Sermon For Charterhouse

Part of the New Hops test in 1968 when I was a New Hop was to learn who the famous Old Boys were – like Orde Windgate the famed founder of the Chindits in World War 2 and Lord Baden Powell, Founder of the Scout Movement.

Two famous Old Boys who should in my opinion have

been in the New Hops test were John Wesley –

Founder of the Methodist Church and General Sir William Dobbie – known also as Dobbie of Malta.

Charterhouse has given many of its pupils a good foundation in the Christian faith. Dobbie was such a pupil

I have been asked to make my talk relevant to Charterhouse .

There is one aspect of life as a Carthusian in Charterhouse that I would like to focus on tonight.

And that is the teaching of foundations of the Christian faith.

In my day, Charterhouse has two chaplains and a flourishing Christian Union.

And I believe this is still so today.

Attendance at Chapel - just after before Hash started - was obligatory – except on a Saturday.

I remember, many a time, running to get in before the Headman, who in my day was Oliver Van Oss.

I used to be able to get up out of bed and dressed for Chapel in a minute flat.

This evening I would like to tell you the story of Sir William Dobbie because he came to faith whilst a boy at Charterhouse.

And the life Dobbie lived clearly shows that becoming a Christian can be exciting.

In Dobbie’s obituary, in the Carthusian of December 1964, it records that he was a classical scholar from O.Q. 1892 to C.Q. 1897.

He was first in Robinites and then Saunderites .

On the first Sunday in November 1893, when he was fourteen, Dobbie recorded his Christian conversion experience like this:

“that things were no right between God and me and

that I was unfit to stand in his sight”

Later summing up his feelings he recorded “My need of a Saviour was brought home to me”

Dobbie went on to say:

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world for the express purpose of giving his life so that He might bear, and pay the penalty of my sin so that I might go free.

That night I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, my Companion, and my God- just by myself – there was nobody else in the room. It was the turning point of my life. The past, bad though it was in God’s sight, was blotted out; Christ’s presence and help were promised for the present, and the future was assured. I thank God more than I can say for that wonderful event in November 1893.

( Fight of Faith – Michael Claydon and Philip Bray)

I myself had a similar experience in 1971 when I asked Christ into my life with no one else in the room when I was 16 and I can say with Dobbie “I thank God for that wonderful event”.

I too found that meeting Christ changed my life.

As my father who said he was an atheist said to me: “Martin I can see Christianity has been good for you – even though it is not for me”

But I digress from Dobbie.

Dobbie left Charterhouse and entered the Royal Military Academy in 1897

He served in the Boer War and then in 1911 he decided to take the entrance examinations for the British Staff College in Camberley.