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…
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…
1560 Death of German reformer Philip Melanchthon. He had composed the Augsburg Confession of 1530. More of a peacemaker than Luther, he called for Lutherans and Zwinglians to put aside their differences for the sake of the reformation of the church. In addition, he led extensive efforts to develop the German educational system. The universities…
1534 HT: Dan Graves William Farel was a fiery Reformation evangelist in Western Switzerland. Born in France in 1489, he converted to Protestant beliefs in part through the teaching of Jacques Lefèvre d’ Étaples, a French philosopher and Biblical scholar. Without formal ordination, Farel immediately began to preach the gospel zealously in Paris and throughout…
1516 HT: Dan Graves Erasmus never joined the Protestant movement, but many scholars would argue he set the stage for the Reformers. Erasmus loaded the cannon that Luther fired. The greatest scholar of his day, Erasmus rammed two shots into the barrel of the Reformation. The first shot was a satire titled, The Praise of Folly, which…
1955 HT: Dan Graves In his last public appearance, Methodist layman John Mott said, “While life lasts, I am an evangelist.” The man who did as much as anyone to evangelize the world and unite divided denominations, died on this day, January 31, 1955 in Orlando, Florida. He was eighty-nine years old. Death was a place…
1915 HT: Dan Graves MARY SLESSOR was one of the best-known missionaries of the nineteenth century. A hard childhood in Scotland prepared her for the strenuous life of the mission field. By age eleven she was working in a mill, preparing jute and flax for weavers. As she grew older she became a weaver, able…
1956 HT: Dan Graves The five men on “Palm Beach,” a strip of sand on the Curaray River, Ecuador, knew that there was danger. But they took the risk for a chance to make friendly contact with the Huaorani (Auca) Indians. Missionaries Ed McCulley, Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian, had landed…