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Quote of the day

“Oh, say ye, I am slain with hardness of heart, and troubled with confused and melancholious thoughts. Answer My dear brother, what would you conclude...”

Rutherford, Samuel. Letters of Samuel Rutherford, ed. by Andrew A. Bonar. Edinburgh & London: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1891.

Devotional

What is in a name? (1888)

And those who know your name put their trust in you. Psalm 9:10 ESV. The name always stands for character. They that kno...

Events

482

Death in a monastic cell at Favianae (in modern Austria), of Severinus, an early missionary from Africa who preached Christianity along the Danube River.

Authority for the date: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severinus_of_Noricum

1198

Lothair of Segnei is elected as Innocent III; he will be the first to consistently title himself “Vicar of Christ” and will take the papacy to its pinnacle of power.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1455

In the bull Romanus Pontifex, Pope Nicholas V transfers Africa’s harbors, rivers, islands, and seas to Portugal’s rulers; and grants Portugal patronage over its churches and authority to sell infidels into slavery.

Authority for the date: A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990, eds Koschorke, Ludwig, and Delgado. Eerdma

1539

Tjard Reynders is executed in the Netherlands for sheltering the gentle and holy Anabaptist leader Menno Simons.

Authority for the date: Simons, Menno. Complete Writings of Menno Simons.

1672

Death in Jamaica of Elizabeth Hooten, probably the first convert to George Fox’s Quaker teachings, and one of the earliest Protestant women preachers. She had accompanied him there on a mission trip.

Authority for the date: Deen, Edith. Great Women of the Christian Faith. New York: Harper, 1959.

1736

Death of John LeClerc (Clericus), a Swiss theologian who had left Geneva because his critical study of the Bible led him to disagree with Calvin. Settling in Amsterdam, he had become an Arminian.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1800

Moravian missionaries and Hottentot converts consecrate a church building able to seat 1,500 worshipers at Bavian’s Kloof, South Africa (later renamed Gnadenthal or Gracevale).

Authority for the date: John O. Choules and Thomas Smith, The Origin

1860

During a British revival service, Catherine Booth announces that she is going to preach.

Authority for the date: Ian Randall, “Revival, Evangelism and Diakonia.”

1879

The Grecian Holy Synod condemns Apostolos Makrakis in his absence to three months’ imprisonment. Makrakis, who is popular with the middle class, had preached controversial sermons about Christ and attacked freemasonry, materialism, and simony (the sale and purchase of church positions). The latter charge turned church leaders against him and now they use his view that humans have a soul, spirit, and body to condemn him. In 1880 a court in Athens will absolve him.

Authority for the date: orthodoxwiki.org.

1956

Missionaries Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian are massacred by Woadani Indians (Auca) in Ecuador.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1969

Death in Florida of Harriet Bedell, who had served as an Episcopal missionary among Native Americans in Oklahoma, Alaska, and Florida.

Authority for the date: Episcopal Church. Holy Women, Holy Men.

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