The Life And Ministry Of Philip Dickerson

Earthen Vessel 1882:

The Late Mr. Philip Dickerson

“As flowers which night, when day is o’er, perfume,

Breathes the sweet memory from a good man’s tomb.”

It is to be hoped that the readers of the Earthen Vessel will not mistake the few memorial notices here recorded of the late Mr. Philip Dickerson for a biography of him. Personally we knew but little of Mr. Dickerson, not having heard his voice since he preached to an overcrowded house the funeral sermon of the late John Foreman, of blessed memory. Having, however, at hand, by the great kindness of Mr. Samuel George Ince, of Bishopsgate-street, all the original materials for a biography of Mr. Dickerson, it would be comparatively easy to write and publish his life in full, if time and means were at command. From a real love of all good men and a felt sense of the worth of their great work, we have often sincerely regretted to see many of their noble names and still nobler labours lost to the living so soon after the interment of their sacred remains, for the want of a generous and faithful scribe. And here we respectfully mention such grand Gospel preachers of the past as James Wells, John Foreman, John Andrew Jones and William Palmer; and beside these, there is a host of other champions in the faith whose lives in extenso might, at a moderate expenditure, have been handed to posterity for the encouragement of rising ministers, had each respective Church over which they so long and faithfully presided, made a little extra effort in the right direction. Instead of which the names and works of such good men are quietly shelved as some antiquated pieces of furniture, and of which many of their more gentle surviving friends, we fear, appear to be half-ashamed. Consequently, in years to come, few persons will know that such men ever existed, unless it be by some such memorials of them as remain on mural tablets placed in the sanctuaries which they were the chief means of erecting. Some men, however, by the energies of the biographer and historian, are better known and appreciated after death than when they were living. Hence, as Aldrich correctly sang of some who have had to die in order to be rightly known—

“God gives us ministers of love

Which we regard not, being near;

Death takes them from us, then we feel

That angels have been with us here!”

However, we wish to hold all honest men in high appreciation while they live, and ever speak well of them for their loving Master’s sake, as well as for their good work sake.

In the far-famed county of Suffolk, a few miles from Ipswich, in a village called Bucklesham, was born Philip Dickerson, of humble parents, early in the year 1795. What men has the county of Suffolk bred! men of sterling worth in God’s hand; men with grace in their hearts and common sense in their heads; men, by the strength of Christ, determined to upset Satan’s kingdom, by preaching the wondrous Saviour’s death, the everlasting love of the Mighty Father, and the life-giving and sustaining power of the Eternal Spirit. Bless God for such men, Philip Dickerson being one of them, the even tenor of whose way proves him to have been a son of consolation rather than of thunder. The year 1811 was a great year to young Master Dickerson, he then first saw the light of the spiritual world, and before that year expired, he followed the footsteps of his divine Lord in the waters of baptism. But little was heard of him beyond the immediate surroundings of his own native village till about five years after, when he was called by a voice from heaven into the work of the ministry, and from that period till the time he settled at Rattlesden, he preached at various places, such as Newborne, Beccles, and Boston. The cause at Rattlesden, it is presumed, was not large when he was duly recognised as the pastor elect. And we have seen the sermon preached on the occasion by that mighty man of God, John Stevens, also we have before us a grand sermon preached by Mr. Stevens at Rattlesden, on September 11, 1822, and published by “request of their worthy pastor, Mr. P. Dickerson.” Mr. P. Dickerson left the church at Rattlesden, after thirteen years’ labour, much stronger than when he first came to it. Our brother Huxham is now the pastor of Rattlesden Church. By a clerical error in the Church book now before us, it is noticeable, by a correction with Mr. Dickerson’s own hand, that he preached his first sermon in that honoured house of God in Little Alie-street, from Eph. 6:23, on Lord’s-day, January 15, 1832, upwards of fifty years ago; and few, very few doubtless, if any, are now living who heard the first sermon preached in London by that young Suffolk pastor. And what must have been the tender feelings of the warm-hearted Rattlesdon folks when they saw the monarch of the road, the stage coach, bearing away their loving pastor to that wondrous city called London, which at that time many had never seen, yet entertained curious and fabulous notions of. From the life of Mr. W. Shenstone (which we are in possession of), and the Church books, it appears that on April 16, 1832, the Church at Little Alie-street, gave Mr. Dickerson a call to be co-pastor with Mr. Shenstone, there being a majority in his favour of 140 members, and on September 5, 1833, he was publicly recognised as pastor. On the occasion, James Upton, Junr., read and prayed; George Pritchard, of Keppel-street, described the nature of a Gospel Church, and asked the usual questions; James Upton, Senr., of Blackfriars, delivered the charge, and the late John Cooper, of Wattisham, gave out the hymns. That was a high day indeed, the beginning of a happy and successful future. On the 27th of June, of the same year, W. Shenstone departed in peace, having been the pastor of Little Alie-street Church upwards of 85 years, and his remains were buried behind the vestry of the chapel. The pall was borne by six ministers:—A. Reed, Williams, W. Newman, D.D., James Upton, W. H. Murch, D.D., and Philip Dickerson. Upwards of fifty members of the Church followed, besides a numerous train of relatives. James Upton, Senr., officiated at the grave, and Dr. Newman, of Bow, preached the funeral sermon. Both James Upton, who was forty years pastor of the Church at Blackfriars, and William Newman, D.D., were Waltham Abbey men, and preached their first sermons before the Church there, which Church was designated by John Martin, of Keppel-street, Joseph Irvine, of Eagle-street, and the late Samuel Milner, as the “School of the Prophets.” Well done, Waltham Abbey. It might now be said, Can any good thing come out of Waltham Abbey? 

