Rev. William J. Dawson

              Rev. William J. Dawson 
London, England
REV. WILLIAM J. DAWSON                     Introductory
REV. W. J. DAWSON, D. D., was born at Towcester, England, in 1854. Educated at Kingswood College, Bath, and Didsbury College, Manchester, England. He was for fifteen years a Wesleyan minister, part of the time at Wesley's Chapel, London. His ministry attracted great crowds, and during these years he achieved national fame as a lecturer. In Glasgow, Scotland, his ministry was successful in an unprecedented degree. At his concluding service more than 4,000 persons were present, and an equal number of persons failed to gain admittance. An interesting story is told of Dr. Dawson's earliest lecturing in London. When he proposed to lecture in a large church, accommodating 1,200 people, he was told on all sides that it would be impossible to attract a hundred persons, for lecturing had fallen into general disrepute. Nevertheless Dr. Dawson issued 2,000 tickets, printing on each the significant warning "Come early to avoid crush." His faith was justified. The lecture delivered was the now famous lecture on "Sir Walter Raleigh and His Times." The church was crowded to excess, and a week later he delivered the same lecture in the same building to another thronged audience. There is no great city in England in which Dr. Dawson has not lectured. He has been heard in the City Temple, London, by an audience of 2,000 people, in St. George's Hall, Liverpool, by 4,000 persons, in the Music Hall, Aberdeen, Scotland, by 3,000 persons. Everywhere his success has been complete.
In 1904 Dr. Dawson visited this country as the guest of Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, of Brooklyn. He came for rest, but soon found himself engaged in a vast scheme of public work. From Boston to Seattle he crossed the continent, preaching and lecturing everywhere. In the first six weeks of his tour he addressed 70,000 persons. The welcome given him in America was so enthusiastic that in 1906 he resigned his church in London and removed with his family to the States, taking up his residence at Taunton, Mass. During July and August of 1906 he was widely heard upon the Chautauqua platforms. For an entire week he delivered three addresses a day at the mother Chautauqua, N. Y., and made a deep impression upon some of the largest crowds which had ever assembled in the Auditorium. Oberlin has recognized his talent by conferring on him the degree of D. D. He has already become one of the famous figures in American life, and there can be no doubt that his residence in the States will open for him much wider opportunities of service than any which he has hitherto enjoyed.
Dr. Dawson is in the prime of life. He has all the qualities of the great orator. He is also a poet, and an author of world-wide reputation. His trilogy on English literature, The Makers of English Poetry, Prose, and Fiction, has attained a very wide sale, and has been pronounced by leading literary journals of the States one of the most able books of literary criticism in modern literature. He has published two volumes of poetry, four volumes of fiction, and many books on religion. His book, "The Evangelistic Note," is on the shelves of multitudes of ministers, and has had a great influence on pulpit methods and ideals, as well as on the general religious thought of the time. Dr. Dawson's accession to the lecture platform of this country is a notable event. He will be admired wherever he is heard, and is clearly destined to occupy a foremost position among the speakers who influence the thought and ideals of America today.
REV. WILLIAM J. DAWSON                     Introductory
REV. WILLIAM J. DAWSON                     Lectures
Popular Orations
I. Sir Walter Raleigh and His Times. II. Savonarola, Monk, Patriot and Martyr.
III.   Oliver Cromwell: The Man and His Deeds.
IV.   Admiral Blake, with Glimpses of the Commonwealth
in England. V. The Marvelous Boy: An Eighteenth Century Picture. VI.  Nelson: A Study in Patriotism. VII. The Greatest Man of the Eighteenth Century.
Literary Themes
I. Tennyson and His Poetry. II.  Browning and His Message. III.  Robert Louis Stevenson:  The Man and His Message.
Course Lectures
A Series of Lectures designed for consecutive delivery.    For Example:
(a)   The course of six lectures on the afternoons or evenings of a single week in
the same city. 
(b) The course on the afternoons and evenings of three days in the same city. 
(c) A combination of clubs, colleges or lecture societies in three contiguous cities,
with two lectures in each, on the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of
three consecutive weeks. 
(d) A similar combination of six or more societies with the same arrangement.
COURSE I
The Makers of English Fiction
I. The Early Makers, from DeFoe to Richardson. II. The Romantic Novel:  Sir Walter Scott.
III.   The  Novel  of  Social   Comedy:    Jane   Austen  and
Thackeray.
IV.  The Democratic Novel:  Charles Dickens. V. The Philosophic Novel:  George Eliot.
VI. The Novel of Revolt: Thomas Hardy.
(For Lecture No. VI might be substituted the Lecture on Robert Louis Stevenson, as Illustrating the Personality of the Novelist.)
COURSE II
The Makers of Modern English Poetry
I.  The Poetry of Revolt:  Burns, Byron and Shelley.
II.  The Poetry of Nature: Wordsworth.
III.  The Poetry of Art:  Keats and Rossetti.
IV.  Tennyson and His Poetry.* V.  Browning and His Poetry.*
VI. The Future of Poetry.
* (These are the same Lectures as those already catalogued under Literary Themes.)
REV. WILLIAM J. DAWSON                      Criticisms
The Brooklyn Eagle: "Every man who would hear Gladstone, or Morley, or any of the great speakers of England, should hear Dr. Dawson."
Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis: "I heard Dr. Dawson's lecture on 'Savonarola.' That evening was a great experience for me. Dr. Dawson's   'Savonarola' reminded me of Wendell Phillips' c Daniel O'Connell', when the great orator was in his best days. Dr. Dawson is a past master in the art of putting things. There is a charm, a freshness and raciness about the development of his themes that captivates and holds the attention to the last words."
The Congregationalist: "Dr. Dawson spoke to audiences of five thousand in Massey Hall, Toronto. His strong, virile, tender presentations of great truths pierced the consciences, warmed the hearts, and inflamed the zeal of all who heard them."
The New burgh News: "The lecture was attended by an audience of which both the speaker and the society might well be proud. Dr. Dawson's diction is clear-cut and incisive, he has the dramatic instinct, and he is blessed with a saving sense of humor. He has a penetrating voice of carrying quality which has been carefully trained.   He is a practiced orator.
The Taunton News: "Dr. Dawson is no less powerful as lecturer than preacher. His style is remarkable for concentration, grace, and restrained force. Throughout the lecture Dr. Dawson held the close and sympathetic attention of his audience, all of whom were enthusiastic in their expressions of approval."
Concerning His Books
TWENTY of the great religious leaders, including Dr. W. N. McVickar, Bishop of Rhode Island, and Dr. David H. Greer, Bishop-Coadjutor of New York, have expressed enthusiastic appreciation of his Life of Christ. The New York Times, in a two-column review of his Makers of Modern Prose and Poetry, has declared Dr. Dawson a great critic of "extraordinarily clear, well-alanced, and efficient mind." The Outlook has stated that Dr. Dawson's sermons published in The Reproach of Christ " in point of ethical, spiritual, and literary merit, rank among the best of modern sermons," while his devotional books, such as The Evangelistic Note, The Forgotten Secret, and The Empire of Love, have been received with enthusiastic approval by the leading American and English organs of opinion. As an author, Dr. Dawson's reputation is now world-wide.