1953 HT: Dan Graves ON THIS DAY, 28 August 1953, Campus Crusade for Christ was incorporated in Los Angeles. The founders of the organization were Bill and Vonette Bright. The concept behind their campus ministry was to “win the campus today and change the world tomorrow.” Today, Campus Crusade for Christ is known as just “Cru.”…
1565 HT: Dan Graves AFTER HE LEFT the Catholic Church, Pierre Viret’s first great success was to convert his home village to the views of the Protestant Reformers. Orde, Switzerland was divided between Catholics and reformers. In 1531, in the midst of this crisis, Viret returned from school in Paris and swung the town to…
1846 HT: Dan Graves IN JUNE, 1845, the Birmingham (England) Music Festival commissioned an oratorio from Felix Mendelssohn. At thirty-six-years old, Mendelssohn was a world-famous composer with most of his best-known works behind him. A child prodigy, he had written a well-received Octet at sixteen and his beloved Overture to Midsummer Night’s Dream at seventeen. (He would later write incidental music to the entire Shakespearean play.) Mendelssohn had already…
1649 HT: Christianity.com When Thomas Shepard was 44 years old, he contracted a sore throat. The outstanding Puritan preacher never recovered. On this day, August 25, 1649, his short, hard life drew to a close. Born on the day that the gunpowder plot was discovered, at the very hour in which Parliament was to have been…
410 HT: Christian History Institute ON THIS DAY, 24 August 410, Alaric and his Visigoth armies sacked Rome. The fall of the imperial city sent shock waves around the Mediterranean. It seemed the world could never be the same again. The Biblical scholar Jerome summed up the feelings of many when he wrote, “My voice sticks…
1744 HT: Christianity.com Rowland Hill scandalized his contemporaries. The son of Sir Rowland Hill, a baronet, he was born in Shropshire, England on this day, August 23, 1744. Educated at some of England’s best schools on his way to becoming a minister (Shrewsbury, Eton and St. John’s College, Cambridge), he might have risen to elite positions…
1651 HT: Virginia is for Huguenots 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 died on this day in history, 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟐, 𝟏𝟔𝟓𝟏. He was born in 1618 in Cardiff, Wales. Despite opposition from his father, Love became a dedicated Puritan Christian at the age of 14. He soon matriculated to New Inn Hall, Oxford, and graduated from there with a…
1851 HT: Dan Graves On this day, August 9, 1851, Karl Gutzlaff died in disgrace. In large measure, he had himself to blame, which was a pity, because he had applied genuinely original methods to the problem of evangelizing China. He was one of the first Protestant missionaries to dress like a Chinese. Wherever he…
Paul James-Griffiths of Christian Heritage Edinburgh writes, “This is now my final article for the series, which covers 210 weeks. We hope you have been inspired and challenged over the months and years by these articles. Today’s one ends with the 21st century and is a reflection on the state of things in Scotland today. My book,…
1737 Twenty-year-old Benjamin Beddome hears a visiting preacher speak on the text “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent,” and is deeply moved. Within two years he will be studying for…