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DECEMBER

25, 379 --Turkey. At Constantinople, Gregory Nazianzin preaches the first Christmas sermon known to have been preached in the East.

25, 496 --France. In a desperate battle, Clovis, king of the Franks, claims to have seen in the sky the sign of the cross. Vowing as Constantine before him had done to become a Christian if he won the battle, he is baptized today in the city of Rheims together with three thousand of his soldiers.

25, 800 --Italy. Charlemagne, a Frankish king, is today crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire by the Pope, who now extends his "ecclesiastical power" to include "secular power."

25, 1144 --Turkey. The city of Edessa, now in the hands of the crusaders, falls today to the Emir of Mosul. It will lead to the Second Crusade.

25, 1635 --Canada. Samuel de Champlain dies in Quebec the result from a stroke. He will be buried here. He is the true founder of New France in the New World: it is owing to him, France has a claim in Canada. Among the cities he has founded is the city of Quebec. Under the company of "One Hundred Associates," or the "Company of New France", Mr. Champlain was made governor of all its holdings in the New World.
     Under Henry of Navarre, he fought on the side of the Huguenots, and has even assisted a company of French Protestants in settling in Acadia. He is known as a fervently religious man.

25, 1766 --Wales. "Christmas" Evans is born near Llandyssul, Cardiganshire, to a shoemaker. He will be an instrument of God in the Welch Revival of the 1790's. Because of his vivid imagination, he will be referred to as the "Bunyan of Wales."

25, 1968 --The Moon. Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot, James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders have been orbiting the moon for twenty hours and photographing the dark side of the moon. Today they radio back to earth, "I hope all of you back on earth can see what we mean when we say this is a very foreboding horizon, a rather dark, and unappetizing-looking place. We are now going over one of the future landing sites called the Sea of Tranquility. Now you can see the long shadows of the lunar sunrise. For all the people back on earth, the crew of Apollo Eight has a message that we would like to send to you."
     Then Mr. Anders, Mr. Lovell and Mr. Borman read the first ten verses of Genesis Chapter
One.

26, 1776 --New Jersey. George Washington marches into Trenton, New Jersey at the head of an army that has neither shoes, nor stockings, nor blankets, almost naked, and dying from cold and hunger. In the battle that lasted only thirty-five minutes, and in which the Americans have lost not a single man (however one half of the men under Stirling have been disabled by reason of exposure for forty hours to the worst weather, and two men have frozen to death) the British have sustained seventy-eight wounded; and the whole command of nine hundred and forty-six men are taken prisoner. Seventeen Hessians have been killed, while one hundred and thirty have surrendered, and another one hundred and sixty-two have escaped. This will prove to be the turning point in the War for Independence. In Pennsylvania, Lutherans will rejoice, " ...The Lord of Hosts heard the cries of the distressed, and sent His angel for their deliverance."

26, 1778 --Massachusetts. This fall, British soldiers gained control of Martha's Vineyard and at that time took their arms and ammunition besides three hundred cattle and one thousand sheep, including most of the produce the land had brought forth. The inhabitants of the island have been greatly impoverished.
     Today, a cold snow storm causes the death of seventeen men in a privateer sloop and seventy-five more in a brig near Plymouth. However, the storm is of such great intensity as to drive into a creek a vast number of bass which will supply the dwellers on the island with as many as they wish to take.
     Soon, a British vessel will be cast away upon the west part of the island and will provide a large supply of rice.
     By such acts of Providence both of affliction as well as of blessing, four people will suddenly become aware of a sense of sin and danger, and will be converted in the spring of 1780. "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." (Romans 2:4).

27, 1548 --Italy. Francesco Spiera dies. Sixteenth century Protestants used him as an example of the dreadful consequences of sinning against the Holy Spirit for he discerned Gospel truth, but denied and abjured it for external reasons.
     Between May 24th and June 20th, he was arraigned before the Inquisition at Venice together with certain others. On the latter day, in St. Mark's, Mr. Spiera made solemn abjuration of his "errors" and subscribed the abjuration which he then repeated on the following Sunday in Cittadella, after Mass in the cathedral. On returning home, he has related, the Spirit began to reproach him for having denied the truth, Amid grounds of comfort either he or his friends advanced, and a state of despair that grew more and more hopeless, there began a terrible struggle within himself which soon so affected his sturdy frame that it gave occasion for conveying him to Padua to be treated by the most celebrated physicians. But the treatment was vain and the conflict which Vergerio and others witnessed, ended in his death, shortly after his return home.

 

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