FEBRUARY 5
Paul Miki: My Only Crime Is Following Christ (1597)
“The work of God is still going on here. Three men requested baptism last Sabbath, and a number more will soon come forward. This is the more encouragi...”
Quoted in Eddy, Daniel C. Daughters of the Cross: or Woman’s Mission.
Christ Communed with the Father (1869)
At that time Jesus answered, Matthew 11:25. This is a singular way in which to commence a verse—“At th...
Events
1631
Roger Williams arrives in Massachusetts. Five years later he will flee to Rhode Island after questioning the fusion of church and state in Massachusetts. At Providence, he will establish the first Baptist church in America and his writings on religious liberty will influence the development of religious tolerance in the colonies.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1705
Death in Berlin of German theologian and clergyman Philipp Spener, author of Pia desideria. He had been known as the “Father of Pietism.”
Authority for the date: Encyclopedia Americana, 1956.1812
Rev. Jonathan Allen preaches a sermon in Haverhill, Massachusetts, “on the occasion of the young ladies about to embark as wives of Rev. Messieurs Judson and Newell, going Missionaries to India,” “ordaining” Harriet Atwood and Ann Hasseltine as assistant missionaries.
Authority for the date: Robert. American Women in Mission.1835
Twelve American Congregationalist missionaries first see Africa from the deck of a ship through a mist. Among them is Daniel Lindley who will win renown educating Africans and pleading with the Dutch-descended Boers to ease their inflexible racism.
Authority for the date: Davies, Horton. Great South African Christians. Oxford University Press, 1951.1851
Death in Hackney, of Congregationalist John Pye-Smith who had shown ways of reconciling geology and Scripture and been active on social issues such as the corn laws and slavery.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.1864
Fanny Crosby writes her first verses for composer William Bradbury, “A Home Beyond the Tide,” the beginning of a long and fruitful hymnwriting relationship.
Authority for the date: Duffield, Samuel W. English Hymns. Funk & Wagnalls, 1886.1900
Death of Pandit Kharah Singh. He had wandered India preaching Christ.
Authority for the date: Adrews, C.F. North India. London: A. R. Mowbray, 1908.1918
Russia’s Communists issue a Decree on the Separation of Church and State that strips the church of legal rights and the power to hold property.
Authority for the date: Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church.