7 October 1810 A.D. Anglican scholar, Exegete, Dean of Canterbury, and Hymn-writer, Henry Alford, born.

7 October 1810 A.D.  Anglican scholar, Exegete, Dean of Canterbury, and Hymn-writer, Henry Alford, born.  He lived well and died well.

Henry Alford

Henry Alford
Born	(1810-10-07)7 October 1810 London, England
Died	12 January 1871(1871-01-12) (aged 60)
Nationality	English
Occupation	churchman, scholar, poet and writer
Religion	Anglican Christian

Henry Alford (7 October 1810 – 12 January 1871) was an English churchman, theologian, textual critic, scholar, poet, hymnodist, and writer.

Contents

• 1 Life
• 2 Service
• 3 Published works
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Life

Alford was born in London, of a Somerset family, which had given five consecutive generations of clergymen to the Anglican church. Alford's early years were passed with his widowed father, who was curate of Steeple Ashton in Wiltshire. He was a precocious boy, and before he was ten had written several Latin odes, a history of the Jews and a series of homiletic outlines. After a peripatetic school course he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827 as a scholar. In 1832 he was 34th wrangler and 8th classic, and in 1834 was made fellow of Trinity.^[1]

Service

He had already taken orders, and in 1835 began his eighteen-year tenure of the vicarage of Wymeswold in Leicestershire, from which seclusion the twice-repeated offer of a colonial bishopric failed to draw him. He was Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge in 1841-1842, and steadily built up a reputation as scholar and preacher, which might have been greater if not for his excursions into minor poetry and magazine editing.

In 1844, he joined the Cambridge Camden Society (CCS) which published a list of do's and don'ts for church layout which they promoted as a science. He commissioned A.W.N. Pugin to restore St Mary's church. He also was a member of the Metaphysical Society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles.

In September 1853 Alford moved to Quebec Street Chapel, Marylebone, London, where he had a large congregation.^[2] In March 1857 Lord Palmerston advanced him to the deanery of Canterbury, where, till his death, he lived the same energetic and diverse lifestyle as ever. He had been the friend of most of his eminent contemporaries, and was much beloved for his amiable character. The inscription on his tomb, chosen by himself, is Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis ("the inn of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem").

Published works

Alford was a talented artist, as his picture-book, The Riviera (1870), shows, and he had abundant musical and mechanical talent. Besides editing the works of John Donne, he published several volumes of his own verse, The School of the Heart (1835), The Abbot of Muchelnaye (1841), The Greek Testament. The Four Gospels (1849), and a number of hymns, the best-known of which are "Forward! be our watchword," "Come, ye thankful people, come", and "Ten thousand times ten thousand." He translated the Odyssey, wrote a well-known manual of idiom, A Plea for the Queen's English (1863), and was the first editor of the Contemporary Review (1866–1870).

His chief fame rests on his monumental edition of the New Testament in Greek (8 vols.), which occupied him from 1841 to 1861. In this work he first produced a careful collation of the readings of the chief manuscripts and the researches of the ripest continental scholarship of his day. Philological rather than theological in character, it marked an epochal change from the old homiletic commentary, and though more recent research, patristic and papyral, has largely changed the method of New Testament exegesis, Alford's work is still a quarry where the student can dig with a good deal of profit. See Alford's Law for an example.

Alford subsequently published the New Testament for English Readers (4 vols., Rivingtons, 1868). His Life, written by his widow, appeared in 1873 (Rivingtons).

References

1.      Jump up ^ "Alford, Henry (ALFT827H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. 

2.      Jump up ^ Duffield, Samuel Willoughby (2005). English hymns : their authors and history. [England]: Kessinger Publishing. p. 120. ISBN 9780766154292. 

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Julian, John (June 1907). A Dictionary of Hymnology. London: John Murray. pp. 39–40. 
• Bailey, Albert Edward (1950). The Gospel in Hymns. New York: Charles Scribner's sons. pp. 390–392. 
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Calvin College. "Hymn Writers of the Church". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
• Trubshaw, Bob. "St Mary's restoration". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
• Schaff, Philip. "The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge". Retrieved 2007-02-17. 

External links

Article on one of Alford's Hymns

• Henry Alford at the Encyclopædia Britannica (1902)
• Works by Henry Alford at Project Gutenberg

28 July 1804 A.D. Atheistic Non-Theologian & Eternal Reprobate, Ludwig.A. Feuerbach, Born

28 July 1804 A.D. Atheistic Non-Theologian & Eternal Reprobate, Ludwig.A. Feuerbach, Born

Graves, Dan. “Feuerbach a Theologian Who Wasn’t.”  Christianity.com. Apr 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/feuerbach-a-theologian-who-wasnt-11630397.html.  Accessed 14 May 2014.

The story of Christianity is also the story of attacks on Christianity. On this day July 28, 1804 Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach was born. His father was a well-known jurist who exerted tremendous influence in the field of German law. He was also a petty, moralizing tyrant at home who betrayed Feuerbach's mother for another man's wife. It has sometimes been remarked that the ranks of atheists are most often joined by men who hate their fathers. Feuerbach, who had much reason to dislike his father, attacked Christianity mercilessly. Like his follower Marx, he adopted materialist presuppositions and therefore considered his critique of the faith scientific.

As a youth Feuerbach became deeply interested in religion and pored over Hebrew. He studied theology at Heidelberg and then won permission to transfer to Berlin. Because of his involvement in a student club he came under the suspicion of the police and was held up from becoming a professor. He was able to show he was involved in no secret organization. On this day July 28, 1824, his 20th birthday, he was admitted to the theology faculty. He had, however, already become a follower of Hegel. He would never teach theology.

