John Wesley, aged five, was rescued at the last moment from the upper storey of Epworth Rectory as it burnt to the ground, today in 1709. The incident (pictured above) profoundly affected him and he came to consider himself ‘a brand plucked from the burning’. This idea was stoked by his mother. She noted, ’I do intend to be more particularly careful of the soul of this child, that Thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been.’
At 8 o’clock in the morning, John Hooper, Bishop of Worcester and Gloucester, was burned at the stake as a Protestant, today in 1555. Forbidden to address the thousands who came to see him off, he simply beamed and waved at those he recognised. He was in the fire for over three quarters of an hour before he died: it was too feeble to reach his upper half, and had to be relit twice. John Foxe’s graphic account in the Book of Martyrs is the most (intentionally) stomach-churning thing you can buy in a Christian bookshop. His penultimate request was: ‘For God’s love, good people, let me have more fire!’ And his last request: ‘Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me! Lord Jesus receive my spirit!’
On this day in 1958, Pentecostal pastor David Wilkerson decided to sell his TV set and devote his evenings to prayer. From this sarifice grew his mission to street gangs in New York, immortalized in his bestselling book, The Cross and the Switchblade.
Image: Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0