1678 HT: Dan Graves Next to the Bible, John Bunyan’s allegory of a pilgrim toiling toward the Celestial City is the best-selling Christian book ever written. Like the King James Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress gave the English language many phrases. “Vanity Fair,” for example, became the title of William Makepeace Thackeray’s best-known novel and of a British magazine.…
1688 HT: Dan Graves An estimated eighteen thousand Scots Covenanters died for their faith between 1660, when the Restoration made Charles II monarch of England, and 1688, when the “Glorious Revolution” brought William III and Mary to the throne. Covenanters believed that Jesus, not any earthly king, was head of the church. For this they…
1497 HT: Dan Graves NEXT TO MARTIN LUTHER, one man did more than all others to create Lutheran theology. That was Philip Melanchthon, who was born on this day, 16 February 1497 in the little town of Bretten, Germany. Someone noted that the time was six minutes after 7 p.m. He had godly parents, his father…
1730 HT: christianity.com Some men accomplish or inspire more good in one lifetime than most of us would in three lifetimes. Thomas Bray, who died on this day, February 15, 1730, was such a man. Born in Shropshire, England, he trained at Oxford and became an Anglican rector. His life took a dramatic turn when Bishop…
1860 HT: Christian History Institute James Hudson Taylor became a Christian at seventeen through reading a tract, and determined to become a missionary to China. In preparation for this he studied Mandarin, Bible languages, Latin, and medicine. He arrived in China in 1854 and was greeted by two catastrophes in quick succession—a fire destroyed his…