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DECEMBER

      Daun flees into Bohemia, leaving in Breslau a garrison of twenty thousand men. Frederic astonishes Europe by gaining possession of that city, reducing Schweidnitz and recovering all Silesia. The Russian army which under Apraxin has won a victory on the northeast is arrested in its movements by intrigues at home. Prussia is saved. In this terrible campaign, two hundred and sixty thousand men stood against seven hundred thousand, and had not been conquered.
      Frederic once said to William Pitt: "I govern myself by two principles: the one is honor and the other is the interest of the state which Heaven has given me to rule. The laws which these principles prescribe to me are: first, never to do an act for which I should have cause to blush if I were to render an account of it to my people; and the second, to sacrifice for the welfare and glory of my country the last drop of my blood. With these two maxims I can never yield to my enemies. Rome after the battle of Cannae; your great Queen Elizabeth against Philip II and the Invincible Armada; Gustavus Vasa, who restored Sweden; the Prince of Orange, whose magnanimity, valor and perseverance founded the republic of the United Provinces, --these are the models I follow. You, who have grandeur and elevation of soul, disapprove my choice, if you can."

5, 1776 --Virginia. The First Republican Legislature of Virginia repeals the Acts of Parliament which render any form of worship criminal that is not according to the Church of England. 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 offices for the first offence those who deny the existence of God, the Trinity or the truth of Christianity; and for a second offence would be incapable of suing, acting as guardian or administrator, or executor, or of receiving a legacy besides being imprisoned for three years; is not repealed.

5, 1850 --Argentina. Captain Allen Gardner resigned his commission in the British Navy in 1842 in order to serve the Lord "full time." At that time he sailed into the Straits of Magellan in search of a welcome by the inhabitants among whom he desired to establish a church. The Indians were very unfriendly, and he was forced to keep on the move.
     Finally a group of Indians he met agreed to allow him to build a church among them. Captain Gardner sailed home to arouse interest in the evangelization of these people. When all mission boards turn deaf ear, he organized the "Patagonian Missionary Society" named for the region in South America from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.
     Today Captain Gardner and a party of six others go ashore on the Island of Tierra del Fuego, but the Indians prove hostile and drive them back to their ship. It will not be until January 1852 that a supply ship will arrive. It will be three months too late. All seven crewmembers have starved to death.
     Six years later, eight missionaries from England will go ashore, and while conducting a worship service, seven are killed by the Indians.

5, 1933 --Washington, D. C. Today Prohibition is abolished. It was originally brought about through strong preaching of men like Billy Sunday, and Sam Jones.

5, 1956 --South Africa. One hundred and fifty-six Africans are charged with treason on account of their participation in a "Defiance Campaign" which has included the signing of a "Freedom Charter" which begins, "We, the people of South Africa declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people." Nearly two-thirds of the charged are black. The legal process will drag on for four years bringing severe hardships to them even so far as obtaining food, but none will be sentenced to death. They will, however be stigmatized for life on account of their opposition to the Apartheid policy of segregating the races.

 

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