Introduction

Biography

Amzi was the son of Tho­mas Je­re­mi­ah Fred­er­ick Dix­on, a Bap­tist preach­er, and Am­an­da El­vi­ra Mc­Af­ee, bro­ther of no­vel­ist Tho­mas Dix­on, Jr., and hus­band of Hel­en Cad­bu­ry Al­ex­an­der (mar­ried 1924)

While still young, Dix­on be­lieved he was called to preach the Gos­pel. In 1875, he gra­du­at­ed from Wake Forest Col­lege in Wake For­est, North Ca­ro­li­na.

He was or­dained in 1876 and im­me­di­ate­ly be­gan serv­ing as pas­tor of two coun­try church­es. He al­so pas­tored in Cha­pel Hill and Ashe­ville, North Ca­ro­li­na, be­fore at­tend­ing South­ern Bap­tist Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry (then in Green­ville, South Ca­ro­li­na), where he was a stu­dent of John A. Broad­us.

Later, Dix­on had pas­tor­ates at Im­ma­nu­el Church, Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land (1883–90); Han­son Place Ba­ptist Church, Brook­lyn, New York (1890–1900); Rug­gles Street Church, Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1901–06); Moo­dy Church, Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois (1906–11); and the Me­tro­po­li­tan Ta­ber­na­cle, Lon­don (1911–19).

Because of the po­pu­la­ri­ty of his speak­ing, he oft­en rent­ed the Brook­lyn Op­era House for Sun­day af­ter­noon evan­gel­is­tic ser­vic­es. Af­ter leav­ing Brook­lyn, he moved to Rox­bu­ry, Mas­sa­chu­setts, and be­came pas­tor of the Rug­gles Street Bap­tist Church. While there, he al­so taught at the Gor­don Bi­ble and Mis­sion­ary Train­ing School, and turned his pas­sion to writ­ing, pub­lish­ing Old and New, an at­tack on the li­ber­al So­cial Gos­pel move­ment.

From Bos­ton, he moved in 1906 to Chi­ca­go’s Chi­ca­go Ave­nue Church, which had been found­ed by Dwight L. Moo­dy. Two years af­ter his ar­riv­al there, the church changed its name to the Moo­dy Church, and he con­tin­ued there un­til 1911. While at Moo­dy Church, he be­came a syn­di­cat­ed col­um­nist, ap­pear­ing in news­pa­pers such as the Bal­ti­more Sun, Bos­ton Dai­ly Her­ald and the Chi­ca­go Dai­ly News.

He then crossed the At­lan­tic and min­is­tered at Lon­don’s Me­tro­po­li­tan Ta­ber­na­cle, the church for­mer­ly pas­tor­ed by Charles Spur­geon and oth­er not­able preach­ers, where he spent the war years. Dur­ing this time, he oft­en spoke at Bi­ble con­fer­ences.

He re­tired in 1919, but was called out of re­tire­ment in 1922, and be­came the first pas­tor of Uni­ver­si­ty Bap­tist Church in Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land.