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AUGUST

25, 1618 --Scotland. Five Articles are agreed upon by the General Assembly of the Scottish
Church at Perth. Known as the "Five Articles of Perth." They enjoin 1.) Kneeling at the Lord's Supper, 2.) The observance of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost; 3.) Confirmation, and 4.) The Private administration of baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Obnoxious to the Presbyterians, these articles will not be adopted until James VI (I of England) demands their acceptance. They will be ratified by Parliament on August 4, 1621, but the General Assembly at Glasgow will declare the action at Perth "unfree, unlawful, and null", thus condemning them in 1638.

25, 1649 --Massachusetts. At Cambridge, Thomas Shepard dies. He has taken an active part in the founding of Harvard College and has secured its site at Cambridge. He leaves behind him some three hundred and eighty-two books and pamphlets included in which is his Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied.
     As a young man, Mr. Shepard heard a sermon based on the text, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind," --(Romans 12:2), and later wrote, "The Lord so bored my ears as that I understood what he spake; the sins of my soul were laid open before me, and the hypocrisy of all the good things I thought I had in me, as if one had told him all that ever I did --of all the turnings and deceits of my heart." For eight months he was in the "Slough of Despond" before he came to trust.

26, 1349 --England. Thomas Bradwardine dies of the Black Death while at Lambeth. It was under his teaching at Oxford that John Wycliffe was awakened to the Gospel and brought to the Bible. Mr. Bradwardine has been appointed Archbishop of Canter-bury, but death has prevented his taking that position.
     "Whatever things come to pass, they are brought to pass by the Providence of God," he has said.
"If you allow that God is able to do a thing, and that He is willing to do a thing, then I affirm that thing will not, cannot go unaccomplished . . .." Again he said, "In the school of the philosophers, I rarely heard a word concerning grace but I continually heard that we are the masters of our own free actions."
     His presence at the famous Battle of Crecy and the capture of Calais, has been attributed by contemporary writers as the reason for England's successes --so holy was the king's chaplain and such his moral influence upon the king and his troops.

26, 1559 --France. For the past six days, the Convention of the Notables at Fontainbleau, Admiral Coligny makes a brave but inefficient attempt to gain more freedom of worship for Protestants.

26, 1748 --Pennsylvania. The Synod of Pennsylvania is founded today thus organizing the Lutheran Church in North America. It is the work of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg.

26, 1832 --England. Adam Clarke dies of cholera at 11:00 this evening. On August 29th, he will be interred in a grave beside John Wesley, which will read, "Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." He is renown for his Commentary on the Holy Scriptures.
     To the numerous writers of pamphlets and magazines who have attacked him while his commentaries were in the course of being published, he has replied, "I do a great work, so that I cannot come down. -Why should the work cease whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"
     He has written in a letter, "I never wrote a controversial tract in my life; I have seen with great grief the provokings of many ...but my love of peace and detestation of religious disputes, induced me to keep within my shell and never to cross the waters of strife. I had hoped, as I was living at least an inoffensive life, not without the most cordial and strenuous endeavors, in my little way, to do all the public and private good in my power, I might be permitted to drop quickly into the grave. But this is denied me."
     In reference to his commentaries, he wrote, "In this arduous labor, I have had no assistants; not even a single week's help from an amanuensis . . .. I have labored alone for nearly twenty-five years previously to the work being sent to the press; and fifteen years have been employed in bringing it through the press to the public. Thus about forty years of my life have been consumed."
     He has been called by Robert Hall, "an Ocean of learning."

26, 1846 --England. Felix Mendelssohn will conduct his great oratorio, the "Elijah" in the town hall in Birmingham. His boyhood friend, Julius Benedict has reported, "The noble Town Hall was crowded at an early hour of that forenoon with a brilliant and eagerly expectant audience ... Every eye had long been directed towards the conductor's desk when, at half-past eleven o'clock, a deafening shout from the band and chorus announced the approach of the great conductor. The reception he met from the assembled thousands...was absolutely overwhelming; whilst the sun, emerging at that moment seemed to illumine the vast edifice in honor of the bright and pure being who stood there, the idol of all beholders!"


    
 

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