December

18, 1613 --Germany. Johann Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, announces to the clergy that he does not claim control over the consciences of his subjects, and that likewise no one had a claim on his conscience. He has sided with the Reformed faith against strict Lutheranism.

18, 1707 --England. Charles Wesley is born to Samuel and Susannah Wesley. He will become known as the "Sweet Singer of Methodism," and will pen over six thousand five hundred hymns. He is a younger brother to John. He will accompany his brother John to General Oglethorpe's colony in the New World and will be appointed chaplain of the town of Frederica, one hundred miles from Savannah.
     On account of his faithful moral preaching, and his testimony against the vices of the townspeople, he will be hated and an attempt will be made to assassinate him. Once when preaching, a pistol was discharged at him. He happened to move at that very moment, or he would have been killed. Fearing to make a second attempt, they will conjure up some false charges against him and will succeed in causing the Governor to lose confidence in him. As a result, Mr. Oglethorpe will issue orders that Mr. Wesley is to use nothing that belongs to him. When he asks for a few boards to lie upon instead of the damp ground, they will be refused him and given to another. When he becomes sick, no one will wait upon him, until two women will dare defy the Governor's anger.
     When a poor man dies, Mr. Wesley, though ill, rose up and buried the body. Returning home he will lie down upon the bedstead which had belonged to the poor man, but so great will be the cruelty of the Governor, that he will order that the bedstead be pulled from under Charles, and he will still be left to lie at death's door without any medical assistance except that given by the two kind women.
     When his brother John pays him a visit, he will converse with him in Latin about his sufferings, as the Governor will forbid the two from talking about it. John will plead with the Governor, and Charles will be restored to his favor. Those who had before kicked and bullied him now will come and fall at his feet asking, "My dear sir, what can we do? Yours very truly, and most obediently."

18, 1777 --United States. The American colonies struggling for their independence from England today unite in a general thanksgiving to God because of the recent downfall of General Burgoyne, their common enemy.

19, 1656 --Holland. The city of Amsterdam offers fugitive Waldensians free passage to America . . .. New Netherlands will prepare for the few willing to emigrate.

19, 1660 --Massachusetts. As Charles II has returned to England in May of this year, and thus restoring the monarchy, the people of Massachusetts appeal to the king as a "king who had seen adversity, and who, having himself been an exile knew the hearts of exiles." They pray for the "continuance of civil and religious liberties," "Your servants are true men," they affirm, "fearing God and the king. We could not live without the public worship of God; that we might therefore enjoy divine worship without human mixtures, we, not without tears, departed from our country, kindred, and fathers' houses. Our garments are become old by reason of the very long journey; ourselves, who came away in our strength, are, many of us, become gray-headed, and some of us stooping for age."
     In return for protection of their liberties they promise the blessing of a people whose trust is in God.

"If we shrink sensitively from the idea that the 'Lord of Heaven and Earth' reveals to some and hides from others, we are strangely out of sympathy with the feelings of Jesus and of Paul who found in this idea not only occasion of resignation, but of adoration and joy."

-John A. Broadus-

19, 1790 --Pennsylvania. Bishop William White, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Matthew Carey and nine others conduct a meeting today in Philadelphia that will result in the formation of "The First Day Society", otherwise known as "The Sunday School Society," and the intent of which is for the "establishment of Sunday Schools." It will become the oldest existing Sunday School Society in the world.

19, 1808 --Scotland. Horatius Bonar is born. He will become a noted hymn writer and pastor.

20, 1409 --Italy. Pope Alexander V issues a bull empowering Archbishop Sbinko of Hasenburg to proceed against Wyclifism in Bohemia. All books of Wycliffe are to be surrendered; his doctrine repudiated and free preaching discontinued.

20, 1531 --England. Tewkesbury, despite severe torture, is burned at the stake. The words "Christ alone" are on his lips.

20, 1552 --Germany. Since the death of her husband on February 18, 1546, Catherine Von Bora Luther has lived much of the time in poverty. Today while fleeing the plague at Wittemberg, along with her children, she is accidentally killed. She was on her way to the city of Torgau.

20, 1560 --Scotland. The Scottish Parliament under the guidance of John Knox having declared the Reformed faith the national religion, to General Assembly of the Reformed Church of Scotland meets today for the first time.