September

2, 1921-- New York. George Alexander McGuire, believing Black Episcopalians should have their own church body, has organized the Independent Episcopal Congregation. Today, the first General Synod convenes and adopts the name, "African Orthodox Church." Mr. McGuire is elected the first bishop.

3, 1708 --England. William Grimshaw is born at Brindle, Lancashire, and will become well known as a preacher of righteousness.

4, 407 --Turkey. In Pontus, near Comana, John Chrysestom dies. His pious mother, Anthusa, devoted her life to the education of her children, and has kept him from becoming a hermit. Libanius, John's pagan teacher, has said of her, "Ah! What wonderful women there are among the Christians!" and of John, he wrote, "If only the Christians had not carried him away!"
In 397, he was chosen patriarch of Constantinople succeeding Nectarius, who in turn had succeeded Gregory Nazianzen. His preaching has aroused the Empress as well as the patriarch of Alexandria, so that in 404, he was banished from Constantinople to the Taurus Mountains, where he continued preaching to the Goths and Persians. He is once again banished: this time to Pityus, the most distant corner of the Eastern Empire. When he was made to travel on foot with his head uncovered, the aged man was overcome and expires while on his journey.
He is reputed to be the greatest teacher of the Church, and the greatest preacher in the ancient church. The book of Romans, being his most cherished book in the Scriptures, he has had it read aloud to him two times each week. "It is from hence our myriad evils spring", he has said, --"from an ignorance of the Scriptures. Hence grows this epidemic of our heresies; hence our neglected lives; hence our unfruitful toil."

"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

-John 15:19-

4, 1557 --France. A Huguenot meeting is attacked and one hundred and forty persons are captured as they worship in the open air. Openly incensed, Antoine de La Roche Chandieu will publish his Remonstrance To The King, And his Apology To The Good Christians Against The Enemies Of The Catholic Church. As a result, he will himself be arrested and imprisoned, only to be released through the intervention of Anthony of Navarre.

4, 1635 --Massachusetts. John Cotton arrives in Boston Harbor. He has fled to America to escape a summons to appear before the High Commission Court in London to answer the charge of failing to kneel before the Sacrament and of discarding certain other ritual observances. Mr. Edward Hutchinson, son of the ill-famed Anne Hutchinson, accompanies him.
He will play an active role in the prosecution of Roger Williams, which will result in Mr. Williams' being banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mr. Cotton will give two reasons for the exile of the non-conforming minister: "1.) His violent and tumultuous carriage against the patent ... This patent Mr. Williams publicly and vehemently preached against, as continuing matter of falsehood and injustice: falsehood, in making the king the first Christian prince who had discovered these parts; and injustice, in giving the country to his English subjects which belonged to the native Indians. 2.) The Magistrates and other members of the General Court, upon intelligence of some Episcopal and malignant practices against the country, made an order of Court to take trial of the fidelity of the people, not by imposing upon them, but by offering to them a vote of fidelity, that in case any should refuse to take it, they might not betrust them with place of public charge and command. This oath when it came abroad, he vehemently withstood and dissuaded sundry from it, partly because it was, as he said, Christ's prerogative to have His office established by oath; and partly because an oath w as part of God's worship, and God's worship was not to be put upon carnal persons; as he conceived many of the people to be."

4, 1633 --Massachusetts. Thomas Hooker arrives in Boston Harbor. The people to whom he has ministered have preceded him; and today as he lands, they crowd around him in welcome. "Now I live," he exclaims "if ye stand fast in the Lord."

4, 1789 --Maryland. It is Friday, and Frances Asbury writes, "I rode to Seneca. O what hath God wrought for these people! Many precious souls have been brought to the knowledge of salvation."

4, 1844 --England. "Only one cent was in my hands this morning. Pause a moment, dear reader! Only one cent in hand when the day commenced. Think of this and think of nearly 1400 persons to be provided for. You poor brethren who have six or eight children and small wages, think of this; and you, my brethren, who do not belong to the working classes, but have as it is called, very limited means, think of this! May you not do what we do under your trials? Does the Lord love you less than He loves us? Does lie not love all His children with no less love than that with which He loves His only begotten Son, according to John 17:20-23? or are we better than you?"
Before noon, one Christian lady had come to give five dollars; and a gentleman from Manchester has ten dollars. --from George Mueller's Diary.

4, 1847 --England. Henry Lyte will finish a poem he began twenty-five years ago. He is in his fifty-fourth year and is packing his books and sorting his papers planning a trip to Italy for his health. The poem reads,

"Abide with me, fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O, abide with me."

     He will also pen, "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven", and "Jesus, I May Cross Have Taken."

4, 1902 --Vietnam. Mr. Gabriel Contessee and a companion arrive in Saigon. In fifty-nine days they will reach the country of Laos where they will labor two and a half years before the first convert will be baptized. The Swiss Brethren have sent them.
     When help arrives, Mr. Contessee will return to Switzerland to marry Marguerite Johnson. When he brings her to Laos, a cholera epidemic which will affect thousands, causing many to flee in terror into the jungle, will lay her prostrate. Mr. Contessee will next be affected. When death approaches, he will write, "I am violently ill. I am ready to go. Thank you, Jesus, for saving a sinner such as I." Within a few hours of his death, his wife will join him.