Feb. 8 in Christian History

Feb 08, 2013 03:04 PM EST

1693 The College of William and Mary was founded in Williamsburg, Virginia for the purpose of educating Anglican clergyman. After Harvard, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in America.

1744 Colonial missionary to the American Indians, David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'I find that both mind and body are quickly tired with intenseness and fervor in the things of God. Oh that I could be as incessant as angels in devotion and spiritual fervor.'

1851 Death of Alexander Haldane, 83. In 1797 he founded the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home, after discovering that the Church of Scotland was as little interested in home missions as it was in foreign missions.

1865 Birth of Lewis E. Jones, American YMCA director. Jones was also a writer of hymns, and his most enduring contribution (which he both wrote and composed) was "Power in the Blood."

1950 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'Sin in a Christian makes God seem distant, deaf. In the body, sin saps animation, as cancer. In the soul, sin stifles the affections; as corrosion in the spirit, sin solidifies the attitudes, as a callous.'

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© 1987-2010, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from

Almanac of the Christian Church