men to do the work for which his employer pays him." Plain speaking of this sort from the Carr's-lane and other Nonconformist pulpits of Birmingham has materially helped to preserve the borough from the arrow of Burnaby which flieth by day, and the pestilence of Jingo which stalketh by night.
Mr. Dale was born in London, in December, 1829. His early education was received chiefly at a private school in Finsbury Square, kept by a Mr. Willey. After a brief period of probation as an assistant master, he removed to Birmingham to attend Springhill College, a training-school of the Congregationalists,—the religious denomination of his parents. Here he remained for the whole curriculum of six years; and in 1853 he graduated at London University, carrying off the gold medal in the department of philosophy and political economy. Among his tutors at Springhill was Henry Rogers, author of the once popular work, "The Eclipse of Faith." Rogers had a fine literary taste, with which he did not fail to imbue his pupils. A strong friendship sprang up between the old man and Dale, and to this day the latter acknowledges his obligations to his master with almost juvenile warmth. Another remarkable friend of Dale's youth was a man renowned in the world of Evangelic Nonconformity, John Angell James. He was for over half a century the pastor of Carr's-lane Chapel, and Dale had no sooner finished his studies than he was appointed his colleague and successor. James imagined that he himself was a stanch Calvinist. But Calvinism his successor could not swallow; and, shortly after his appointment, he one Sunday opened a vigorous fire on its cardinal dogma, and set the congregation by the ears.
