"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
-12-
JANUARY
11, 1414 --England. A hundred friends of Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham)
and ignorant of his escape from the Tower last October 10th, gather to effect
his liberation from St. Giles, where he has been imprisoned for his Lollardism.
The band is dispersed without blood, but some of the leaders will be captured
and put to death. The government now issues two edicts: the first forbidding the
reading of the Scriptures under penalty of death, and the other, declaring the
Lollards, that is the followers of John Wycliffe, to be heretics. Friends of Sir
John Oldcastle will hide him for four years.
11, 1688 --Scotland. At Carriden, Linlithgowshire, James Gardiner is born. He
will become a colonel in the Scottish dragoons and will lead a dissolute life
until July, 1719 when waiting for an appointment with a debauched woman, he will
pick up a Christian book. He will be so moved by it he will forsake his old life
and henceforth be an example of piety. Philip Doddridge says the book was Thomas
Watson’s Christian Soldier, while Thomas Carlyle says it was William
Gurnall’s Christian in Complete Armor.
11, 1787 --Norway. Nils Joachin Christian Vibe Stockfleth is born. When his
father dies in 1794, his mother will be left with three children of whom Nils
will be the oldest. His mother will die in 1805, and the two boys overcome by
sickness, grief, and overwork will be brought into a hospital in great
destitution.
In 1825, Nils will be ordained a missionary to Finmark, northernmost Norway, in
spite of his weak lungs and his paralyzed right arm. Accompanied by his wife, he
will go to Vadso on the Arctic Ocean. He will invent a new phonic alphabet for
the inhabitants there.
11, 1791 --Wales. William Williams dies. He has written some eight hundred hymns
among which is his “Guide Me, O, Thou Great Jehovah.” He sang and played this
song for the first time at the opening of a college founded in 1785 by Selina,
the Countess of Huntingdon to train “godly and pious young men” for the
ministry. The “Sweet Singer of Wales” like his father is a Welch Calvinistic
Methodist. His father intended his son to enter the field of medicine, but in
the providence of God, William heard Mr. Howell Harris preach; and he was
converted.
11, 1817 --Connecticut. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College, dies. God has
used him to bring about revival at this school in an age of French infidelity.
His literary works include Conquest of Canaan, Theology Defended,
and the Triumph of Infidelity. Perhaps he is best known for his hymn, “I
Love Thy Kingdom, Lord.”
He dies without a struggle or a groan. His funeral will be conducted on Tuesday,
the 14th and will be attended by a large concourse of people from New Haven. In
respect for the Doctor, shops will be shut and businesses suspended.
12, 1661 --France. A peace has been arranged with the Waldensians restoring to
them certain rights but refusing them to be instructed in their religion. Jean
Leger has refused to obey this partial treaty and is today condemned to death.
At Turin, he will be re-sentenced on September 17th, but will flee, and will
settle in Leyden, Holland where he will pastor.
12, 1837 --Austria. An Imperial edict issued today requires declaration within
14 days of the desire by evangelicals of the Zillerthal, the inhabitants of the
valley of the Ziller River, to leave the Roman Catholic Church. After that time,
all not so indicating their intention will be treated as Roman Catholics. Those
who declare themselves to be Protestants are ordered to leave the Tyrol within 4
months. Three hundred eighty-five people, later increased to four hundred
thirty-seven people, will declare their intention to emigrate.