DECEMBER 29
WATER, WIND, AND FIRE: THE TRAGIC END OF P. P. BLISS (1876)
“I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace. But in the name of Almighty God I forbid you to hurt my peopl...”
Grim, Edward. Life of St. Thomas Becket.
Without Christ, we are a row of zeroes (1907)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge—Proverbs 1:7 (KJV). You may set down six zeroes—000,000&m...
Events
1170
Archbishop Thomas à Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights of King Henry II.
Authority for the date: Thurston, Herbert. “St. Thomas Becket.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 11563
Death of Sebastian Castellio at Basle, Switzerland. He will be remembered for his book Concerning Heretics, calling for religious tolerance.
Authority for the date: Zweig, Stefan. The Right to Heresy or, How J1824
Death of Basiliscus, a founder of monasticism in Siberia.
Authority for the date: Russian Wikipedia.1876
Death of hymnwriter P.P. Bliss in a fiery train wreck, when a bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, fails and his train plunges into a ravine. He had written many notable hymns, including “Hallelujah, What a Savior!” and “Almost Persuaded.” It will be remarked that the night before his death he sang, “I’m going home Tomorrow.”
Authority for the date: Duffield, Samuel Willoughby. English Hymns; their Authors and History. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1886.1899
Sidney Brooks becomes the first victim of the Boxer Rebellion. Assaulted near Tai’an, China, he is beaten and pricked with knives, led about with a rope through his nose, forced to stand in his underwear in freezing conditions, and finally beheaded after he manages to flee to a nearby ravine. The following year, tens of thousands of Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries will perish in massacres by the Boxers.
Authority for the date: Paul Hattaway, China’s Christian Martyrs. p. 1371903
Death in Vineland, New Jersey, of Thomas B. Welch. A fervent Methodist, he had entered the ministry at nineteen but left because of problems with his voice. He had then become a physician and a dentist who sold alloys on the side until that became his main business. A temperance man, he had promised a recovering alcoholic that he would find a way to make a non-alcoholic communion drink. He did so but didn’t succeed in marketing the product. His son Charles will be more successful with Welch’s grape juice.
Authority for the date: Chazanof, William. Welch’s Grape Juice; From Corporation to Co-Operative. Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University P1911
Death of Chicago’s Pentecostal leader William Hamner Piper of a blood infection.
Authority for the date: Turning Points in the History of American Evangelicalism1932
Conversion of Allen Yuan, who will become a Chinese evangelist.
Authority for the date: Personal letter.2000
Argentina declares the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (said to be the oldest Protestant church building in South America) a National Historic and Artistic Monument. The declaration also establishes a Russian Orthodox church and a Jewish synagogue as historic and artistic monuments.
Authority for the date: http://servicios.infoleg.gob.