DECEMBER 20
WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW, POOR MAN’S BISHOP (1846)
“Salvation unto us has come By God s free grace and favor Good works cannot avert our doom, They help and save us never. Faith looks to Jesus Christ al...”
Schlegel, Doug. “A Reformation Hymn: Salvation Unto Us Has Come.” Leben 2 (2005) 10.
We need faith (1886)
St. Thomas doubted.Skepticism is a degree of unbelief: equally therefore it is a degree of belief. It may be a degree of...
Events
1326
Death of Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia. He had moved his see from Vladimir to Moscow the year before. Later he will be proclaimed a patron saint of Moscow.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia.1560
The First General Assembly of the Church of Scotland meets in Edinburgh. Its purpose is, “To consult upon those things which are to forward God’s glory and the well-being of His Kirk.”
Authority for the date: McFeeters, J.C. Sketches of the Covenanters.1803
Death at Newport, Rhode Island, of theologian Samuel Hopkins who had modified Calvinism. He had also been one of the first clergymen in America to free his slaves and denounce the system of slavery.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1846
William Walsham Howe is ordained a deacon in the Church of England. He will go on to become a notable bishop and hymn writer.
Authority for the date: Edwin Hatfield. The Poets of the Church.1877
As Ahmed Fahmi, a recent convert from Islam to Christianity, leaves the Presbyterian mission compound in Cairo, Egypt, where he has been teaching Arabic to missionaries, he is kidnapped by his family. He will be held for five weeks. Afterward he studies in Scotland and becomes a missionary to China.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.1908
Death of Father John of Kronstadt (John Sergiev), a Russian Orthodox priest greatly beloved for his charity and wisdom. “The enemy of our salvation especially strives to draw our heart and mind away from God when we are about to serve Him, and endeavours to adulterously attach our heart to something irrelevant.”
Authority for the date: orthodoxwiki.org.1909
William Temple, who will become Archbishop of Canterbury, is made deacon of Canterbury Cathedral. He is an advocate of the common man and active in social issues but still unsure of the doctrine of the resurrection.
Authority for the date: Somervell, D. C. William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury; His life and letters. Oxford, 1963.1934
Death in New York City of Sarah “Adelaide” Addison Pollard, an evangelistic worker and missionary to Africa, noted for her hymn “Have Thine Own Way Lord,” written when her missionary plans were stymied. She dies of a ruptured appendix.
Authority for the date: Cyberhymnal.