JULY 4
ROBERT SHEFFEY WAS AN ECCENTRIC AND MEMORABLE PREACHER (1820)
“Surely . . . it must be regarded as a privilege. . . . that our means of doing good are limited by no remoteness of country or distance of duration, b...”
Bacon, Leonard. “A Plea for Africa.” Quoted in Leonard Woolsey Bacon’s A History of American Christianity. New York: The Christian Literature Co., 1897.
What is freedom? (1887)
Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you? — Deuteronomy 33:29 (ESV). Let us convince the world by our Christian ch...
Events
325
A jewel-encrusted Emperor Constantine appears before the Council of Nicea that he has assembled, declaring that “Division in the church is worse than war.”
Authority for the date: Christian History 28 (1990).371
Against his will, Martin is consecrated bishop of Tours. To escape the press of the world, he had founded the first monastery in France.
Authority for the date: Catholic Encyclopedia.431
A large crowd descends on a church in Constantinople chanting, “Many years to Pulcheria! Many years to the empress!” expressing support for the Christological line Pulcheria has pressed at the Council of Ephesus.
Authority for the date: Christian Women in the Patristic World.473
The remains of Martin of Tours are moved (translated) from the small church where they have lain for decades to the new and larger Church of St. Martin of Tours constructed at the instigation of Archbishop Perpetuus of Tours, who will in due course be buried at his famous predecessor’s feet.
Authority for the date: Wace, Henry. A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature....1187
Saladin defeats Christians in Palestine at the Battle of Hattin.
Authority for the date: Britannica.1533
John Frith (Fryth) is burned at the stake in Smithfield by King Henry VIII of England. A Protestant and fellow translator with William Tyndale, he had been accused of heresy.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1648
Antoine Daniel, a Jesuit who taught the Hurons many hymns in their own language, is martyred by the Iroquois.
Authority for the date: O'Brien, John A. The American Martyrs. New York: Apelleton, Century, Crofts, 1953.1755
Death of John Cennick, English clergyman. Born of Quaker parents, he had been raised in the Anglican Church, worked within the Methodist movement under John Wesley, left Wesley to work with George Whitefield, and finally, in 1845, joined the Moravian Brethren. Cennick had published several collections of hymns during his lifetime.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1832
The national hymn “America” is first sung in public at a children’s celebration of Independence Day, at the Park St. Church, Boston. The words had been written that February by the Rev. Samuel F. Smith and are sung to the tune of “God Save the King.”
Authority for the date: Lahee, Henry Charles. Annals of Music in America.1841
Death in Lexington, Missouri, of Finis Ewing, one of the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Authority for the date: http://www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/minister/EwingF.htm1844
Missionary Dan Beach Bradley establishes the first newspaper in Siam—the Bangkok Reporter.
Authority for the date: http://www.usa.or.th/relation/ce/ce1.htm1844
Captain Allen Gardiner founds the Patagonian Mission. He will perish in its service in 1851.
Authority for the date: The Church at Home and Abroad. (November 1894) 452.1887
Excommunication of Roman Catholic priest Edward McGlynn takes effect. He was viewed as insubordinate for taking socialist positions not authorized by the church, including supporting Henry George for mayor of New York City, and then failing to obey a summons to present himself in Rome. Pope Leo XIII will lift the excommunication in 1892.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1948
Kathryn Kuhlman preaches her first sermon in Carnegie Hall. She will become a well-recognized evangelist and faith healer.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.1986
The Baptist convention of Nicaragua issues an appeal against United States intervention in Nicaragua and against an embargo of their nation’s Sandinista Communist regime.
Authority for the date: Martin, Tongues of Fire1998
An “Orthodox Congress” demonstrates in Jerusalem, working with the Palestine Authority to take control of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Authority for the date: “The PA’s attempts to take over Christian churches & communities in Jerusalem.” (Via IMRA)