MAY 24
Mary Webb Ran an Amazing Range of Ministries from Her Wheelchair (1861)
“I have been long considering and conjecturing, what could be the causes of that great disgust, of late, against the clergy of both kingdoms, beyond wh...”
Swift, Jonathan. The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. III.: Swift’s Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I.
We Have an Enemy (1864)
An enemy has done this—Matthew 13:28 (ESV). The Christian has many foes, but there is one who is emphatically call...
Events
1089
Death of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, of a fever.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1543
Death of Polish cleric and astronomer Nicolas Copernicus. Copernicus participated in a Roman Catholic religious community at the cathedral of Frauenburg.
Authority for the date: Ball, Robert Stawell. Revolution of Astronomy by Copernicus, A.D. 1543.1575
Lutheran scholar Stephen Gerlach delivers the Augsburg Confession to Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II for consideration as talks continue to see if common ground can be found for a union between the Orthodox and Lutheran churches.
Authority for the date: http://www.patriarchate.org/patriarchate/former-patriarchs/jeremias-ii-1st-time1607
Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colonists observe their first celebration of the Eucharist, thought to have been presided over by John Hunt, their Anglican priest.
Authority for the date: Episcopal Church. Holy Women, Holy Men.1738
John Wesley feels his “heart strangely warmed” when he hears a reading of the preface to Luther’s commentary on Romans at a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London. The event turns him into a soul-winner.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1752
Robert Robinson, sixteen years old, hears George Whitefield preach and writes in his Bible “renatus” (born again). He will become a Baptist pastor and the author of the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Authority for the date: Burrage, Henry S. Baptist Hymnwriters and Their Hymns. Portland, Maine: Brown, Thurston & Co., 1888.1768
Death of pastor and hymnwriter Joseph Hart. Twenty thousand people will attend his funeral. Although reared godly, he had become virulently opposed to Christianity and wrote against John Wesley. However, at forty years of age, he returned to his childhood faith and began to write hymns. Among the best known was “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” His hymns were so successful he was encouraged to become a Congregational minister. He was so fervent that great crowds gathered to hear him preach.
Authority for the date: Nutter, Charles S. Hymn Writers of the Church.1830
Alexander Duff arrives in India. He will proceed to Calcutta where he will advance Christian education. He and his wife suffered two shipwrecks in sailing to Asia.
Authority for the date: McLean, Archibald. Epoch Makers of Modern Missions. New York, Chicago [etc.]: Fleming H. Revell, 1912.1844
Inventor Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrates the world’s first practical telegraph. For over a decade he had struggled to patent and finance the invention, writing in a moment of discouragement, “The only gleam of hope, and I cannot underrate it, is from confidence in God. When I look upward it calms any apprehension for the future and I seem to hear a voice saying: ‘If I clothe the lilies of the field, shall I not also clothe you?’ Here is my strong confidence, and I will wait patiently for the direction of Providence.” His first message, sent from the Supreme Court to Baltimore, was a quote from the Bible: Numbers 23:23, “What hath God wrought.”
Authority for the date: Library of Congress.1859
Madame Caroline Miolan-Carvalho gives Charles Gounod’s Ave Maria its first public performance.
Authority for the date: “Program Notes on Ave Maria (C Major) by Gounod.” www.sheetmusic2print.com1861
Death of Mary Webb in Boston. Although bound to a wheelchair from youth, she had founded one of the first women’s missionary societies in America and coordinated the efforts of two hundred local societies.
Authority for the date: Vail, Albert L. Mary Webb and the Mother Society. Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Society, 1914.1870
Death in Wisconsin of Episcopalian Bishop Jackson Kemper, who had served much of his life evangelizing on the American frontier and among the Indians of the Mid west.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1872
Gilbert Haven is consecrated at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Because he promotes the equality of all persons, racists will not have him as bishop of white conferences, so the white bishop serves an Atlanta conference composed entirely of African Americans.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1879
Death in New York City of William Lloyd Garrison, who had agitated against slavery as a speaker, writer, editor, and founder of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Many of his anti-slavery arguments had been Bible-based.
Authority for the date: Britannica.1896
Maud Booth speaks in Sing Sing prison, seeking prison reform, and electrifies the prisoners: “I do not come here to prevent you from paying the just penalty of your crimes; take your medicine like men. When you have paid the penalty I will help you. I will nurse you back to health. I will get you work. Above all I will trust you. It depends on you whether I keep doing so or not.”
Authority for the date: http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/sidewalksantas/sidewalksantas.html1949
After selfless service to his nation both as an Episcopal bishop and as an organizer of medical relief during the Sino-Japanese war, Zhu Youyu is in Shanghai when Communist forces enter the city. He will soon be denounced as an imperialist agent by the Communists, speaking through the Three Self Patriotic Church.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.1950
Death in Shanghai of Yan Huiqing, a Christian who had held high diplomatic posts in several Chinese governments, and whose ceaseless efforts had much to do with keeping the territory of China intact during decades of foreign predation. He also revived the Chinese Red Cross to deal with the Japanese invasion. His funeral service will be held in his family’s home church, Church of Our Saviour.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.