"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
-61-
MARCH
10, 1898 --England. At the age of ninety-three years, George Mueller
dies alone in his room. At the age of ninety, he was caring for fifteen
hundred orphans and publishing religious tracts in addition to sending
missionaries to six foreign countries. In all, then thousand orphans
have been received, educated, trained, and sent back into the world. He
has operated these orphanages without the usual machinery of support
deciding they should have no patron but the Lord, no workers but
believers, and no debts. The attention and aid of the public was secured
through pamphlets he has allowed to be published, and by the publication
of his biography.
In his old age, he traveled nearly two hundred thousand miles in
forty-two countries preaching to three million hearers. It is said that
between one and three million dollars has passed through his hands for
the work of the Lord. He leaves behind personal affects valued at less
than one hundred dollars.
10, 1898 --Japan. Guido Herman Fridolin Verbeck, a Dutch
Reformed missionary to Japan, dies today. He is commonly referred to as
“Verbeck of Japan” because he left Holland while a minor and failed to
become a United States citizen while he resided there. He could not be
naturalized in Japan because he is foreigner. He is therefore truly a
“man without a country.”
12, 1563 --France. Civil War has erupted between the Roman Catholic
court and the Protestant noblemen. The first big pitched battle has been
fought at Dreux in Normandy resulting in the capture of the Prince of
Conde, the great Huguenot leader. Today in prison he signs the Treaty of
Amboise which declares his compliance to abandon the fight for tolerance
of Calvinism. Gaspard de Coligny along with the French pastors will be
furious. The prince will further scandalize the Huguenot party by a
series of illicit love affairs.
12, 1566 --Scotland. John Knox in the “Slough of Despond” prays, “Lord,
Jesus, receive my spirit and put an end at Thy good pleasure to this my
miserable life, for justice and truth are not to be found among the
children of men. Be merciful unto me, 0 Lord, and call not into judgment
my manifold sins; and chiefly those whereof the world is not able to
accuse me.”
12, 1607 --Germany. Paul Gerhardt, the foremost German hymn writer, is
born. In all, he will leave one hundred and twenty hymns among which is
“0 Sacred Head, Now Wounded” which is an adaptation of a hymn by Bernard
of Clairvaux, and his English translators will be John Wesley.
When the elector of Brandenburg requires all clergy to pledge themselves
by a declaration to follow his edicts of 1662 and 1664, Mr. Gerhardt
will refuse declaring it to be an infringement upon his right to uphold
Lutheran convictions. His refusal will result in his dismissal from his
offices.
12, 1699 --France. Pope Innocent XII condemns Fenelon on the insistence
of Louis XIV. His twenty-three propositions found in his book, The
Explanations of the Maxims of the Saints on the Inner Life has
caused this furor.
12, 1766 --Scotland. At Cambuslang, Claudius Buchanan is born. As a
young man finishing his law course at the University of Glasgow, he will
live a life of aimlessness. When he is brought to repent of his life, he
will subject himself to the care of Mr. John Newton in London, and will
later become one of the first Anglican missionaries to India.
12, 1856 --Massachusetts. Dwight Lyman Moody is led to the Lord by his
Sunday school teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball.
12, 1873 --Germany. The German Reichstag declares the State is Supreme
over the Church.
