"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
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FEBRUARY
6, 1557 --England. At the instigation of Queen Mary, the
bones of Paul Fagius and Martin Bucer are exhumed and burned, and their
university honors are taken away. But Queen Elizabeth will order the
University to formally restore them their honors.
6, 1564 –Switzerland. John Calvin preaches with difficulty his last
sermon. He has brought the Reformation to France and to Switzerland.
Since he has re-entered the city of Geneva, he has preached every day,
every other week; but his asthmatic condition has caused him to preach
slowly. Each Friday he has called his congregation together to answer
their questions as well as to carry on debate.
6, 1736 --Georgia. Three hundred people conducted by General James
Oglethorpe land near Tybee Island, where they all kneel and humbly thank
God for having safely arrived. Among them is a group of Moravians to
reinforce the group already in the colony, and the brothers, John and
Charles Wesley.
John Wesley, an Anglican, is made the
spiritual leader of the Georgia colony, along with his brother Charles.
He preaches in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, and
confesses, "My heart's desire for this place is not that it should be a
famous or a rich, but that it may be a religious colony: and then I am
sure it cannot fail of the blessing of God." Finding his toil
unwelcomed, he will return to England December 2, 1737 only to find that
he himself is not yet converted.
6, 1754 --England. At Wicken, Cambridgeshire, Andrew Fuller is born. As
a young man he will experience conversion and six months later will be
baptized into a Baptist church. He will study the writings of John Gill
and will be especially influenced by the writings of John Owen as well
as by Jonathan Edwards.
6, 1765 --England. Isaac Barre, the companion and friend of General
Wolfe, sharer of the dangers and glories of Louisburg and Quebec, seems
to admit the power of Parliament to tax America, yet derides the idea of
virtual representation. "Who of you reasoning upon this subject, feels
warmly from the heart," he cries putting his hand to his breast, "who of
you feels for the Americans as you would for yourselves, or as you would
for the people of your own native country?" and he taunts the house with
its ignorance of American affairs.
The charge of ignorance calls to his feet Charles
Townshend, the professed master of them. He confirms the equity of the
taxation, and insists that the colonies have borne but a small
proportion of the expenses of the last war, and have yet obtained by it
immense advantages at a vast expense to the mother country. "And now,"
says he, "will these American children, planted by our care, nourished
up by our indulgence to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected
by our arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the
heavy burden under which we lie?"
As he sits down, Mr. Barre rises, and with
eyes darting fire and outstretched arm, utters an unpremeditated reply:
"They planted by YOUR care! No: your oppressions planted them in
America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated,
unhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the
hardships to which human nature is liable; and among others, to the
cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon me to
say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth; and
yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all
hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own
country from the hands of those who should have been their friends. THEY
NOURISHED BY YOUR INDULGENCE! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon
as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending
persons to rule them in one department and another, who were, perhaps,
the deputies of deputies to some members of this house, sent to spy out
their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them;
men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of those Sons
Of Liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of
justice, some who to my knowledge were glad by going to a foreign
country to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in
their own. THEY PROTECTED BY YOUR ARMS! They have nobly taken up arms in
your defense; have exerted a valor, amidst their constant and laborious
industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in
blood while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your
emolument. And believe me --remember I this day told you so --the same
spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany
them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows
I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver
are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in
general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this house may
be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen
and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly
loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealous of their
liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated.
But the subject is too delicate; I will say no more."
6, 1875 --Germany. The Marriage Ceremony is recognized only as performed
by civil authorities. It is based upon the principle of Separation of
Church and State.
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“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, the
world hateth you.” -- John 15:19