The Church at Alie-street—or Ayliffe-street, as it was called—was a split from the Church at Prescot-street, Goodman’s-fields, after the death in 1750, of that valiant soldier of the cross, Samuel Wilson, who was twenty years the pastor of that Church. His funeral sermon was preached by John Gill, D.D., from Acts 20:38. Samuel Burford succeeded Mr. Wilson. Mr. James Fall, a member of Dr. Gill’s Church, was the first preacher and ordained pastor of Little Alie-street Church, and was recognised as such on March 28, 1754, by his father, pastor of the Watford Church, Amos Harrison and William Bentley. The Church at Little Alie-street was formed in the December of 1753, and consisted of 73 members. During Mr. Fall’s ministry 96 were added to the Church. His death took place in 1756. Late in the same year, John Gill, nephew of Dr. Gill, received a call from the Church at Alie-street, he was afterwards settled at St. Albans. William Dowars was the next pastor, ordained September 15, 1757. William Shenstone succeeded Dowars in 1792, and laboured for 85 years, during which time 658 persons were added to the Church. Mr. Philip Dickerson followed Shenstone, in 1832, and from that period to the year 1869 no less than 633 persons had been added to the Church; and for some years our beloved brother, Mr. Charles Masterson, successfully laboured as pastor of the same Church till he, but recently, removed to Brighton. The Church at Little Alie-street is now, what the fathers would call in a “widowed state,” and the sooner it meets, under God’s direction, with a loving pastor, the more permanent will be its happiness and success. Many good men, as preachers of the Gospel have, we doubt not, come out of this Church, and one of the many, we know for certain, is the present much-loved pastor of the New Chapel at Stowmarket, Mr. G. G. Whorlow, who has long been highly appreciated by us for his love and faithfulness, and who is well reported of in all the churches. Our brother Whorlow was for 20 years an active deacon in the Church at Little Alie-street, in the most flourishing part of Mr. Dickerson’s ministry, and he knew much of the inner and outer life of the late worthy pastor, of whom he writes us: “He (Mr. Dickerson) was upright in character as a man; as a Christian, benevolent, kind, and tender-hearted; as a minister, plain, simple, truthful and faithful, steering between the two extremes of’ Arminianism and Antinomianism.”

Mr. Dickerson has been as useful with his pen as with his tongue and his name will be held in high estimation by many who have, in one way or another, profited by his labours, and whose hearts betimes long to join him in that world of’ bliss, as the substance of their prayers to Jesus is—

“Return! return! come in Thy power and glory,

With all Thy risen saints and angel throng;

Bring to a close Time’s strange, mysterious story,—

How long dost Thou delay—O Lord, how long?”

Mr. Dickerson peacefully fell asleep in Jesus on Lord’s-day, October 22, in his 88th year. His remains were interred in Bow Cemetery, October 26.

“A sleep without dreams, after a day of toil,

Is what we covet most; and yet how clay

Shrinks back from more quiescent clay.”

Before the corpse was removed to the cemetery, a short service was held in the chapel, when Mr. Charles Stovel read and offered prayer, and Mr. Charles Masterson, gave a short and solemn address. As the sombre cortege proceeded slowly to the grave, many were the enquiries of strangers as to who the deceased was, as the number of followers was large and imposing. Noticeable among the mourners were the widow of the deceased, Augustus Dickerson, Esq., the only son, three daughters, Mrs. Thorne, Mrs. Vanheson, and Mrs. Walsh. The deacons, five in number, were Messrs. Ince, Hyder, Westley, Lansley and Edwards. Ministers present were:—Messrs. John S. Anderson, Charles Masterson, G. W. Shepherd, J. Griffith, C. Stovel, J. L. Meeres, E. Langford, P. Reynolds, E. Beazley, A. Brown, J. Bennett, Hitchcock, and others. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Shepherd made very excellent and telling speeches at the grave, and Mr. J. L. Meeres closed with very earnest prayer. The funeral was entrusted to Mr. Bernardin, an old member of Little Alie-street, and the arrangements were completed in the most efficient manner.

On Lord’s-day, October 29, a very solemn and weighty funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Charles Masterson from “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). These words were spoken by Mr. Dickerson a short time before his death as most expressive of his own feelings, and most suitable to be spoken from after his remains were laid to rest till the morning of the judgment, when—

“Every act

Which shunned the trifling plaudit of mankind,

Shall here to wondering millions be displayed,

A monument of grace.”

The chapel was draped agreeable to the occasion, and the evening attendance was large and deeply sympathetic.

W. Winters

Church Yard, Waltham Abbey