FEBRUARY 3
Schartau: Jesus Enables Us to Put off the Old Man (1825)
“Dear Speed Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to day. You well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do yours, when...”
Lincoln, Abraham. The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete, ed. by Arthur Brooks Lapsley.
Scripture Explains Scripture (1839)
The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and...
Events
865
(traditional date) Death in Germany of Anskar, an early English or Irish missionary who had tried repeatedly to evangelize Scandinavia.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1238
Mongols surround the city of Vladimir, whose citizens, including Orthodox Christians, vow to resist to the last man to defend God’s churches. The city will fall on the fourteenth of that same month.
Authority for the date: Curtin, Jeremiah. The Mongols in Russia.1399
Death in London of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose political struggles with powerful prelates led him to support the religious reformer John Wycliffe.
Authority for the date: Britannica1469
Death in Mainz, Germany, of Johannes Gutenberg, a developer of movable type, which will become a powerful factor in the spread of the Protestant Reformation.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1738
John Wesley arrives in London, having fled the colony of Georgia, where his ministry had been a serious failure.
Authority for the date: Bangs, Nathan. A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church.1767
The British House of Lords rules against the Corporation of London which, to raise money, had established heavy fines for anyone refusing to stand for office if nominated, and then nominated many dissenters, knowing that they could not take the oath required under the Test Act.
Authority for the date: Dale, R.W. History of English Congregationalism.1788
Richard Johnson conducts the first divine service in Sydney, Australia "under some trees" and preaches from the text "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalm 116: 12). He is the first cleric appointed for that continent.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals and https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/johnson-richard-22751832
Death in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, of George Crabbe, a Church of England vicar and notable poet.
Authority for the date: Hatfield, Edwin. The Poets of the Church. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1884.1943
The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester is torpedoed by a German sub near Greenland and goes down with a loss of 600 lives. The event is notable for the selflessness of four chaplains, Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi), who gave up their lifejackets to save other men.
Authority for the date: http://www.greatships.net/dorchester.html1985
Desmond Tutu of South Africa becomes Johannesburg’s first black Anglican bishop.
Authority for the date: New York Times.1998
Execution in Texas of Karla Faye Tucker, a murderess, who converted to Christianity on death row and died praising Jesus. Movies and documentaries will be made about her life.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.2005
The Islamic city council of Demre, Turkey (formerly the Christian city, Myra), votes to replace the town’s traditional bronze statue of St. Nicholas of Myra with an effigy of a fat man with a red fur suit.
Authority for the date: Christian History 86 (2005).