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SEPTEMBER

14, 258 --Africa. In Carthage, Cyprian, bishop here, dies the death of a martyr. He has adopted the name "Caescilius" for his middle name in memory of the preacher under whom he was converted. He was a student of Tertullian and a faithful man.
     Yesterday, the new proconsul Galerius Maximus sentenced him to die by the sword for having refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. His response has been, "Thanks be to God!"
     Today a vast multitude follow him to the place of execution, where he removes his garments, kneels down and prays. After being blindfolded he orders twenty-five gold pieces be given the executioner, who with trembling hand delivers the blow.

14, 1321 --Italy. Dante Alighieri dies at Ravenna, a city in Northeast Italy. He is the author of Il Inferno (Hell), Il Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Il Paradisio (Paradise). It is said of him that he had dwelt so long in the study of Hell, one could discern it in his face. "It is true faith," he has said, "that makes us citizens of Heaven." He is the reputed father of Modern Italian as a literary language.

14, 1559 --Germany. The Governor of the city of Treves renews the interdiction against preaching.

14, 1638 --Massachusetts. Rev. John Harvard of Charleston dies of Tuberculosis. He is thirty years of age, and has arranged to give half his estate as well as his library of four hundred volumes for the proposed college. The General Court of Massachusetts will name the institution in his honor.

14, 1740 --Rhode Island. George Whitefield, having received invitations to come to Boston and minister there on account of the low ebb of religion, has set sail from South Carolina and today arrives at Newport. On December 1st he will write,

      "0 my soul, look back with gratitude on what the Lord hath done for thee in this excursion. I think it is the seventy-fifth day since I arrived at Rhode Island. My body was then weak, but the Lord has much renewed its strength. I have been enabled to preach, I think one hundred seventy-five times in public besides exhorting frequently in private. I have travelled upwards of eight hundred miles, and gotten upwards of seven hundred pounds sterling in goods, provisions and money for the Georgia orphans. Never did God vouchsafe me greater comforts. Never did I see such a continuance of the Divine Presence in the congregations to whom I have preached."

14, 1789 --Maryland. Monday, and Frances Asbury writes, "Came to Daniel Evans', one of our oldest members, and his house one of our oldest stands; to this day he has continued to be steadfast. The Lord has now made bare His arm, and brought in forty or fifty young people, among whom are some of his own children, for whom so many prayers have been offered up to God: the fire of the Lord spreads from house to house, and from heart to heart . . .."
 

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"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins my be blotted out."

-Acts 3:19-

 

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