"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
-141-
JUNE
“Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.
Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye
be reprobates?”
-II Corinthians 13:5-
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11, 1760 --Pennsylvania. Augustus A. Spangenberg, the Moravian bishop of
America from Bethlehem writes, “ ...More than two hundred and twenty
persons have taken refuge with the Brethren, fleeing from the terrible
hand of the wild men (Indians). They are living among the Brethren but
in separate houses and huts. The Gospel is diligently proclaimed to
them, and not without results. We were not attacked by the wild men
while I was there, but the roads are very unsafe . . ..”
In 1735, a clergyman was wanted by Governor Oglethorpe
to go to Georgia who was inured to contempt of the ornaments and
conveniences of life, to bodily austerities and to serious thoughts.”
John Wesley responded add remained for two years before returning to
England in 1738 feeling his mission to convert the Indians and to
regulate the religious life of the colonists had been a failure.
Soon after Mr. Wesley arrived in Georgia, Mr.
Spangenberg asked him, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” Mr. Wesley answered,
“I know He is the Saviour of the world.” “True,” said Mr. Spangenberg,
“but do you know He has saved you?”
For three years Mr. Wesley will be plagued with this
question before he is finally converted.
12, 1524 --Germany. Johann Briessmann is married today one day after the
marriage of Martin Luther. Mr. Briessmann is the first married minister
of Prussia.
12, 1776 --Virginia. Today, Virginia reads its declaration of the Rights
of Man for the third time and unanimously adopts it by the
representatives of the people of Virginia. These “Rights”, they assert,
are the basis and foundation of government—
“All men are by nature equally free, and have inherent
rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot,
by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely the enjoyment
of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing
property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
“All power is vested in, and consequently derived from,
the people; magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all
times amenable to them.
“Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the
common benefit and security of the people, nation, or community; and
whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these
purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable,
and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such a manner
as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.
“Public services not being descendible, neither ought
the offices of magistrates, legislator, or judge to be hereditary.
“The legislative and executive powers of the state
should be separate and distinct from the judicative; the members of the
two first should at fixed periods, return into that body from which they
were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent,
certain, and regular elections.
“Elections of members to serve as representatives
of the people in assembly ought to be free; and all men, having
sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment
to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or
deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or
that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which
they have not, in like manner, assented for the public good.
“There ought to be no arbitrary power of
suspending laws, no requirement of excessive bail, no granting of
general warrants.
“No man ought to be deprived of liberty, except by the
law of the land or the judgment of his peers; and the ancient trial by
jury ought to be held sacred.
“The freedom of the press is one of the greatest
bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic
governments.
“A well-regulated militia, composed of the body
of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence
of a free state; standing armies in time of peace should be avoided as
dangerous to liberty; and in all cases the military should be under
strict subordination to the civil power.
“The people have a right to uniform government; and
therefore no government separate from or independent of the government
of Virginia ought to be erected or established within the limits
thereof.
“No free government can be preserved but by a firm
adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and
by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
“Religion can be directed only by reason and
conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all men are
equally entitled to the free exercise of it, according to the dictates
of conscience; and it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian
forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.”
12, 1779 --Virginia. Thomas Jefferson introduces his “Bill for
Establishing Religious Freedom” to the Virginia House of Delegates. It
will be postponed until December 17, 1785 when it will pass the House
seventy-four to twenty. But not until January 16, 1786 will both House
and Senate agree. Mr. Jefferson rates this next in importance to the
Declaration of Independence.
12, 1833 --Ohio. The Synod of Ohio of the Calvinistic Methodist Church
is formed at Cincinnati.