November 4, 1646
The Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law making it a capital offense to deny that the Bible was the Word of God. Any person convicted of the offense was liable to the death penalty.
October 21, 1532
Martin Luther
German reformer Martin Luther declared: “For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a might tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.
October 17, 1910
Death of Julia Ward Howe (b. 1819), American writer and social reformer. Prior to the War Between the States, she helped edit an abolitionist newspaper. During the U.S. Civil War, she wrote the hymn that became the theme song of the Union armies: “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
September 25, 1493
Twelve Spanish missionaries set sail for the New World to formally introduce Christianity to the Americas. Their initial chapel was built at Port Conception on Hispaniola (the island of present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) where in December of 1493 they conducted a Christian worship service for the first time in the New World.
September 3, 1776
Anglican hymn writer John Newton asserted in a letter: “The love I bear Christ is but a faint and feeble spark, but it is an emanation from Himself. He kindled it and He keeps it alive; and because it is His work, I trust many waters shall not quench it.”