-28-

JANUARY

26, 1883 --New York. William Gottlief Schauffler dies. He has labored as a missionary to the people of Turkey, and especially to the Jews. His magnum opus is the translation of the entire Bible into Osmandi -Turkish, the language of the educated Turks. It has taken him eighteen years to complete.

26, 1885 --Sudan. Muhammed Ahmad, a Moslem, has proclaimed himself “Al-Mahdi”, “The Divinely Guided One,” and has led a revolt against the Egyptians. Raging against Europeans, he has enslaved women while brutally murdering the men. The throat of one Austrian was cut simply because he made the sign of the cross. While mutilating European men by cutting off their hands, women have been prodded into corals to be selected as concubines by the Mahdi and his top officers. Such has been the treatment of the “Christian dogs.”
      The Mahdi has advanced on the city of Khartoum where the British General Charles Gordon represents Egypt in the governor’s palace. General Gordon is a devout Christian. He has advised his aides to search the Scriptures and has abhorred the traffic in slaves. He has rescued children left abandoned along the caravan routes by slave traders, and is respected by most Sudanese who affectionately call him, “the father and saviour of the Sudan.” Though resident in the governor’s palace, he has nevertheless turned aside from wealth and luxuries. Though the Egyptians have set his salary at fifty thousand dollars a year, He has accepted only ten thousand dollars per year.
Mr. Gordon has requested reinforcements from the British garrison in Egypt to bolster his forces, but today, before help can arrive, the Mahdi enters the city of Khartoum. When they enter the governor’s house, the General dresses in his uniform and goes downstairs to meet them, and asks, “Where is your leader?” A spear is thrown into his chest. As he falls forward he suffers other blows.
     In two days, British relief will steam up the Nile, but finding the city has already fallen, they will beat a hasty retreat. In six months, the Mahdi himself will be taken ill and will die at the age of forty-one years. And in seven years, the British will return to put down the rule of the Mahdi’s successors.

27, 98 – Italy. Domitian, the Roman Emperor whose pastime was spent in catching flies, is credited with boiling the Apostle John in oil, and when the man God survived, banished him to the Isle of Patmos. Nerva, who succeeded him as emperor, recalled him. Today at Rome, Emperor Nerva dies, and is succeeded by Marcus Ulpius Trajan.
     Trajan is a Spaniard by birth and a soldier by profession, and after subjugating the province of Bythinia Pontus, he will send Pliny, the Younger to restore order there. Pliny will immediately perceive himself face to face with a wide extension of Christianity in town and country involving both men and women of all ages and ranks. Consequently, the worship of the gods will be in neglect. Pliny will feel his responsibility embraces the maintenance of the state religion, and thus he will interfere by virtue of his office. People admitting to the charge against them of being Christians will be tried in court and sentenced to death. Roman citizens, however, will be confined to the city.
      “They affirmed,” says Pliny, “the whole of their guilt or their error was that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a trust when they should be called on to deliver it up …”
     Trajan will regard the Christian confession as an offense worthy of capital sentence. Those, however, who renounced their adherence to Christianity by sacrificing to the gods, will go free.

27, 438 –Turkey. Schism has rent the Church of Constantinople for thirty years. Today it is terminated by Pulcheria, Empress of the Eastern empire, who brings the bones of Chrysostom and solemnly buries them in the Church of the Apostles.

27, 1302 – Italy. Dante is pronounced guilty of resisting the Pope and of assisting to expel the rival faction, the “Neri,” or the “Blacks,” whom the Pope declares to be the servants of the Church. Dante is a member of the “Bianchi,” or the “Whites” that represent democracy. In his De Monarchia he has advocated separation of spiritual and civil power, and declared the temporal power of the Pope is usurpation. By order of the Papal legate, the book was publicly burned at Bologna, and placed on the list of prohibited books.

27, 1844 – England. William Gadsby, Stockinger, Hosier, Preacher dies today. Mr. J.C. Philpot has called him the greatest preacher of his day. He has been instrumental in founding some forty churches, and has asked the following be put upon his stone:
 

 “Here rests the body of a sinner base,
Who had no hope but in electing grace;
The Love, Blood, Righteousness of God
Was his sweet theme, and this he spread abroad.”
 

 

Previous   Next