Jonathan Edwards traveled a few miles from his home into western Connecticut and read to a small congregation assembled there the most famous sermon ever delivered in the history of America on this day in 1741. Entitled Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God, its subject was the immanence of judgment and the horrors of perdition. It was about what …
My Country Tis of Thee
During his long and productive ministry, Samuel Francis Smith composed nearly two hundred hymns. But it is for one he wrote while still in seminary that he was best known. Musician Lowell Mason had asked him to translate some German verses for a song book he was preparing. Among the tunes he handed Smith was a German patriotic hymn, God …
Who’s the First President?
You’ve heard about George Washington, but what about Peyton Randolf? In this video Dr. Grant explains how George Washington wasn’t our nations first president. If you are interested in reading more, look at out our Bios on the Forgotten Presidents and the Forgotten Presidents Infographic.
The Forgotten Presidents
Who was the first president of the United States? Ask any school child and they will readily tell you “George Washington.” And of course, they would be wrong—at least technically. Washington was not inaugurated until April 30, 1789. And yet, the United States continually had functioning governments from as early as September 5, 1774 and operated as a confederated nation …
Planned Parenthood’s Eugenic Racism
On this day in 1939, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood announced the organization’s new “Negro Project” in response to requests from southern state public health officials—men not generally known at that time for their racial equanimity. “The mass of Negroes,” her project proposal asserted, particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the …
The Lesser of Two Evils?
Tryon Edwards (1809–1894), theologian, editor, anthologist, biographer, and great-great-grandson of Jonathan Edwards “Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.” “Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.” “Facts are God’s arguments; we should be careful never to misunderstand or pervert them.” “Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would …
A Familiar Library
“If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them—peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let …
Unstring the Bow
“Only the man able to rest and relax, to laugh and play will be able to fight and struggle, lead and guide. Only the man who knows when he has come to the end of his energy will be able to expend even greater energy.” Robert Taft At the end of the thirteenth century when the Norman English bowmen began …
Isn’t It Amazing What We Can Do If We Don’t Really Care Who Gets the Credit?
No man or woman is an island. There are no successful Lone Rangers—not in business, not in politics, and not in life. Loose canons foil the best strategies. Wild cards trump the best intentions. Feral cells infect the healthiest organisms. Rogue agents jeopardize the securest operations. If we are going to be effective we need to have others who know …
Laboring for the Poor
Charles Haddon Spurgeon is commonly heralded as the greatest preacher to grace the Christian pulpit since the Apostle Paul. His metropolitan Tabernacle was undoubtedly a dynamic force for righteousness in Victorian England. But his many years of ministry were marked not only by his masterful pulpiteering, but by his many labors on behalf of the poor and needy as well. …
Running toward the Roar
“Gospel preaching always requires great courage, both to execute and to tolerate, for it must ever needs be a running toward a lion’s roar. And, we run together.” Thomas Chalmers
America’s First Constitution
The first American constitution was ratified by the colony of New Haven on this day in 1639. The entire community assembled in a newly erected barn where the eminent Puritan pastor John Davenport (1597-1670) preached and prayed earnestly—and then proposed fundamental articles for the governance of the colony. His four articles were simple: First, they were to affirm that the Holy Scriptures …
More on Chesterton
“The most important fact about the subject of education is that there is no such thing. Education is not a subject, and it does not deal in subjects. It is instead the transfer of a way of life.” “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” “You can …
Chesterton’s Birthday
English author, essayist, novelist, poet, artist, philosopher, humorist, and journalist Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London on this day in 1874. His witty style and mastery of the paradox made him an apt defender of the Christian faith by warmly engaging readers and then turning their world upside down–or rather, right side up. Although popularly known for his Father …