12 May 1936 A.D. “Old School” Presbyterian Missionary, Rev. Albert Dodd, Speaks at Westminster Seminary’s Commencement. Calls Out Autonomists, Rationalists and Presbyterian Liberals
12 May
1936 A.D. “Old School”
Presbyterian Missionary, Rev. Albert Dodd, Speaks at Westminster Seminary’s Commencement. Calls Out Autonomists, Rationalists and
Presbyterian Liberals
Archivist.
“May 12: Rev. & Mrs. Albert Dodd.” 12 May 2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/05/may-12-2/. Accessed 12 May
2014.
May 12: Rev. & Mrs. Albert Dodd
A Great Address from a Man Small in Stature
The
smaller man of stature was waiting at the Chinese dock for his former student
friend from Princeton Theological Seminary that day in 1904. When he did
not appear on the deck of their steamer, he was disappointed. But who was
standing there waiting to exit the boat was a young American woman by the name
of Mabel Mennie. Later, they would find out that they were both
from the state of Missouri. And Albert Baldwin Dodd, Presbyterian missionary
to China, would obviously find out later of that meeting on that Shanghai,
China dock was no accident. The sovereign God makes no
mistakes. She would become his wife soon and become the mother to their
four children in God’s good time, all born in China.
Albert
and Mable Dodd would labor for 32 years in China under the Board for Foreign
Missions of the Presbyterian U.S.A. church. Founder and professor of
North China Theological Seminary, he saw the approaching apostasy of the home
church as it evidenced itself in foreign missionaries sent to the field of
China. Indeed, it was he who revealed that apostasy to Dr. J. Graham
Machen, who spread by publication and proclamation the issue of foreign
missions before the people in the Presbyterian denomination. When request
after request was denied from that foreign missions board, it was Machen, with
others, who organized the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign
Missions in 1933. And among the veteran missionaries who joined
that faithful board was Albert and Mable Dodd, who would continue their
service for another 39 years, first in China, then on the island of Taiwan.
On May
12, 1936, Albert Dodd was the commencement speaker at the
Witherspoon Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Westminster Theological
Seminary’s seventh graduating class. Speaking on the subject “Be
Strong,” this famed missionary began his sermon with the following
words:
“You
young men of Westminster Seminary are deliberately choosing to face a hopeless
situation and to set your hands to an utterly impossible task — from a human
standpoint. Magnificently equipped with a clear-cut knowledge of, and
love for, the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation, and imbued by
staunch martyr-spirited professors who count not the cost, with the divinely
prescribed and only right attitude toward false brethren who would pervert that
gospel, you are being called of God to the task of taking the message of
salvation, in an age of intense crisis, to a world wherein countless millions
have never heard, and to minister to a rapidly apostasizing church which is
more and more inclined to reject that message and to hate and persecute that
attitude. Never before, not in any other calling, have stronger men been
needed.”
The
reader is invited to read the entire address as it is found in the Presbyterian
Guardian Archive on-line for June 1, 1936, Volume 2, number 5, on pages 95-99 of that issue. No wonder the reporter of
that magazine commented, “the veteran missionary carried his listeners along
with him on a crest of conviction and spiritual power.”
Dr.
Dodd, from texts like Ephesians 6:10 and 2 Timothy 2:1, challenged the graduating seniors and guests to be
strong in the work of evangelism, be strong in the battle for the faith of the
gospel, and be strong to love much, even those who are our enemies. Such
a message would be needful, for before the year was out, the Bible-believers in
the Presbyterian church, would be outside the camp, but courageously caring on
the work of the Lord in the church and in the world.
Words to Live By: Being strong in the Lord is a necessary trait in the
home, at your calling, and in the church. The only difference today from
the days of Dr. Albert Dodd is that the intensity of the spiritual strength
needed has increased a hundred fold. But greater is He who is within you
than he who is in the world.
For Further Study:
To read the full address by Dr. Dodd, click here. http://continuing.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/wts-commencement-address-1936/.
For
more on the seminary in China where Dr. Dodd taught, see the article by A.
Donald MacLeod, “Watson Hayes and the North China Theological Seminary.“ http://adonaldmacleod.com/china/watson-hayes-and-the-north-china-theological-seminary/
To read the full address by Dr. Dodd, click here. http://continuing.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/wts-commencement-address-1936/.
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