Featured Articles
-December 4, 1861-
In Augusta, commissioners from 47 Presbyteries embracing all or part of 11 Southern states convene. Today they will organize the "General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America."
An address by James Henley Thornwell justifies the southern churches in seceding from their mother denomination, and is addressed "to all the Churches of Jesus Christ throughout the Earth." Baptists and Methodists will also secede from their mother denominations.
"This is the suggestion of the present hour: if the world will not come to Jesus...shall not the church go down to the world? Instead of bidding men to be converted, and come out from among sinners, and be separate from them, let us join with the ungodly world, enter into union with it, and so pervade it with our influence by allowing it to influence us. Let us have a Christian world....
Reprinted from Baptist Beacon
First Baptist Church, Osceola, Mo.
Jim Gibbes, Editor and Pastor
"Certain ministers ...are treacherously betraying our holy religion under pretense of adapting it to this present age. The new plan is to assimilate the church to the world.... By semi-dramatic performances they make houses of prayer to approximate to the theatre; they turn their services into musical displays...in fact, they exchange the temple for the theatre, and turn the ministers of God into actors, whose business it is to amuse men.... This, then, is the proposal. In order to win the world, the Lord Jesus must conform Himself, His people, and His Word to the world. I will not dwell on so loathsome a proposal.
"My dear hearers, how much I long to see you saved! But I would not belie my Lord, even to win your souls, if they could be so won. The true servant of God is responsible for diligence and faithfulness, but he is not responsible for success or non-success. Results are in God’s hands."
--from NO COMPROMISE, a sermon preached by Charles Spurgeon in 1888.
_____________________________________
Faith Messenger, edited by F. L.
Huth, Jr., Pastor of the Faith Bible Church in Lynchburg, So. Carolina carried this excellent portion of truth...
John the Baptist’s message from the wilderness was not,
"Smile! God loves you!"
Jeremiah was not put into a miry pit for preaching,
"I’m OK; you’re OK."
Noah’s message from the steps of the ark was not,
"Something GOOD is going to happen to you!"
2, 1859 --Virginia. Charles Town: Thomas (later "Stonewall") Jackson is in charge of the cadets from the Virginia Military Institute. John Brown
is to be hanged today for his recent raid on the United States arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Jackson will later write, "I was much impressed with the thought that before me stood a man in the full vigor of health, who must in a few moments enter eternity. I sent up a petition that he might be saved, for awful was the thought that he might in a few minutes receive the sentence, ‘Depart ye wicked, into everlasting fire.’ I hope that he was prepared to die, I am doubtful.
4, 1584 --England. Derby: John Cotton is born. In July 1633, in order to escape a summons to appear before the High Commission Court of London for not kneeling before the sacrament, he will flee to America. He is the grandfather of Cotton Mather.
5, 1776 --Virginia: The First Republican Legislature of Virginia repeals the Acts of Parliament which render any form of worship criminal that is not Anglican. Dissenters are exempted from paying taxes to support the clergy, and the laws are suspended which compel Episcopalians to support their own church. The common law punishing with dismissal from all public offices those who profess themselves to be Atheists, anti-Trinitarians, or anti-Christian is allowed to stand. Second offenders are incapable of suing, acting as a guardian or administrator, or executor, or of receiving a legacy, as well as being imprisoned for three years.
6, 1620 --Massachusetts: The Governor and fifteen companions leave the Mayflower and go ashore. The weather is dreadful with alternating rain and snow. This morning they are attacked by Indians, but return safely to the ship, cheerful, and giving thanks to God. The vessel will be steered to the Southwest for forty-five miles, when on Saturday night a storm will wrench away the rudder and drive the poor ship, partly with the aid of the pilot into the bay at Plymouth. Tomorrow, being the Lord’s Day, the day is spent in worship.
9, 1608 --England. London: On Bread Street, in Cheapside, John Milton is born. Early in life he will go blind, but will leave behind him such Christian classics as Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. He will become Secretary to Oliver Cromwell.
9, 1905 --France: France passes a law separating Church and State.
10, 1917 --Israel: God has used the German Kaiser and the First World War to fulfill Haggai 2:18,19 --"From this day will I bless you," for today the British General Edmund Allenby marches into Jerusalem at the head of the Allied Army to take it from the Turks.
Not a shot is fired. Britain will open the doors for the Jews to return to their own land. This is the 24th day of the 9th month of the Jewish calendar.
14, 1873 --Massachusetts. Cambridge: Louis Agassiz dies. A Swiss naturalist, he has himself been naturalized as an American citizen. He has declared creation to be the act of the Creator out of nothing: a strict Biblical position. He asserts God has created the earth especially for man.
