Arnold Dallimore

Hello Church,

I trust you are growing in grace as you practice God’s prescribed means of knowing and experiencing him.

We are now one month into the CoaH Challenge.  I am so grateful for all of you who have registered to be a part of it.  I know that the Lord will use these means to grow us and make us useful for his work.  Now that a month has passed, how have you experienced the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?  How have you sensed his presence, come to know him more deeply, and experienced his mercy day by day?

One of the challenges that I’ve been working on is #62, reading two books from Challies’ list.  I’m almost done with the only  biography on the list.  It’s on the famous 19th century English pastor Charles Spurgeon written by Arnold Dallimore.  I read this book about 20 years ago and I also read Dallimore’s most significant biography on the legendary evangelist of The Great Awakening, George Whitefield. 

I have to say that I rarely think about the authors of these biographies.  Like most people, I focus my attention on the person about which the book is being written -- in this case, Charles Spurgeon.  I don’t know how I got into this, but I did a little digging about Dallimore, who became a very accomplished biographer.  He lived from 1911-1998.  He was a Canadian.  He pastored for 23 years in a Baptist church in a small Ontario town called Cottam which is about 30 minutes southeast of Windsor.  It’s a small rural community in Essex county with a current population of 723 people. I’m sure that number was significantly smaller in Dallimore’s day.  Through his own personal research and interest he became the living expert on the great George Whitefield and the Great Awakening of the 18th century. 

The Great Awakening was a unparalleled movement of God in the American colonies and England during the mid-1700s.  George Whitefield was the Billy Graham of his day.  They didn’t have stadiums back then, and no building was large enough to hold the 20,000 people who came to hear him, so he preached in the open air, in fields, without any sound equipment other than a sound board -- that was like a preachers backstop used to amplify his voice.  Thousands came to saving faith under Whitefield’s Calvinistic Gospel preaching.  In any case, it took Dallimore 30 years to write the massive two-volume biography.  It is one of the best biographies I have ever read.  One reviewer called it “one of the most important Christian biographies written in the last hundred years.”

I share this because as “city folk” we can look down at “country folks”.  We tend to make much of that which is bigger and brighter, and tend to look down on those things that are small and simple.  The truth, however, is that most all of us are more like the latter than the former.  Christians tend to be small, simple folk, who don’t draw attention to themselves.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

(1 Corinthians 1:26)  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 

Paul’s words describe us, too, don’t they?  We are the foolish ones, the weak ones, the lowly and despised ones, and yet God chose to save us nonetheless, in order that we wouldn’t boast, and give all glory to God.  What I learn from Paul and from Arnold Dallimore is that I am called to be faithful to that which God has entrusted me; that is all.  I hope you will look at your life from that perspective, too. 

The other lesson is that of perseverance.  Dallimore actually wrote several drafts of his Whitefield’s biography and threw them out because he found them unsatisfactory.  He wasn’t an accomplished writer.  He had no formal training, yet he stayed the course, and with the help of some people at Banner of Truth publishing, and the personal encouragement from Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the famed Welsh pastor of the 20th century, he finished his magnum-opus.  Volume 1 came out in 1970 and volume 2 in 1981!  Parenting is a life-long journey.  Working at your career is a life-long journey.  Being a faithful church member is a life-long journey as well.  Stay the course, persevere, and finish well. 

I’m kind of sad that I never had the chance to meet Pastor Dallimore.  I came to Ontario in 1995 and he passed away in 1998.  It was only many years after his death that I learned that he was a life-long resident of Ontario.  I hope his life example will encourage you.

Soli Deo Gloria

Pastor Peter