointing power.

In 1824 Dr. Dixon was stationed on the Gibraltar mission, but returned to England in 1825, at the Conference of which year he was appointed to the Wakefield circuit. He laboured there for three years with great acceptability and usefulness. At this time the heart of England was deeply moved by the anti-slavery agitation. Dr. Dixon took an active part in that discussion, and thence his popularity as a public speaker may be dated. The question was almost universally regarded as one that involved national honour and Christian principle, and called into public life many who had before pursued in private action the even tenour of their way. The prevailing excitement laid violent hands upon the subject of this article, and pressed him into its service. The topic was happily introduced into his missionary speeches. As we have elsewhere said, the