Aug. 30 in Christian History

Aug 30, 2008 02:09 PM EDT

1637 - Colonial religious teacher Anne Hutchinson, 46, was charged with "traducing (i.e., degrading) the ministry" and was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Moving the following year to Rhode Island, then to New York, Anne and her family were killed by Indians in 1643.


1770 - Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'The exercised and experienced Christian, by the knowledge he has gained of his own heart and the many difficulties he has had to struggle with, acquires a skill and compassion in dealing with others.


1820 - Birth of George F. Root, American sacred music editor and composer. Root helped edit 75 musical collections, as well as composing several hundred original sacred melodies. One of these, JEWELS, is the tune to which is commonly sung the hymn, "When He Cometh."


1856 - Wilberforce University was established in Xenia, Ohio under auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1863, the university was transferred to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.


1894 - Independent Christian evangelist and educator Bob Jones, Sr. was converted at age 11 to a vital Christian faith. Licensed to preach by the Methodists at 15, Jones maintained a lifelong fundamentalist view of the Bible. In 1926, at age 32, he founded Bob Jones University.


© 1987-2008, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from Almanac of the Christian Church