NOVEMBER 20
GEORGE JEFFREY: THOUSANDS SAVED, HEALED IN HOLY SPIRIT OUTPOURING (1904)
“Dear Sir, I have to communicate to you the painful intelligence of the death of your beloved brother and faithful missionary, the Rev. John Williams,...”
Prout, Ebenezer. Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Williams: Missionary to Polynesia. London: John Snow, 1843.
Pray for a world governed by God (1887)
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven—Matthew 6:10 (ESV). I hear men speak continually...
Events
303
Because his prisons are full, Diocletian offers amnesty to all Christians who will sacrifice to the Roman gods.
Authority for the date: Barnes, Timothy David. Eusebius and Constantine. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981.870
(traditional date) Martyrdom of Edmund, King of the East Angles. Danish invaders had offered him peace at the cost of renouncing Christ but he refused, fighting to preserve his throne and his faith. Captured, he was tortured and murdered.
Authority for the date: Episcopal Church. Holy Women, Holy Men.1542
At the urging of Bartolomeo de las Casas, Spain passes new laws to protect American Indians.
Authority for the date: Wagner, Henry Raup and Helen Rand Parish. Bartolome de las Casas. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 19671583
Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II issues a Tomus on the question of the Gregorian calendar, which the Orthodox Church rejects, sticking with the traditional Julian calendar.
Authority for the date: http://www.patriarchate.org/patriarchate/former-patriarchs/jeremias-ii-1st-time1652
The King of Warri [in Nigeria] writes the pope, pleading that missionaries be sent to his country. In response, the pope will dispatch Capuchin friars who will criss-cross the small country for four years.
Authority for the date: A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America1806
Death of Isaac Backus, an influential Massachusetts Baptist leader, soulwinner, and advocate of religious freedom.
Authority for the date: Encyclopedia American, 1956.1847
Death of Francis Lyte, Scottish clergyman and hymnwriter, who wrote “Jesus I My Cross Have Taken.” He also penned the hymn, “Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide.” His last words are “Joy! Peace!”
Authority for the date: Duffield, Samuel Willoughby. English Hymns; their Authors and History. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1886.1850
Francis “Fanny” J. Crosby becomes a Christian following a disconcerting dream in which a dying friend makes her promise to meet him in heaven. Attending a Methodist revival service, she seeks assurance at the altar and she is flooded with joy, and leaps up, shouting “Hallelujah.” She will go on to write hundreds of beloved hymns such as “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.”
Authority for the date: Crosby, Fanny J. Autobiography.1870
Amanda Smith, feeling dull, sees a vision saying “Go Preach.” She becomes a well-known African-American evangelist who travels world-wide.
Authority for the date: Smith, Amanda. An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with...Amanda Smith, 1968.1904
George Jeffreys is converted in a revival at Shiloh Independent Chapel in Nantyfyllon, Wales. He is healed of a speech impediment and will go on to become a leading Pentecostal evangelist.
Authority for the date: Gohr, “George Jeffreys: The Boy Who Overcame a Speech Impediment..."1938
Father Charles Coughlin, a Canadian-born Catholic priest, populist radio broadcaster, and (until c. 1934) an ardent supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, defends Kristallnacht, a Nazi attack on Jewish property, as a necessary retaliation for Jewish atheists in the communist government of Russia which had killed millions of Christians and confiscated Christian property. He would consistently blame Jews and Communists for the Second World War rather than the Nazis who launched it. His magazine was called Social Justice.
Authority for the date: https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005516