1836 HT: Christian History Institute Alexander Duff was a Scotsman who became a missionary educator in Calcutta, India, serving there for much of the nineteenth century. He set up his first school under a banyan tree and within two years had over a thousand students. However, he saw few conversions. Nonetheless, his educational methods inspired reform…
1776 HT: Christian History Institute John Newton was a slaver when he became a Christian. Some years after leaving the slave trade, he became a staunch anti-slavery man, a Minister in the Church of England, and the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” He also counseled people by letter. On this day, 20 June, 1776, he wrote…
Here’s this week’s inspirational delve into the past by Paul James-Griffiths of Christian Heritage Edinburgh. In the Gospels we find the two brothers James and John together for Christ’s cause; in Scottish church history it is Revd Andrew Bonar (1810-1892) and his brother Revd Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) who stand out. These brothers were key leaders behind…
On the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of Preachers in 1834, I’ll post a couple of great articles by others about this great man. HT: Geoff Chang C. H. Spurgeon, maybe more than any pastor, knew how busy pastoral ministry can be. In addition to preaching four times a week, he led his…
1745 David Brainerd commences his influential journal when he begins to preach to the Indians at Crossweeksung (in New Jersey). 1787 Death in Haddington of John Brown, a Scottish pastor, author of the Self-Interpreting Bible—a Bible with many marginal notes and comparison of one Scripture to another. He had been a pastor who instructed his…
On the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of Preachers in 1834, I’ll post a couple of great articles by others about this great man. HT: Philip Ort Who is Charles Haddon Spurgeon? Known as the “Prince of Preachers,” this Victorian, Calvinistic, Baptist minister testified as a powerful gospel witness in his time, but…
1896 HT: Dan Graves MAMIYELI MITSEKI GWAMBE was twelve when he left his family village in Mozambique to find work and get an education in South Africa. Living in the slums of Cape Town, he was appalled at the drunkenness and vice he witnessed, and resolved never to imbibe alcohol. The Cowley fathers (members of…
1789 HT: Dan Graves THE HONOR of evangelizing New England for the Methodists belongs to Jesse Lee. Charles Wesley preached in New England in 1736, before the Methodist movement could fairly be said to have gotten off the ground. During the next fifty years, a few other Methodists ventured into New England. None planted churches…
HT: Christian History Institute J. Gresham Machen was a Presbyterian theologian who felt his church was abandoning Bible truth. He became a controversialist and eventually a leading voice in a breakaway denomination. In a lecture delivered in London on this day June 17, 1932, he defended his engagement in controversies and arguments over faith. Quote “Men tell us…
I’m grateful to my good friend Paul James-Griffiths of Christian Heritage Edinburgh who most weeks writes an article on some leading Christian in Scotland’s remarkable history. With his permission, I intend to post future articles here. A shock wave swept through Edinburgh on 24 December, 1856. Hugh Miller, the famous geologist and Free Church of…