1538 - German Reformer Martin Luther stated: 'With all our thoughts we can't get beyond the visible and physical. No man's heart comprehends eternity.'
1769 - During the illness of a close friend, English poet William Cowper, 38, penned the lines to the hymn, "Oh, For a Closer Walk with God."
1787 - Cokesbury College, the first Methodist college in America, opened its doors in Abingdon, MD. The campus consisted of a three-story building 108 feet long and 40 feet wide.
1930 - Missionary linguist Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: 'Sometimes one feels that there is a discord between the cross and beauty. But...a man has not found his highest beauty until his brow is tinged with care for some cause he loves more than himself. The beauty of sacrifice is the final word in beauty.'
1955 - English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'It is a dreadful truth that the state of having to depend solely on God is what we all dread most... It is good of Him to force us; but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time.'
© 1987-2010, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
