1525 HT: Dan Graves When Conrad Grebel arrived at St. Gall Switzerland, on this day March 25, 1525, he began to speak on the need for repentance and baptism. Hundreds turned out to hear him preach and over the next few months, he baptized five hundred. What was significant about this was that most of them had already…
1899 HT: Dan Graves Throughout 1898 and the early part of 1899 Robert Koldewey reconnoitered the ancient city of Babylon. A brilliant architect and archaeologist, he knew he was to be appointed to head the digging. The German Oriental Society was picking up the tab and outfitting the expedition in full. The real work began after…
HT: Dan Graves 1720 John Gill is solemnly ordained as a Baptist pastor in Horsleydown in a lengthy public ceremony which involves much prayer and soul searching. Gill will remain at Horsleydown for 51 years and gain recognition as a great controversialist, sharply critical of Wesley’s theology because it placed the decision to follow Christ…
1748 HT: Dan Graves “THE 10TH (that is, in the present style, the 21st) of March is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass wholly unnoticed since the year 1748: on that day the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.”…
1730 HT: Dan Graves “O happy day that fixed my choice on Thee, my Savior and my God” begins Philip Doddridge’s most popular hymn. He made that happy choice early in life, thanks in part to his mother: Sent to a boarding school, he continued to grow in faith. Both parents died when he was…
1842 HT: Christian History Institute After a lawless youth, George Müller became a Christian and immediately began to live a life of full commitment to Christ. Although he did not consider himself to be a man with any special gift of faith, he undertook an orphanage ministry based entirely on donations. He determined never to ask for…
1780 HT: Christianity.com When the church becomes a state-supported official religion, churchmen tend to become tepid officeholders. The zeal characteristic of the Scottish clergy in John Knox’s day had become diluted by the early 19th century. Hard as it is to believe, the moderate majority of Scotland’s preachers resisted Sunday schools, saying they would put…
1889 HT: Diane Severance Grey dawn was streaking the sky, when they who had so lovingly watched Him to His burying were making their way to the rock-hewn tomb in the garden. Considerable as are the difficulties of exactly harmonizing the details in the various narratives–if, indeed, importance attaches to such attempts–we are thankful…
JOHN GILL was a pastor in greater London. A staunch Calvinist, he believed strongly in the sovereignty of God in all events. Gill had become a pastor as the result of a sermon he had heard when he was about twelve. His pastor, William Wallace, preached on God asking Adam in the garden of Eden…
1812 HT: Christian History Institute Anne Hasseltine and Adoniram Judson were married on February 5, 1812. The next day, when Judson was ordained to do foreign mission work, Anne (whom he called “Nancy”) was beside him. Within a few days they boarded the sailing ship Caravan to sail to India. Judson’s eventual success in Burma (now known as…