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MARCH

16, 1529 --Germany. Martin Luther publishes his Smaller Catechism.

16, 1820 --France. Jacques-Antoine Rabaut-Pommier dies at Paris. He is the second son of Paul Rabaut, the renowned Huguenot preacher of the “Church in the Desert.” Having busied himself with scientific and medical studies, he has become the first advocate of vaccination as a preventive of smallpox.

17, 1229 --Israel. Frederick II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire departed on a crusade on June 28th last year. Today, he enters Jerusalem and pronounces himself “King of the Holy Land,” and “Successor of King David.” Though he pretends to be a Christian Emperor, he maintains a harem and employs Saracens in his educational system.

17, 1677 --Scotland. Thomas Boston is born at Dunse, Berwickshire. As a young man he will be converted under the preaching of Henry Erskine, the father of Ralph and Ebenezer.

17, 1703 --Connecticut. Because of the spiritual languor in the colony, the trustees of Yale College draw up a circular letter to their Connecticut brethren requesting the General Assembly of the colony to “recommend to our people ...the (Savoy) Confession made by the Synod in Boston, May 12, 1680 and printed by that Government.” Thus the Calvinism of the older Westminster Confession of Faith is adapted by the two largest Puritan colonies.

17, 1780 --Scotland. In Fife, Thomas Chalmers is born. He will become pastor in Glasgow where he will establish between forty and fifty Sunday schools. His family members are strict Calvinists.
        He will early sicken at the prevailing modernism which places culture above piety and state support above independence and will become a thorough-going Evangelical.

18, 1518 --France. Francis I has delivered France to the ecclesiastical dominion of the Pope, Leo X, in the Concordat. Today a solemn procession of University students and bachelors dressed in their gowns, walk to the Church of St. Catherine des Ecoliers to pray that God will preserve the liberties of the Church and of the kingdom.

18, 1818 --England. The Port of London Society has been organized with the intent of preaching the Gospel to seamen. Its first meeting will be on board a ship of three hundred tons. Mr. George Charles Smith will act as its first chaplain.

18, 1861 --England. At seven o’clock this Monday morning, Charles Spurgeon conducts a prayer meeting. This is the first service to be held in the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

19, 339 --Egypt. On account of intrigue among his enemies, Athanasius is forced into a second exile.

19, 1537 --Switzerland. The Geneva Council of Two Hundred passes perpetual banishment against Anabaptists.

19, 1563 --France. The Peace of Amboise is concluded between the Protestants, among them Andelot Coligny, the Prince of Conde and Henry of Navarre on the one side, and the Roman Catholics, among whom are the Guises and Anthony of Navarre on the other side. The occasion of this first war is the Massacre of Vassy.
              By this treaty, nobles and gentry are given the right to practice the “religion which they call ‘Reformed,’” providing it is in their own houses. In every bailiwick, Protestants can on petition secure one suburban meeting-place. In cities where Evangelical worship is already practical, one or two places designated by the king may be retained. Huguenots are to enjoy liberty of conscience but are to restore Catholic property seized by them and to dismiss foreign troops.
           A Second War of Religion will break out when it is rumored there is a plan to capture the Protestant Prince of Conde and to execute Coligny. The Protestants are so aroused as to incite new fighting. On March 23, 1568, the Peace of Amboise is again renewed.

19, 1813 --Scotland. At Blantyre, David Livingstone is born. As a young man he will propose an expedition to China as a missionary of the London Missionary Society, but he will be prevented by the outbreak of the Opium War. Robert Moffat who is in England, however, will train young Mr. Livingstone’s eyes on South Africa.

19, 1871 --Africa. David Livingstone writes in his Diary, “March 19th, my birthday. My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee. Accept me, and grant, 0 Gracious Father, that ere the year is gone, I may finish my work. In Jesus’ name I ask it. Amen.”

19, 1937 --Italy. Pope Pius XI issues the Encyclical “Divini Redemptoris” in which he condemns Bolshevist Communism for its 1.) Materialism, 2.) Conceptions of man and society, and 3.) Atheism and terrorism.
 

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