-178-

JULY

    
  
19, 1825 --Massachusetts. Liberal members of the Congregational Church form the American Unitarian Association.

19, 1873 --England. Samuel Wilberforce is killed by a fall from his horse. He is the son of William Wilberforce who led England in the abolition of the slave trade. Mr. Wilberforce leaves several books behind, among them is his Heroes of Hebrew History. He has stood forth against liberal tendencies within the Church of England and drew up the address of the bishops calling for the resignation of John Colenso on account of his liberalism. Mr. Colenso had impugned the authority of the Pentateuch.

20, 1546 --England. Mr. William Twisse dies in London. He was chaplain to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of James I. A supralapsarian, he served as a member of the Westminster Assembly. He will be buried in Westminster Abbey, but by Royal decree, his remains will be exhumed on September 14, 1661, and together with those of several other persons, will be thrown into a pit in St. Margaret’s Churchyard, which adjoins the Abbey.

20, 1553 --England. Nicholas Ridley has sat on the Commission that deposed Bishop Bonner and Bishop Gardiner. In 1550, he was promoted to Mr. Bonnet’s place. For several months, as a sign of his goodness, Mr. Ridley entertained Mr. Bonner’s mother at his palace, and has assigned her the place of prominence at his table. But today, Mary reinstates Mr. Bonnet as Bishop of London and Mr. Ridley is committed first to the Tower, then to Oxford.

20, 1651 --Massachusetts. Hr. John Clarke, the noted Baptist preacher of Rhode Island has sought to preach to a small congregation in the city of Lynn. Civil officers have seized him. He is thus compelled to attend public worship along with the other town’s people. When he expresses his aversion to it, he and his companions are tried and condemned to pay a fine of twenty or thirty pounds. Mr. Obadiah Holmes who refuses to pay his fine is whipped unmercifully having been given some thirty stripes. “In many days, if not some weeks, he could take no rest but as he lay upon his knees and elbows, not being able to suffer any part of his body to touch the bed whereon he lay.”
     Since a particular form of worship has become a part of the civil establishment, irreligion is to be punished as a civil offence. In May 1658, a penalty of ten shillings will be imposed on every person present at a Quaker meeting, and of five pounds for speaking at such a meeting. As the government of Massachusetts is willing Quakers should live in peace in any part of the wide world, yet desires to deter them from entering their jurisdiction, the general court will banish them on pain of death. “For the security of the flock we pen up the wolf; but a door is purposely left open whereby he may depart at his pleasure.”

20, 1742 --England. Mr. John Wesley, having ridden from Bristol, arrives in London and writes, “I found my mother on the borders of eternity:” so writes John Kirk. “Her husband and twelve of her nineteen children are already with the Lord, and why should she longer tarry?”
    On the 23rd, she wakes from a quiet rest, saying, “My dear Saviour! Art Thou come to help me in my extremity at last?” and calmly commits herself to the will of God.
    From three to four o’clock, the silver cord was loosing; the wheel breaking at the cistern; and those who look out of the windows were darkening. At four o’clock she opened her eyes wide, then fixing them upward for a moment, they drop and without a struggle, a groan or a sigh. She was gone. At her request, when her children saw her spirit had been dismissed, they sang a hymn of praise to God.
      On the 31st, “Almost an innumerable company of people gathered together,” in the Puritan Necropolis known as Bunhill Fields. She has been rocked in a Non-conformist cradle, but forsook the path of Non-conformity early in life and was for many years loyal to the Church of England. The last two years of her life found her attending upon the Non-conformist ministry of her sons in a “conventicle.” Here she lies in a Non-conformist grave, close to the graves of John Bunyan and Isaac Watts.
     Her son, John, with faltering voice will declare, “Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Almighty God of His great mercy to take unto Himself the soul of our dear mother here departed, we therefore, commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
     As soon as the funeral service is ended, John will stand up and preach a sermon over the open grave, warning those yet living to flee from the wrath to come. His text will be found in Revelation 20:11,12 --“l saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the Heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great stand before God; and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works.”


 

Previous   Next