" ...WITH THE REST OF MANKIND, WE HAVE ABUSED OUR BLESSINGS.
Loose opinions and loose practices have found their place here also. The first considerable change in the religious character of the people of this country was accomplished by the war that began in 1755. War is at least as fatal to morals as to life, or happiness. The officers and soldiers of the British armies, then employed in this country, although probably as little corrupted as those of most armies, were yet loose patterns of opinions and conduct, and were unhappily copied by considerable numbers of our own countrymen united with them in military life. These, on their return, spread the infection through those around them. Looser habits of thinking began to be adopted, and were followed, as they always are, by looser conduct. The American War increased these evils. Peace had not, at the commencement of this war, restored the purity of life which existed before the preceding war. To the depravation still remaining was added a long train of immoral doctrines and practices which spread into every corner of the country. The Profanation of the Sabbath, before unusual, Profanity of language, Drunkenness, Gambling, and Lewdness were exceedingly increased; and, what is less commonly remarked, but is perhaps not less mischievous than any of them; a light, vain method of thinking concerning Sacred things; a cold, contemptuous indifference toward every moral and religious subject. In the meantime, that enormous evil, a Depreciating Currency gave birth to a new spirit of Fraud ... while a new and intimate Correspondence with Corrupt Foreigners introduced a multiplicity of Loose Doctrines which were greedily embraced by Licentious men, as the means of Palliating and Justifying their sins.
" ... It was first Theism, or Natural Religion, then mere Unbelief, then Animalism, then Skepticism, then Partial, and then Total Atheism. Yet it has in three things at least, preserved a general consistency; OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY, DEVOTION TO SIN AND LUST, AND A POMPOUS PROFESSION OF LOVE TO LIBERTY.... AS IF THEY HAD DESIGNED TO GIVE THE LAST WOUND TO VIRTUE, THEY ASSUMED ALL HER TITLES AND CHALLENGED ALL HER ATTRIBUTES TO THEIR OWN CONDUCT. Daily forsworn, and laughing at the very distinction between right and wrong, they proclaimed themselves the assertors of justice, and the champions of truth.
"’ ... What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an Infidel?’ From a connection with them, what can you gain? What will you not lose? Their neighborhood is contagious: their friendship is a blast; their communion is death. Will you imbibe their principles? Will you copy their practices? Will you teach your children that death is an eternal sleep? that the end sanctifies the means? that moral obligation is a dream? Religion a farce? and your Saviour the spurious offspring of pollution? Will you send your daughters abroad in the attire of a female Greek? Will you enroll your sons as conscripts for plunder and butchery7 Will you make marriage a mockery at the registers’ office? ... Will you enthrone the Goddess of Reason before the Table of Christ? Will you burn your Bibles? Will you crucify anew your Redeemer? Will you deny your God?
"’Come out therefore from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you: and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.’
"To this end, you must coolly, firmly and irrevocably make your determination and resolve, that Jehovah is your God, and that you will serve Him only. His enemies are the enemies of yourselves, and of your children; of your peace, liberty and happiness; of your Religion, virtue and Salvation.... Their Principles Abhor; their Practices Detest.... "
(Timothy Dwight, preached at New Haven, Connecticut, Wednesday, January 7, 1801)
16, 1630 --England. Archbishop Laud silences Thomas Shepard because of his refusing to conform to the episcopacy of the Church of England. After such continued silencings, he will sail for America in December 1634. A storm will arise, however, of great magnitude, and the ship will be compelled to return to England. There, Mr. Shepard will hide himself to avert his arrest, and in July of the following year, he will succeed in making escape. He will arrive in Boston, October 3, 1635.
16, 1714 --England. George Whitefield is born in Gloucester. This is the birthplace of William Tyndale, and the site where Bishop Hooper was burned within sight of his own cathedral. Here Robert Raikes, a printer who started the Gloucester Journal, will begin the first Sunday School.
Thomas and Elizabeth Whitefield operate the Bell Inn. When measles strikes the children, the lack of proper treatment will leave George with a squint in one eye that will remain with him through life.
17, 1673 --England. Matthew Henry is gripped by a sermon preached by his father, Philip. It has dealt with the signs of true salvation. He comes to Christ with a repentant heart.
21, 1776 --Switzerland. Today while tearing down an old tenement, which has been part of the Carthusian convent here at Basle, a wooden box is discovered in which a confession is found written by a Friar named Martin:
"O most loving God! I know there is no other way in which I can be saved and satisfy Thy justice than by the merit, the spotless passion, and death of Thy well-beloved Son. Kind Jesus! All my salvation is in Thy hands. Thou canst not turn the arms of Thy love away from me, for they created, shaped and ransomed me. In great mercy and in an ineffable manner, Thou hast engraved my name with an iron pen on Thy side, Thy hands and Thy feet...
The monk had placed his confession in the wooden box and deposited the box in a hole he had made in the wall of his cell.
21, 1807 --England. John Newton dies at the age of 82 years. His epitaph which he has himself penned reads, "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Preserved, Restored, Pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy, near sixteen years at Olney in Buchs, and 28 years in this church."
His life has touched Thomas Scott, a cultured, scholarly, moral man who "did not need a Saviour." He will succeed Mr. Newton in his church.
Mr. Scott will touch a young man who was dyspeptic, melancholy, "too bad" for God to save, but Mr. William Cowper will be converted and will write the hymn, "There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood Drawn From Immanuel’s Veins."
Mr. Cowper will touch a man named William Wilberforce who will be inspired to free the slaves in the British Empire fifty years before the United States will free theirs.
Mr. Wilberforce will touch Mr. Leigh Richmond, a vicar in the Church of England in the Channel Isles.
Mr. Richmond will know the story of the daughter of a dairyman in an adjoining parish who has been unusually moved by the Spirit of God. He will write down her story and The Dairyman’s Daughter will be translated into more than 40 languages.
25, 1635---Canada. Samuel de Champlain dies in Quebec wish a stroke. He will be buried here. He is the true founder of New France in the New World. Because of him France has a claim in Canada. Among the cities he has founded is the city of Quebec. Under the company of "One Hundred Associates," or the "Company of New France," Mr. Champlain is made governor of all its holdings in the New World.
Under Henry of Navarre, he fought on the side of the Huguenots, and has even assisted a company of these French Protestants in settling in Acadia. He is known to be a fervently religious man.
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Is the choir Narrow because it does not include those who can only make discord? Is the sheepfold Intolerant that refuses to include wolves? Is the Medical Society bigoted that excludes Quacks? Is the Church Prejudiced that does not invite the unregenerate into its membership?