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FEBRUARY
 

26, 398 --Turkey. At Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, John Chrysostom is consecrated as Patriarch. He immediately drives out the "spiritual sisters" with whom many of the clergy were living in nominally spiritual marriages, and checks those who cling to the rich. He will cut down on church expenses and apply the savings to hospitals. In the Council of Ephesus in 400, he will depose six bishops who have bought their office. His preaching against the luxury of women's apparel will anger the Empress.

26, 1870 --Scotland. Robert Haldane has brought Caesar Malan to Christ. Mr. Malan has introduced John ("Rabbi") Duncan to the Saviour." Mr. Duncan has become the first missionary of the Church of Scotland to the Jews. While serving as chaplain to workmen engaged in constructing a bridge over the Danube River, he will lead a Viennese Jew to Christ by the name of Alfred Edersheim. Mr. Edersheim will become Well-known for his Life And Times Of Jesus The Messiah. Today, Mr. Duncan dies.

27, 380 --Turkey. Theodosius I has fallen sick and as a result has requested baptism which was administered by the Bishop of Acholios. Today he issues a law which recognizes the Catholic faith to be acknowledged in the Roman Empire; and which threatens heretics with stiff penalties.

27, 1528 --Scotland. Patrick Hamilton has incurred the wrath of Achbishop James Beaton on account of his having circulated the New Testament and taught Christ alone can save. Having been accused by the Archbishop of heresy, he fled to the Continent of Europe but returned to Scotland in autumn last year. But, the Archbishop has lured him into a seemingly friendly conference with leading churchmen where he was invited to talk freely of reform in the church, all treacherously pretending to be his friends. Notes were taken and today he is arrested.
          Tomorrow he will be tried as a heretic for declaring "that a man is not justified by works but by faith; that faith, hope, and charity are so linked together that he who hath one of them hath all, and he that lacketh one lacketh all; and that good works make not a good man, but a good man doeth good works;" that it is "lawful to all men that have souls to read the Word of God; and that they are able to understand the same, and in particular, the latter will and testament of Jesus Christ."
           At noon he will be led to the stake carrying his Bible in his hand. He will give his garment and one other to his servant saying it is all he can leave him excepting "the example of his death."
              As the faggots are damp he will suffer torment for six hours. An eye witness will relate, "The martyr never gave one sign of impatience, or anger, nor ever called to Heaven for vengeance on his persecutors, so great was his faith, so strong his confidence in God."
            His death will greatly arouse many people who feel it is an outrage to treat a blameless, young man, while so many clergy are not punished for leading vicious lives. A wise friend of the Archbishop will say to him, “My Lord, if ye burn any more, except ye follow my counsel, ye will destroy yourselves. If ye will burn them, let them be burnt in our cellars, for the reek of Master Patrick Hamilton has infected as many as it blew upon."

27, 1659 --Massachusetts. At Scituate, Henry Dunster dies. He came to America in 1640 to escape ecclesiastical tyranny. He was appointed the first president of Harvard College which position he held from August 27, 1640 until October 24, 1654 when he found it necessary to resign on account of his views against infant baptism. He has revised the Bay Psalm Book prepared by Mr. John Eliot, Mr. Richard Mather, and Mr. Thomas Welde.

28, 1551 --England. Martin Bucer dies at Cambridge. In 1547, when Charles V defeated the Protestants in the Schmalkald War, the Emperor sought to settle the religious disunity by passing the Augsburg Interim in 1548. Mr. Bucer opposed it for its Romanism. But the Diet was intimidated as was the Council of Strasburg, and when Archbishop Thomas Cranmer invited him to come to England to assist in the revision of the Prayer Book, he accepted. Until he left the city of Strasburg he distinguished himself as the soul of its Reformation.
               Excessive labors have worn upon him, and Mr. Bucer has contracted a serious illness. Today he dies. He will be buried in the Great St. Mary's Church in Cambridge, the principal church at Cambridge. But five years hence, Queen Mary's officials will remove his bones, and after a charge of "heresy", they will be publicly burned. When Queen Elizabeth ascends the throne, a ceremony will be held replacing him to a position of honor.
             "God's election," he has asserted, "cannot be made void by any creature whatever. Seeing then, that the purpose of God according to Election may stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth (Romans 9:11); He not only elected His own people before they were born, and had done good or evil (Romans 9:11), but even before the very foundations of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Hence our Lord said concerning His apostles, 'I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given me; for they are Thine:' that is, they were chosen by Thee unto life. (John 17). 'My sheep hear My voice.' (John 10:27). In these words our Lord expressly teaches that all good things are dependent on God's Election; and that they to whom it is once give to be sheep, can never perish afterwards."

28, 1638 –Scotland. The National Covenant is renewed in Edinburgh. The people, being stirred against "Arminianism, Popery and despotism," renew their pledge to support the Reformed doctrine, and discipline, and the King is compelled to allow a free General Assembly of the Reformed Church of Scotland to meet. Those who sign, or who adhere to the provisions in this "Covenant", which pledges before God the defense of Presbyterianism against the attempts of Charles I to force Episcopacy upon Scotland, are called "Covenanters."
          From 1657-1685, so great a multitude of martyrs will appear, these days will be known as the "Killing Times" It will include young children, women, both young and old. Hundreds of others will be sold into slavery in Barbados. Others will be left to die in dungeons. Others will be horribly mutilated in torture. Their crime is that they refuse to attend the parish church, choosing rather to meet in barns, in fields, in forests. A "Children's Covenant" was signed by fifteen girls in the village of Pentland, the first on the list being ten years old. By 1661, only ninety ministers will have survived, and as many of these have grown complaisant, a stricter group will be formed and will call themselves "Cameronians" or "the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland."
 

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