-123-

MAY

 21, 1559 --Spain. In Valladolid, an auto da fe takes place. The victims are Protestants. Augustin de Cazalla recants but is nevertheless burned alive. A brother and a sister are strangled, while another brother and sister are imprisoned. The deceased mother is exhumed and her remains are burned. Only Antonio de Herrezuelo, a lawyer, suffers death heroically refusing to recant.

21, 1652 --France. Louis XIV is compelled to acknowledge the loyalty of his Protestant subjects and today grants them some alleviation. From the outset of his reign, he has been firm in his intent on annihilating these Huguenots within his kingdom.

21, 1655 --France. Cardinal Mazarin, the successor of Richelieu as Prime Minister of France, today renews all edicts in favor of the Huguenots.

21, 1718 --Massachusetts. Dr. Increase Mather has been asked to assist in the ordination of a Boston elder. In the ordination sermon, he declares—

“It was a grateful surprise to me, when several of the brethren of the Anti-paedobaptist persuasion came to me, desiring that I would give them the ‘Right Hand’ of Fellowship in ordaining one whom they had chosen to be their pastor. I did (as I believe it was my duty) readily consent to what they proposed, considering the young man to be ordained is serious and pious, and of a candid spirit, and has been educated in the College at Cambridge, and that all of the brethren of that church with whom I have any acquaintance, (I hope the like concerning others of them) are, in the judgment of rational charity, godly persons.”

21, 1738 --England. Charles Wesley has been very sick. He now knows the way of salvation and knows faith alone can save him, but he is cast down feeling he cannot believe that he cannot come to Christ. He feels himself unfit and unworthy. As he lies musing, he hears a soft, solemn voice which says, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and believe, and thou shalt be healed of thine infirmities, and thy sins shall be forgiven thee.”
     The echo of the voice has hardly died away in the room when the light of God breaks in upon his soul. The voice belongs to a poor woman who has come to clean the room. This illiterate woman has come imperceptibly into the room and glided out again as soon as she has uttered those words. She had heard his moaning and after prayer, felt she should command him in the name of Jesus of Nazareth to rise and believe. He has been reading a portion of Martin Luther’s Commentary On Galatians and has come to see that salvation if he is ever to have it at all, must be given him by Christ alone.
      Today he is converted and will give expression to his feelings in his hymn,

 “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus and all in Him is mine:
Alive in Him, my Living Head, And clothed with Righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ, my own.”
 

21, 1780 --England. At Earlham, Norfolk, Elizabeth Fry is born. She will daily visit the prison to read the Scriptures to the prisoners, and to teach the women to sew. As a prison reformer, she will travel as far as Hungary seeking legislation for humane treatment of inmates. She will organize such prison-reform societies in Holland, Denmark, France, Prussia and other continental countries. “Charity to the soul,” she has said, “is the soul of charity.”

21, 1813 --Scotland. Robert Murray M’Cheyne is born in Edinburgh, the youngest child in the family.

21, 1832 --England. James Hudson Taylor is born to Mr. and Mrs. James Taylor at Barnsley, Yorkshire. He will be converted at age fifteen through reading a Gospel tract, and will become known for his missionary endeavors in China.

21, 1891 --China. In Tientsin, James Gilmour succumbs to the strains of loneliness and constant danger. A Scotch Congregationalist he has loved the Mongol people enough to acquire their language, to adopt their dress and to live in their tents, existing upon their food. His wife, unable to stand the strain, died six years ago in 1895 leaving two sons. Mr. Gilmour is so dedicated to the Mongol people he has become known as “Gilmour of Mongolia.”
 

Previous   Next