His first move was to transfer to the philosophy department. Financial difficulties led him to relocate to Erlanger where he lectured on philosophy for many years as a private lecturer. His first lecture attacked Christianity. By 1830 he had issued anonymously a book titled Thoughts on Death and Immortality. He wrote mockingly that religion was "merely a kind of insurance company." His authorship became known and it barred him from advancement. Feuerbach's father was appalled. Believe such things privately, but do not ruin your career by openly flaunting public opinion, he advised.

Feuerbach's response was to issue his Essence of Christianity. In this and his other works he declared religion a fantasy--an attempt at wish-fulfillment. "The more empty life is, the more concrete is God...Only the poor man has a rich God." He argued that man wants to be a god with godlike powers; because he cannot have these powers, he dreams up a god who does. Practical men, however, turn to science and technology which can satisfy real needs.

What would Feuerbach have thought of the life of his fellow-German George Müller, who proved the practicality of faith, scientifically recording every prayer and its answer? Feuerbach saw religion emerging from the feeling of dependence. Müller learned to come to God in Christ's name for every need.

Feuerbach's idea prospered for a decade. The Essence of Christianity went through eleven printings. After the failed revolution of 1848 it faded into virtual oblivion, though not without influencing Wagner and Nietzsche. George Eliot translated his work into English. Ernest Renan, who himself tried to "demythologize" the life of Christ, described Feuerbach as antichrist.

Bibliography:

1.      Kamenka, Eugene. The Philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach. New York: Praeger, 1970.

2.      "Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.

3.      Vitz, Paul C. Faith of the Fatherless; the psychology of atheism. Dallas: Spence Publishing, 1999.

4.      Various encyclopedia articles.

Last updated April, 2007.

22 June 1680 A.D. Scottish Minister and Secessionist, Mr. (Rev.) Ebenezer Erksine, Born

22 June 1680 A.D.  Scottish Minister and Secessionist, Mr. (Rev.) Ebenezer Erksine, Born.

Two sources here:  (1) Mr. Graves and (2) Mr. Wiki.

Graves, Dan. “Ebenezer Erskine (1680 to 1754).” Christianity.com.   N.d. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/birthdays/06-22.html. Accessed 3 May 2014.

Ebenezer Erskine (1680 to 1754)

Presbyterian

Ebenezer Erskine Censured.

Birth of Ebenezer Erskine in Dryburgh, Berwickshire. He was a "Marrowman," one of the evangelicals who was deeply impressed by a book titled Marrow of Modern Divinity. Disgusted that wealthy patrons decided which clergyman would be hired in many churches, he called for local election of pastors. He was censured for this view. With other pastors, he founded the Secession Church and was deposed from the Church of Scotland.

22 June 1680 A.D.  Birth of Scottish Minister & Secessionist from Church of Scotland, Rev. Ebenezer Erskine

Ebenezer Erskine (22 June 1680 – 2 June 1754) was a Scottish minister whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church (formed by dissenters from the Church of Scotland).

Ebenezer's father, Henry Erskine, served as minister at Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, but was ejected in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity. and imprisoned for several years. Ebenezer and his brother Ralph were both born during this difficult period in his father's life. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 Henry was appointed to the parish of Chirnside, Berwickshire.

In 1703, after studying at the University of Edinburgh, Ebenezer was ordained as minister of Portmoak, Kinross-shire. A year later, he married Alison Turpie.^[1] They remained in Portmoak for 28 years, until, in the autumn of 1731, he moved to the West Church, Stirling.

Some time before this, at the General Assembly of 1722, a group of men including Ebenezer had been rebuked and admonished for defending the doctrines contained in the book The Marrow of Modern Divinity. In 1733, a sermon he preached on lay patronage at the Synod of Perth led to new accusations being levelled against him. He was compelled to defend himself from rebuke by appealing to the General Assembly, but the Assembly supported his accusers. After fruitless attempts to obtain a hearing, he, along with William Wilson of Perth, Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy and James Fisher of Kinclaven, was suspended from the ministry by the Commission of Assembly in November of that year.

In protest against this sentence, the suspended ministers constituted themselves as a separate church court, under the name the "Associate Presbytery". In 1739 they were summoned to appear before the General Assembly, but did not attend because they did not acknowledge its authority. They were deposed by the Church of Scotland the following year.

In the following years a large number of people joined their communion. The Associate Presbytery remained united until 1747, when a division took place over how the church should respond to a new oath required of all burgesses. Erskine joined with the "burgher" section, becoming their professor of theology. He continued to preach to a large and influential congregation in Stirling until his death. He was a very popular preacher and a man of considerable force of character. He was noted for acting on principle with honesty and courage. In 1820 the burgher and anti-burgher sections of the Secession Church were reunited, followed, in 1847 by their union with the relief synod as the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

The majority of Erskine's published works are sermons. His Life and Diary (edited by the Rev. Donald Fraser) was published in 1840. His Works were published in 1785.

In the United States, part of the Associate Presbyterian Church united with most of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1782, forming the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. This denomination, which continues today, operates Erskine College and Seminary in Due West, South Carolina.

Notes

1.       Jump up ^ "Erskine" 1875, p.538

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• A.R. MacEwen The Erskines. (Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine). Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1900, ("Famous Scots Series")
• "Erskine, Ebenezer." A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen Volume 1. Thomas Thomson, ed. Glasgow: Blackie&Son, 1875.

External links

• Erskine College