1499 HT: Dan Graves Katherine von Bora viewed herself as a prisoner in the cloister of Marienthron. Luther’s Reformation preaching had found its way behind the convent walls and she wanted out. It wasn’t as if she had chosen this secluded life for herself. Far from it. Her dad had brought her here when she…
1560 HT: Christian History Institute After reformers overthrew Roman Catholicism in Scotland, they needed a new church organization to replace it. Parliament commissioned six reformers to draw up a book of discipline, which they did. A few nobles refused to accept it, but a good number did, signing it on January 27, 1560 at the Tolbooth in…
1672 HT: Christian History Institute Richard Baxter was an English Puritan author, pastor, theologian, and controversialist. He gained a national reputation when revival broke out under his ministry at Kidderminster. England was fractured into many religious and political factions and he advocated peace, saying “In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”…
1893 HT: Dan Graves On this day, January 23, l893, Christians throughout the world mourned the death of Phillips Brooks. Yet sorrow soon turned to songs of triumph and praise of God for Phillips Brooks’ life. Over his tomb they would erect these words: “A preacher of righteousness and hope, majestic in stature, impetuous in…
1793 HT: Christian History Institute FOR TWENTY YEARS, John Berridge was known as “the old devil” by the clergymen around Everton (a district of Liverpool in England). They grumbled against him because he preached to the people of their parishes—souls they had neglected. Not only that, but he used illustrations they considered in bad taste,…
1563 HT: Dan Graves Some things must be memorized to be really useful. If your work required you to multiply numbers such as 6×7 or 8×9, you would save a lot of time by memorizing the multiplication table. The same is true of Bible truths. A good catechism sets out the core truths that Christians…
1604 HT: Christianity.com Have you ever attended a frustrating meeting where nothing much seems to get done? The Hampton Court conference, held in 1604, was like that. When James VI of Scotland rode south to London on the way to the coronation that would make him James I of England, Puritans presented him with a…
1543 British Parliament prohibits the reading of the New Testament in English by “women or artificer’s prentices, journeymen, servingmen of the degree of yeoman, or under, husbandmen or labourers…” 1604 Puritan John Rainolds suggests to King James I “that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible, as consonant as can be to the…
1743 HT: Dan Graves David Brainerd, was a legendary pioneer missionary to the American Indians. He died in 1747 when he was only 29 years old, but his journal has inspired Christians in every generation since. One day in December, 1742, he made an entry that gave later generations a peek at the experience of…
1915 HT: Dan Graves In 1914, Mary Slessor, a world-famous missionary to Nigeria, fell so ill that she had to be taken by canoe to hospital. A few weeks later she collapsed again. As she lay semi-conscious she whispered “O God, release me.” She died on this day, January 13, 1915, mourned by thousands of…