Sunday, July 21, 2013

On This Day…

✶On July 21, 1864, Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone arrived back in Great Britain for the final time. Returning to Africa the next year, he was lost to the world until discovered by Henry Stanley. In 1873, Livingtone’s national workers found him dead on his knees in a posture of prayer.

✶ Wellesley College professor Katherine Lee Bates wrote the original version of her poem “America the Beautiful” on this day in 1893 in Colorado Springs after being inspired by the view from Pike’s Peak.

✶ On July 21, 1896, James Stuart Stewart, considered by Preaching Magazine the greatest preacher of the 20th century, was born in Dundee, Scotland. His father, who had been converted under D. L. Moody, was a Bible teacher with the YMCA. After pastoring three Church of Scotland congregations, Stewart taught New Testament at the University of Edinburgh and was Chaplain to the Queen of Scotland. His passion was expository preaching, and he was committed to world evangelism.

✶ On July 21, 1925, the “Monkey Trial” ended in Tennessee. The state had banned the teaching of evolution in schools because it challenged the Bible. John Scopes ignored the ban and taught Darwin’s theories, for which he was convicted.

Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook, 2002 Edition. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001), 210.

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