October 20
1349: Pope Clement VI condemns self-flagellation (whipping oneself), initiated by the monk Peter Damien two hundred years earlier as a means to help himself suppress his lusts.
1802: Birth of Ernst W. Hengstenberg, German O.T. scholar, known for his four-volume work Christology of the Old Testament. He was also an outspoken defender of evangelical Christianity against the rationalism of his day.
1828: Birth of American lawyer Horatio Gates Spafford, who, upon learning of the drowning of his four daughters following a ship collision in the Atlantic, wrote the lines to the hymn, “It is Well With My Soul” in 1873.
1842: Demise Grace Darling, the daughter of a lighthouse operator in Northumberland, England, who had gained honour four years earlier by persuading her father to assist her in rowing through terrifying waves to rescue nine shipwrecked women and children who were abandoned by sailors. She also refused any kind of reward for her heroic deed.
1908: Birth of Stuart Hamblen, country songwriter, best-remembered for his Christian songs including “Known Only to Him,” “Beyond the Sunset,” and “It Is No Secret.”
1913: Demise of Mary Lathbury, known as the “the Saint of Chautauqua.”
1949: The last of the Inklings’ Thursday meetings – a group of Christians associated with Oxford including notable thinkers like J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield – is held this evening.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: https://studylight.org