1802 - Birth of Ernst W. Hengstenberg, German O.T. scholar. An outspoken defender of evangelical Christianity against the rationalism of his day, Hengstenberg's most significant writing was his four-volume "Christology of the Old Testament."
1828 - Birth of American lawyer Horatio Gates Spafford. In 1873, upon learning of the drowning of his four daughters following a ship collision in the Atlantic, Spafford penned the lines to the hymn, "It is Well With My Soul."
1892 - Birth of Harry Dixon Loes, sacred music educator. A writer of gospel songs and choruses, it was Loes who composed the hymn tune REDEEMER ("Up Calvary's Mountain, One Dreadful Morn").
1908 - Birth of Stuart Hamblen, country songwriter who flourished during the 1950s. His best-remembered Christian songs include "Known Only to Him," "Beyond the Sunset," and "It Is No Secret."
1957 - English apologist C.S. Lewis shared his longing for heaven in a letter: 'It'll be nice when we all wake up from this life, which has indeed something like a nightmare about it.'
© 1987-2008, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from Almanac of the Christian Church
