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…
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…
1708 HT: Dan Graves WE KNOW that Francis Makemie came to the American colonies in 1682 or after—the year Laggan Presbytery in Ireland ordained him to evangelize in America. Where or when he landed, we do not know. Yet he would become a notable Presbyterian founder, preaching in Barbadoes, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York.…
1872 HT: Dan Graves Although the son of an earl, Ashley Cooper was neglected and abused. His father bullied him. Bringing him to one of the boarding schools which he would attend, his father knocked down the sensitive boy at the door and advised the tutor to do the same. Ashley carried scars of depression…
1555 HT: Dan Graves James Abbes stripped off his clothes and shoes. Where he was going in a few minutes, he would not need them–new and glorious garments would be his. But here on earth, some poor folk might find his old garments helpful. The crowd had come to see one of the burnings that…
1834 Death of missionary Robert Morrison at age 52. The first English Protestant missionary to China, he had translated the Bible into Chinese, constructed a Chinese grammar, founded an Anglo-Chinese college, and edited a six-volume Chinese dictionary. 1883 HT: Dan Graves Harold Schofield was desperately ill. The young doctor, just 31 years old, had contracted…