A BRIEF MEMOIR OF D. M. PANTON
By Geo. H. RAMSAY
D. M. Panton, the Founder and
Proprietor, as well as Editor, of Dawn, believed that God gave Dawn into his
hands as an instrument for the making known and maintaining doctrines which,
though clearly enunciated in the Word of God. have
become all but a dead letter to the majority of Christians.
There
was a time when the great foundation doctrine of Justification by Faith had been all but obliterated from
the minds of Christians, till Luther was raised up and commissioned by God to
disinter and make known, and to expound and defend it with his life.
Similarly,
the doctrine of Responsibility and Accountability of every
redeemed soul to his Redeemer, naturally arising out of his redemption, has
passed from the knowledge of the Church for the most part: certainly, in
general, as a living and urgent power over the lives of disciples of
Christ. And the future effect
upon the believer of this present relationship to his Redeemer is completely
ignored by most; namely, that, as a responsible agent of Christ, he must hand
in an account of his stewardship before the Judgement Seat of his Lord; that
from his Lord's lips he will receive the sentence due to him, be it good or
bad, according as he has been faithful or unfaithful, obedient or disobedient,
holy or sinful. This is almost passed over in the teaching of the Church, and the mere
thought of it is hateful to many.
Nevertheless it is as clearly set forth in Scripture as is the doctrine
of Justification by Faith, and it is intended to produce, and does produce, the
ripened and steadfast and overcoming life of the disciple who watches and waits
for the return of his Lord, that he may go out with joy to meet Him and be
received by Him.
Mr. Panton
believed that God put Dawn into his hands for the making known of these
doctrines far and wide. He rejoiced that he was
unfettered by financial or other interests, and free to proclaim the whole
counsel of God, without thought of any present return to himself. He was faithful to his charge to the
end. Though practically bedridden, and
weak and dependent on human ministrations, though his mind had become almost a
blank to many things of the present, he yet was utterly alive to the things of
God. He worked unfalteringly to his
time-schedule to produce each issue of Dawn.
When the hitch came with the June issue, and the publisher wired for the
copy, he stoutly maintained that he had produced and sent it off, and that he
was beginning on the July Dawn next day.
He did not begin on July Dawn next day, nor the next - but he was
insistent that the June Dawn was done.
We could not find the MSS. in his heaps of papers, nor could we distress
him by hunting too closely, for he was troubled lest we should confuse his
papers, which were no jumble to him, though they appeared but a jumble to
others. We had to leave it at last,
believing him to be mistaken in supposing that he had got all ready. The next day he seemed much more like his old
self. He asked for his spectacles to be
cleaned and his Testament to be given him, and he read from Paul's Second
Epistle for some time. It seemed he
might revive again; but he fell asleep, his Testament lying open where he had
been reading, and did not return to consciousness. And the thoughts which had filled the heart
of Paul, that valiant warrior, when he wrote to Timothy just before his death,
filled the heart of our beloved warrior as he passed into the presence
of the Lord he loved, and had served with his very last ounce of strength:
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love His appearing." The words he had urged upon us during his
long life were his own solace in his dying moments.
We
found, after his departure, that he had
indeed produced the June Dawn, and this is it, all but complete!
He had by mistake labelled it May
Dawn, and it was lying with the May galley-proofs, so we had not examined
it. We were doing as little as we could
to distress him.
Who
was Mr. Panton?
Doubtless his readers [in this website] would be glad to know.
David
Morrieson Panton was born
in the year 1870 in
These truths revolutionised his
life; they caused him to abandon a legal career; to live in the refusal of all
earth's favours and rewards: unmarried, in lodgings, living on a comparative
pittance, and pouring forth his entire life and meagre substance in blessing
upon all that he touched. These truths, and the entire range of Biblical doctrine, he expounded and defended in many
pamphlets and writings, and then, during the last 31 years of his life, in
DAWN. (This memoir is taken from his
last issue.) He prepared it according to
his time-schedule, in time for its usual issue in June, but he was taken to be
with the Lord on the 20th of May, before, for some reason or other, it had been
sent off, though he thought it had gone.
The delay in its appearing is due to no fault of his. He
accomplished his own work to the very end faultlessly. He left no broken, unfinished work behind.
His
friend from boyhood, E. H. Blakeney, formerly Assistant-Master of
To
the Memory of D. M. PANTON - PASTOR, EVANGELIST, CRITIC
He
was also a Poet at heart, and was a man greatly beloved
THE POET
And the heart of the Poet rejoiced
And he wrought him a noble Psalm,
Crowned with the vision of Love and Hope,
And touched with a
sacred calm.
To the uttermost ends of the earth,
That the feet of his fellows had trod,
His song went out by way of the years
And rose to the Throne
of God.
This
is no hyperbole - Mr. Panton's writings were sought and cherished by the most
earnest Christians from the four quarters of the earth.
Here
is the last verse of a poem from a small book of poems he wrote and sent to his
grandmother when he was 17 years of age:-
For Thine all-redeeming mercy
To the race of fallen man;
For the Saviour's love and pity,
And salvation's glorious plan;
For the Church throughout the ages;
And the path the martyr's trod;
For Thine own sweet Gospel's pages,
I thank thee, O my God!
Space
will not allow me to do more than state that Mr. Panton
became Pastor of Surrey Chapel, Norwich, in succession to Robert Govett, Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford (And a member
of a well-known ecclesiastical family), who had built the Chapel in 1854, and
remained its Pastor till he died in February, 1901. Mr. Panton
succeeded to his charge in October of the same year, and was greatly blessed of
God in his ministry. He continued in
full charge till 1924 when DAWN began.
Since then he has ministered in various ways to the very end of his
strength, and though stop-gap ministries have filled the years, it is true to
say, we believe, that the greatest spiritual influence upon that local Assembly
issued from its Pastor-Emeritus, who loved it and its people with all his
heart. Two Pastors in 100 years must be
very rare, but by such an unbroken and faithful Ministry, God caused great
truths of fundamental importance for the well-being of His Church to be deeply
rooted and established, so that from it roots have been struck elsewhere. The Judgement Seat of Christ alone will
reveal how many saints have been separated to a life of devoted obedience and
service through his testimony.