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 mighty 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.”

If only that desire would fill our hearts today.

[Note: This is part of a series on tidbits of church history, taken from An Almanac of the Christian Church by William D. Blake. Click here to see the whole series.]

1857 – Mormon fanatic John D. Lee was angered over President James Buchanan’s order to remove Brigham Young from the governorship of the Territory of Utah. In retaliation, Lee incited a band of Mormons and Indians to massacre 120 California-bound emigrants in Mountain Meadows, Utah. [The Mountain Meadows Massacre is surrounded by controversy. PBS said Lee was "a man whose life was stained by tragedy." The wikipedia entry is much less sympathetic, stating that "Lee led the initial assault, and falsely offered emigrants safe passage prior to their mile-long march to the field where they were ultimately massacred." They were unarmed.]

1962 – American Trappist monk Thomas Merton observed in a letter: “We have not known and tasted the things that have been given to us in Christ. Instead we have built around ourselves walls and offices and cells and chambers of all sorts, and filled them full of bureaucratic litter, and buried ourselves in dust and documents, and now we wonder why we cannot see God, or leap to do His will.”

[Note: This is part of a series on tidbits of church history, taken from An Almanac of the Christian Church by William D. Blake. Click here to see the whole series.]

Birth of Anna B. [Bartlett] Warner, New England hymnwriter, on Long Island, New York. Daughter of a prominent New York Lawyer, she never married, but made her home with her older sister Susan and their father near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

During her lifetime (she died at the age of 95) she published two collections of verse. She wrote a verse in 1860 within the pages of a novel she coauthored with her sister: Say and Seal, which has long since gone out of print. But her poem has become one of the most beloved of all children’s hymns in the church: Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.

[Note: This is part of a series on tidbits of church history, taken from An Almanac of the Christian Church by William D. Blake. Click here to see the whole series.]

Books by John Milton (1608-74) were ordered burned in London because of his attacks on the English monarchy. His indictment revolved around his theology, his advocating presbyterian (elder ruled) rather than episcopal (bishop ruled) church government. With the restoration of the monarchy to England in 1660, Milton was punished with a fine and a short term in prison for supporting the Parliament. Afterward, he lived in retirement and wrote his greatest work, Paradise Lost (1667).

But Jesus called them to Himself, and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

[Note: This is the second in a series on tidbits of church history, taken from An Almanac of the Christian Church by William D. Blake. Click here to see the whole series.]

I recently unearthed a copy of An Almanac of the Christian Church by William D. Blake. As our American history is relatively short, and we do tend to be self-focused, I thought sharing occasional tidbits of church history might give us a broader perspective. Here’s today’s morsel. (Click on the picture for wikipedia details.)

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
During the night in Paris and throughout France, over 10,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) were murdered by the troops of Catherine de Medici, the Queen mother, and for 30 years the real ruler of France. The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre precipitated the Fourth Huguenot War and quickened the spirit of French Protestant religious emigration soon after.

How precious is our freedom to worship God as we choose.