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MARCH

2, 1642 --Virginia. “That for the Preservation of the Purity and Unity of doctrine, and discipline in the church, and the right administration of the Sacraments, no minister be admitted to officiate in this country but such as shall produce to the governor a testimonial that he hath received his ordination from some bishop in England, and shall then subscribe to be conformable to the orders and constitutions of the Church of England, and the laws there established.” (In March 1662, the governor will be requested to induct a minister into any parish that shall call him.) “And, if any other person pretending himself to be a minister shall contrary to this act presume to teach or preach publicly or privately, the governor and council are desired and empowered to suspend and silence the person so offending and upon his obstinate persistence to compel him to depart the country with the first convenience.”

2, 1707 --Germany. Conflict with the growing Pietistic movement has resulted in the passing of the Edict of 1703. A second edict in 1706 has forbidden all conventicles. Today a third edict adds drastic measures, threatening with banishment those who refuse to attend church and communion within three months.
     On January 14, 1711, a milder attitude will be expressed toward separatistic Pietists.

2, 1724 --England. Within twenty-one years of the birth of John Wesley, Henry Venn is born. He is a descendant of a long line of ministers reaching downwards in unbroken succession from the time of the Reformation.

2, 1791—England. At twenty minutes before ten o’clock on this Wednesday morning, John Wesley dies, at eighty-eight years of age. He has traveled 250,000 miles, preached 40,000 times, and has written more than two hundred books. He has received not less than 20,000 pounds for his writings, but when his debts are paid, he has no more than ten pounds left. He has said he has two silver spoons—one in London and one in York, and because there are so many poor people about, he has not acquired any more. Never idle, unless compelled to be, it has been his custom to rise at four o’clock each morning.
        His followers called “Method-ists” number in the thousands. One result of his preaching as well as that of George Whitefield, England will abolish the slave trade two generations before the United States. Because England has turned from her sins to God under such preaching, she will be spared the effects of the French Revolution.
        His biographer, Luke Tyerman, relates that on one occasion at Falmouth, when he found there was a mob around the house where he was visiting a sick lady, he was sitting in a room with only a thin partition between him and the mob. All in the house had escaped except Mr. Wesley, the invalid, and a servant girl. Several privateer sailors began pushing away at the partition and as it was falling, he removed a mirror, which hung on the wall, in order to prevent its breaking. As they entered the room, Mr. Wesley spoke to them: “Have I done you any hurt?” Stunned, they answered, “No, sir, no, you have not done us any hurt.”
        “Well,” said Mr. Wesley, “who wants me; whom have I hurt?”
         Then turning to one of them, he said, “I think very likely you would like to hear me preach.” After admitting they would have no objection, they brought him a chair and stood around while be preached. He writes that he always found the way to deal with a mob was to look them straight in their face. Had he flinched for a moment, he might have been killed. But they feared him when he did not fear them.
        After wishing them “Good night!” he walked through the rioters, mounted his horse and rode away.
        On another occasion, one rascal announced his intention to impress Mr. Wesley. While the man of God was preaching eternal truths from God’s Word, he cried out, “Arrest that man and take him; I arrest him in the name of the king, I will take him into his service.” Mr. Wesley queried, “Do you want me? I will come with you in a moment.”
        When he had finished his discourse, he turned to him, “I suppose you know I am a clergyman of the Church of England, regularly ordained and you are liable to prosecution and very severe punishment for what you have done?”
        “What do you mean, sir?” he asked. “I arrest you? My dear sir! I did not think of such a thing; I merely asked you home for dinner, and you said you would come; but if it is at all unpleasant to you, sir, I should not at all wish to detain you. Perhaps you would like to go back, sir?” Mr. Wesley said he thought he rather should, and the officer in this way got out of the scrape. The officer said, “I will go back with you, sir, if you like; perhaps there are some people there who may annoy you,” and he rode with him to the place with him showing him the greatest possible politeness.
        He has written, “I have thought I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God, just hovering over the great gulf: till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen: I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing—the way to Heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach us the way; for this very end He came from Heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that Book! At any price, give me the Book of God!”
        Charles Spurgeon will eulogize him saying, “Peace to his ashes; death to his errors; life to all the truth he preached; and may the blessing of God make any one of us but a tenth as earnest as he was, and a tenth as useful.”

2, 1793 --Virginia. Sam Houston is born near Lexington, Virginia. As a young man, he will be converted to Christ and will join the Baptist church. He will offer to pay half the minister’s salary explaining that when he was baptized, his purse was baptized as well.
      One day when riding horseback with some men, he will become so angry over a circumstance that he will swear. When one of the men remarks he did not know such was the language of Christians, Mr. Houston will dismount, kneel, and implore God for His forgiveness.

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