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AUGUST

24, 1572 --France. Peter Ramus is among those martyred in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
He was converted to Protestantism in 1561 after hearing Charles of Lorraine attempt to answer Theodore Beza. Mr. Ramus has accepted the Reformed tenet that the Scriptures are the only standard of faith.

24, 1683 --England. After a long and painful sickness, John Owen dies. "I am leaving the ship of the Church in a storm, but while the Great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable." In eleven days, a multitude including more than sixty noblemen will pay their last tribute as his body is laid to rest in Bunhill Fields. He leaves behind him a colossal commentary on Hebrews of which Thomas Chalmers writes, "... He who hath mastered it is very little short both in respect to the Doctrinal and Practical of Christianity, of being an erudite and accomplished theologian."

24, 1707 --England. At Stanton Harold, an estate in Leicestershire, Countess Selina Hastings Huntingdon is born. She will found the "Calvinistic Connexion." In 1747, she will make George Whitefield one of her chaplains and will throw open her home in London for religious services. When the Toleration Act places her, her chapels and her ministers among dissenters, and are thus ordered to register under that denomination, several of her chaplains, will withdraw from the Connexion, among them being William Romaine, Henry Vane, and John Berridge.
     The Countess will side with Mr. Whitefield when controversy develops between John Wesley and himself.

24, 1748 --England. William Grimshaw and John Wesley go to Colne to preach, and are attacked by a drunken mob armed with clubs. The two preachers are dragged before Rev. George White, curate, as though they are criminals. Rev. Mr. White will prove to be Mr. Grimshaw's most violent opponent.
     After failing to extort a promise from the preachers to desist coming to Colne to preach, they are allowed to leave, but no sooner have they gone outside when the mob closes in and begins to throw them about with much violence. Mr. Grimshaw is thrown down and both he and Mr. Wesley are covered with mire. No one comes to their rescue.
     The people who have come to attend upon their preaching are treated with even greater cruelty without regard to age or sex. They run for their lives under a shower of dirt and stones. Others are trampled in the mire or dragged by the hair, or beaten with clubs. One man is forced to leap from a rock ten or twelve feet high into the river to prevent being thrown in headlong. When he crawls out, wet and bruised, his attackers swear they will throw him in again and are prevented from executing their plan only with great difficulty.
     Rev. George White, so well pleased with the melee, offers no word to stop the mob.

24, 1759 --England. William Wilberforce is born. At the age of ten, his father will die and he will be sent to live with his uncle whose wife is deeply imbued with piety. Fearing her son would become a Methodist his mother removes him after two years from the influence of his aunt. But the mark will be left, and he will be converted through reading Philip Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and will form a society for the Reformation of Manners known as the "Proclamation Society." It is so-named because of a royal proclamation he has secured against vice. The society will institute proceedings against blasphemous and indecent publications.

24, 1795 --England. In London, the English hymn-writer Samuel Stennett dies. He has enjoyed the confidence of King George III, and has had John Howard, the prison reformer, among his frequent hearers. He leaves behind him the hymns, "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand," and "Majestic Sweetness Sit Enthroned."

24, 1844 --Ireland. At Belfast, Alexander Carson dies. While studying the New Testament to confute the Baptists, he himself espoused their doctrine with the exception of closed communion. He is best remembered by his masterpiece: Baptism: Its Mode And Its Subjects.


    
 

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