The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Blog

  • Happy Birthday, Friedrich Myconius

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Too many people think of the Reformation as a one-man show, with Martin Luther starting everything by himself. But even if you stick to the first generation of the Reformation, and confine yourself to Germany, there were still a lot of faithful and creative people involved at all levels of reforming the church. Consider Friedrich…

  • Happy Birthday, Christmas Evans

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    Fred Sanders
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    He was born on December 25, 1766, so his parents named him Christmas. He was a tough kid (a farm worker who remained illiterate well into his teenage years), but he became a Christian at age 17, and grew up to become famous as “the one-eyed preacher of Wales.” The Encyclopedia Brittanica entry on him…

  • Christmas Presence

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Christmas is a big deal, and Christians know that they should celebrate it in a big way. In fact, there is something strange about how big a deal we are supposed to make of it. The most important things Jesus Christ did for our salvation, after all, did not happen at the beginning of his…

  • Barnes and His Notes

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (December 24) is the anniversary of the death of Albert Barnes (1798-1870), the American pastor remembered for his popular commentary on the Bible, Barnes’ Notes. Barnes pastored for over 40 years at the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and generated thousand of pages of commentaries. He has been called “the most prolific commentator of…

  • Happy Birthday, Handley Moule

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    H. C. G. (that’s Handley Carr Glyn) Moule was born on this day (December 23) in 1841 and died in 1920. Laurels? Moule had them aplenty. A Cambridge man (Trinity College 1864, where he was also fellow from 1865 to 1881 and dean from 1873-1877), he was the first principal of Ridley Hall (1881-1899) and…

  • “Moody My Servant is Dead”

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (December 22) is the day in 1899 when Dwight L. Moody died. The Christian world was devastated by the passing of this evangelical giant. Moody had been the figurehead for the aggressive, revivalist evangelicalism of the nineteenth century, and when he died just ten days from the end of the century, it seemed symbolic.…

  • Happy Birthday, Edwin Abbott

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Today (December 20) is the birthday of Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926), the English scholar remembered now as the author of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. A pleasant, short, and stimulating work, Flatland is a great little mental workout that helps you imagine the jump from lower dimensions to higher. It’s the story of a…

  • Happy Birthday Tycho Brahe

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Today (December 14) is the birthday of Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). Who, you ask? Tycho! Lord of the Island of Hven! Builder of the Uraniborg! Captain of the paths of the planets at the turning of the ages! Brahe was a Danish astronomer who made precise and systematic measurements of celestial motions in the crucial years…

  • Deep Things Here, Deep Things There

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Here’s an update on a few more reviews and discussions of Deep Things of God around the web. Jason Sexton in the brand new Themelios provides a nice, long review of the book, calling the book a feast, an unusually bold work, and something that should be “read by every undergraduate student in any evangelical…

  • G. Campbell Morgan

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    Fred Sanders
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    George Campbell Morgan (born this day, December 9, in 1863) used to be more famous than he is now. Best known as the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, he also worked in the United States with Dwight L. Moody’s many projects, and taught widely in Bible Institutes. One contemporary called him “the hardest working…

  • Huck Finn, Only Huckier

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today was the funeral of a friend of mine who died last week. I worked with him in the 1980’s at a canoe rental in Missouri. His name was Mark, and it’s no insult to say that he was an odd bird. I’m not going to attempt to say the most important things about him,…

  • Richard Baxter on Meditation

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    Fred Sanders
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    Today (December 8 ) is the anniversary of the death of Richard Baxter (1615–1691), the Puritan theologian who whose work The Reformed Pastor is a perennially useful classic on soul care, and whose Aphorisms on Justification caused controversy in his own time and consternation to this day. His popular 1650 book The Saint’s Everlasting Rest…