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DECEMBER

20, 1576 --England. The Queen has determined to suppress the religious exercises of the Puritans known as "prophecyings," that are meetings at which short sermons are preached on predetermined subjects, and are open to the laity as well as the clergy. Today Archbishop Grindal writes the Queen, "I am forced with all humility, and yet plainly, to profess that I cannot with safe conscience, and without the offence of the Majesty of God, give my assent to the suppressing of the said exercises: much less can I send out any injunction for the utter and universal subversion of the same."

20, 1661 --England. Parliament reinstates Episcopacy in England.

20, 1686 --Massachusetts. Sir Edmund Andros glittering in scarlet and lace lands at Boston as the Governor of all New England. He has been instructed to tolerate no printing press, to encourage Episcopacy, and to sustain authority by force. "His Excellency has to do with a perverse people," it is explained, and he will establish arbitrary rule. To assemble in town meeting for deliberation will be considered an act of sedition or a riot. Personal liberty and customs of the country will be disregarded. No one will be able to leave the colony without a special permit. Probate fees will be increased nearly twenty-fold. He will be responsible for the "extortion" of what fees he pleases to the great oppression of the people, and will render the present government grievous.
      Puritans will be marked by their abhorrence of the custom of laying the hand on the Bible in taking an oath --which custom they deem idolatrous. "Our condition," one will testify, "is little inferior to absolute slavery." "The Governor," Increase Mather will write, "invaded liberty and property after such a manner as no man could say anything was his own."
      He will dissolve the government of Rhode Island and will break its seals and will proceed to Connecticut where he will assume the government.
      Is it any wonder that when Governor Andros is succeeded, that the people of Lynn, Massachusetts will give thanks to God for their escape from the worst bondage? As George Bancroft points out, "The Greek colonists planted free and prosperous cities; and in a following century, each metropolis, envying the happiness of its daughters, imitated its institutions, and rejected kings. Rome, a nation of soldiers, planted colonies by the sword, and retributive justice merged its liberties in absolute despotism. The American colonists founded their institution on popular freedom and set an example to the nations."

20, 1796 --England. At Portland, Thomas Webb, a pioneer of Methodism dies. He was present at the storming of the French fort at Louisburg, Nova Scotia in 1758 and was one of the survivors of General Braddocks defeat in 1755. He was also present at the scaling of the Heights of Abraham at Quebec in 1759. He was converted under the preaching of John Wesley while at Bristol, England and in 1765 became a lay preacher. When an attempt was being made at founding Methodism in New York in 1766, he was in charge of the barracks at Albany.
    He is to be remembered for his efforts to relieve the suffering French prisoners of war and for the soldiers and sailors stationed at Portsmouth.

20, 1803 --Rhode Island. At Newport, Samuel Hopkins dies. He has been an intimate friend of President Jonathan Edwards having received his theological training in his home.
     Newport has been a principal slave-market, and as early as 1770, Mr. Hopkins began to preach against the institution. He has submitted a comprehensive plan for the colonizing of American slaves, which has resulted in two freed Negroes who for forty years have retained the desire to return to their native land as missionaries. The two were moved in their youth by Mr. Hopkins' plan, and in January 1826, they will sail from Boston Harbor for Liberia together with sixteen other Negroes aboard. They have united themselves into a church with these two elderly men to serve as deacons.

20, 1825 --Greece. Michael Demetrius Kalopothakes is born at Areopolis, Lyconia. At age ten, he will enter a school established by two American Presbyterian missionaries. Here he will form the habit of daily reading the Bible. He will establish a system of colporteurs whom he will superintend for forty-five years. Their circulation of God's Word is regarded of paramount importance for the regeneration of Greece.

21, 1644 --England. The Westminster Assembly has completed its "Directory for Public Worship," Mr. David Dickson aided The work. Thomas Goodwin is one of those appointed to present it to Parliament today. It will not be approved by the English Parliament, however until January 3, 1645. Mr. Goodwin's notes on the Assembly will fill fourteen volumes.

21, 1738 --England. Dan Taylor is born. As a boy of five years of age, he will work with his father as a miner. At twenty-five years of age, he will leave Methodism after ten years, and will be immersed as a Baptist. But becoming dissatisfied with the Unitarian drift and unable to arrest it, he, together with the Barton Independent Baptists, will form the "New Connection of General Baptists" in June, 1770.

21, 1776 --Switzerland. Today while tearing down an old tenement which has been part of the Carthusian convent here at Basle, a wooden box is discovered in which, a confession is found written by a Friar named Martin:

     "O most loving God! I know there is no other way in which I can be saved and satisfy Thy justice, than by the merit, the spotless passion, and death of Thy well-beloved Son. Kind Jesus! All my salvation is in Thy hands. Thou canst not turn the arms of Thy love away from me, for they created, shaped and ransomed me. In great mercy and in an ineffable manner, Thou hast engraved my name with an iron pen on Thy side, Thy hands and Thy feet . . .."

     The monk had placed his confession in the wooden box and deposited the box in a hole he had made in the wall of his cell.

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