1650 HT: Dan Graves ON THIS DAY, 27 April 1650, a church committee appointed John Flavel to assist Mr. Walplate, the dying minister of Diptford, Devon, England. This marked the beginning of Flavel’s long association with Devon. Realizing that his university education had done little to prepare him for a pastorate, he studied hard on…
1806 HT: Dan Graves On this day, April 26, 1806, Alexander Duff was born in Perthshire in Scotland. The boy, who would win such a name for patient and enthusiastic faith as a man, grew up on a small farm. His father farmed but also had a heart for the things of God. He was among those influenced by Charles Simeon, the…
1735 Death at Epworth, England, of Samuel Wesley, curate, author, and father of Methodist revival leaders John and Charles Wesley. 1800 Death at East Dereham, Norfolk, England, of English poet William Cowper. Despite lifelong depression, he had produced enduring hymns, including, “Oh For a Closer Walk with God” and “There is a Fountain Filled with…
1555 HT: Stephen Edwards Today we remember the death of George Marsh (1515 – 24 April 1555) was an English Protestant martyr who died in Boughton, Chester, on 24 April 1555 as a result of the Marian Persecutions carried out against Protestant Reformers and other dissenters during the reign of Mary I of England. His death…
1538 John Calvin and William Farel are fired by the town council of Geneva and ordered to leave the city within three days. They had refused to administer the Lord’s Supper the day before in part because of notorious sins among the city’s folk, and in part because they did not want to follow the…
1855 HT: DIANE SEVERANCE AND DAN GRAVES Dwight L. Moody didn’t attend school beyond the fifth grade; he couldn’t spell, and his grammar was awful. His manners were often brash and crude, and he never became an ordained minister. Once, before his conversion, he so outraged an Italian shoe salesmen with a prank, that the…
1768 HT: Dan Graves If you imagine a boy so enthusiastic for learning that he devoured any writing he could lay his hands on, you have a picture of young Joshua Marshman. Joshua was born on this day, April 20, 1768, at Westbury Leigh in Wiltshire, England. Until the age of twenty-six he worked as…
1791 HT: Dan Graves ONE OF THE MOST CURIOUS STORIES to come out of colonial-era America was that of John Marrant, a free African American. He may have been the first African American ordained as a pastor. Born in New York in 1755, he was four years old when his father died and his mother…
1950 HT: Dan Graves IN DECEMBER 1941 Mitsuo Fuchida led the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. When he sent up a green flare, the bombers accompanying him knew it was the moment to attack. When his plane radioed “Tora, Tora, Tora,” the Japanese knew the air attack had achieved complete surprise. For the duration of…
1742 HT: Dan Graves At twelve noon, on this date, April 13, 1742, the world first heard the lovely overture, memorable arias and majestic choruses of the most famous oratorio ever written. There has not been a year since then that George Frederick Handel‘s Messiah has not been performed in concert halls around the world. Usually it appears…