DR DALE OF BIRMINGHAM.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3648, 26 January 1899, Page 3

DR DALE OF BIRMINGHAM.

SOMIS REMINISCENCES

In the recently published biography of Dr Dale, • the famous noncomformist preacher, of Birmingham, there afeonany good anecdotes from which we. select the following:— A graphic description is given in a letter, to his parents of, Dale’s first Sunday at Carr’s lane, where he went ib 1849 (aged 20) to preach for Mr .Angell James. An excellent old la’dy, Mrs Govern one of the founders of Bpring-hill .College, feared that the young preacher might be unduly p'uffed up by. the kindly, compliments of Mr Jaipes., “I had a message from her on'the Monday morning that she wanted to speak to me. ,1 called, and for half an hour ho aid nothing bf exceptional importance, but as I rose to go, she said, ‘ Oh, my dear, I hear that Mr James, said some kindly things about your sermon in his address at the Lord’s Supper. ’Well, you must not mind; it is only his way.’ ” ■ ; ■

Once, and once only, did a speech from Dale empty a hall. “ One evening in 1858, soon after Donati’s comet appeared, he was speaking at the Town-hall, haying come in late from another engagement. For a week it had been dark and stormy; but that night,'after the meeting ihad assembled, a sudden change had.' left a cloudless sky. When.called on to he soon had his 5 audience well in K hand, until, by way of illustration, he referred to the comet— ‘ now: blazing with mat airless splendour in the. heavens.' The audience rose at once, and.filed out in long' lines; within a few minutes, the hall was almost empty. The experience, he used to say, taught him to watch, not only what illustrations he used, but when and where he used‘them.” In 1872 Dale had an unfortunate accident. “In the middle'of July, he had arranged to preach at Ventnor, and at the same time to take a *few days’ holiday in the island. On the .Thursday Vbefore his engagement, he made an excursion to Carisbrobke; and while, walking along one of the castle walls, he slipped and fell, breaking an'arm and dislocating the elbow. The pain and the shock kept him on the, couch for several days. Di\ Halley took hix place on the Sunday, and when ho gave out as his text, ‘He kcepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken,’ the gravity of the congregation gave -way. The good old. man 1 was uneasily conscious that ' something was wrong;, but the ripple, of laughter did not enlighten him, and it was not untilhe had left the pulpit that he saw what —especially when he found ' that some present supposed the incongruity to have' been intentional.” Dale first heard Mr Gladstone in 1863. r ‘l very soon caught Mr Bright, and he took'me—not into the ordinary gallery, nor even into'the Speaker’s gallery, but to the bar of the House of Lords and other distinguished strangers commonly sit. He sat down, and chatted with me for a few minutes, and was very pleasant though evidently sore about the present stagnation of political life. In the course of the evening I heard Gladstone, who spoke very much as I expected. He has infinite fluency, a very pleasant’ tenor voice, speaks with faultless accuracy, and is wonderfully fertile in his thoughts ; ■ but I don’t feel that he could impress 'me as Bright sometimes does.” ■ ° Mr Chamberlain’s famous tribute is well known, but it may be quoted once more:-—“I have seen a statement that I go to Parliament as the representative of Mr Dale. ’Well, if that be so, - there is no member of ho House of Commons who will have a better, wiser, or nobler constituency. But you will at least remember this: that if Mr Dale has any influence over the 50,000. electors of Birmingham, ho owes iftohis devotion to their highest interests, he owes it’to his eloquent and outspoken advocacy of all that is good and great.” Equally .interesting is his letter to Mr Chamberlain, when the latter had returned from Ms campaign of 1885 :—“ I congratulate you very heartily on your recent speeches in the north ; apart from the substance they have reached a level which I think you never touched before, and which I hope you will, keep. It is a groat thing.for .a man to make an ' advance of this . kind l when he has touched 50. This .criticism is rather presumptuous for;a .person like 1 myself to offer to anex-Cabinet Minister,: but the delight one has in watching the 1 growing strength of one’s comrades re-, mains when a comrade.hastbecome aichief; and when one. has lost the-right'to speak/ to him in this way.” ' ... There is a later glimpse of Mr Chamberlain in 1892.-:—“Joseph Chamberlain is, of course, still immensely; interesting, )bnt I am not sure that ho is quite as interesting as he was 20 years ago, and ho is necessariy very much away from Birmingham. The time was when I used to have a smoko with him, and John Henry Chamberlain, and Timins, and the rest, as often as twice or three times a week.”