1547 - The Seventh Session of the Council of Trent declared: 'If anyone says that one baptized cannot, even if he wishes, lose grace, however much he may sin, unless he is unwilling to believe, let him be anathema.'
1744 - Colonial missionary to the American Indians, David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'In the morning, spent an hour in prayer. Prayer was so sweet an exercise to me that I knew not how to cease, lest I lose the spirit of prayer.'
1931 - American linguistic pioneer Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: 'If we only let God have his full chance he will break our hearts with the glory of his revelation. That is the privilege which the preacher can have. It is his business to look into the very face of God until he aches with bliss.'
1950 - Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote in "Sign of Jonas": 'The Christian life...is a continual discovery of Christ in new and unexpected places. And these discoveries are sometimes most profitable when you find him in something you had tended to overlook or even despise.'
1959 - By a vote taken in both bodies, the Unitarian Church and the Universalist Church, along with their fellowships -- the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged into a single denomination.
© 1987-2009, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from Almanac of the Christian Church
