Bonhoeffer – born

ON THIS DATE

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (and his twin sister Sabine) born 2/4/1906 to Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer, at Breslau, Poland.  Trained as a Lutheran in Germany he also attended a seminary in the US.  He lectured at the U. of Berlin and as Hitler’s popularity spread (churches of Germany became propaganda tools) Bonhoeffer questions the treatment and mistreatment of the Jews and began to stand against Hitler’s power.  (Some say he was in on a plot to kill Hitler, which may or may not be true.)  He was engaged to Maria von Wedemeyer but was arrested before they could marry.  He was hung in 1944.   His Cost of Discipleship is well worth reading.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Qoutes

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline…”

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

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Author of “Softly & Tenderly Jesus is Calling” – born

ON THIS DATE

Will L. Thompson was born 11/7/1847, East Liverpool, OH – He wrote “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling.”  Son of an Ohio Legislator, he studied at Mount Union College in Ohio, at Boston Conservatory of Music, and in Leipzig, Germany.  He started his own publishing company, Will L. Thompson & Co. and expanded to sell pianos, organs & sheet music.

Thompson travel  by buggy throughout Ohio singing his songs for people.  He gained considerable wealth with his business adventures but never lost his quiet unassuming Christian character.  It is said that on his deathbed while being visited by Mr. Thompson, Moody feebly whispered, “Will, I would rather have written ’Softly and Tenderly’ than anything I have been able to do in my whole life.”  Thompson died 9/20/1909.            

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer – birth, Feb. 4, 1906

We must make it clear—fearful as it is—that the time is very near when we shall have to decide between national socialism and Christianity… – 94  [1]

 

Christ’s work in us is not finished until He has perfected His own form in us.  – 116

 

Even those who honestly describe themselves as “religious” do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by “religious.”  – 169    

 

The real man is at liberty to be his creator’s creature…God loves the real man.  God became a real man.  – 179

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born this date, 2/4/1906 at Breslau, Poland.  In the 1930s Hitler took over churches in Germany, trying to make them his propaganda tools.  Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran, was among those who protested this power.  He was arrested in April 1943 and hung in 1944, after being accused of a plot (note “accused”) to kill Hitler.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship is well worth reading. 

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[1] Page references from Michael Van Dyke, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Opponent of the Nazi Regime (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour Pub., 2001)

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Johannes Gutenberg – death, Feb. 3, 1468

Johannes Gutenberg died this date, 2/3/1468, at Mainz, Germany. Mainz is a few miles southwest of Frankfort on the Rhine River.  He is the man credited with inventing printing with movable type.  The first and most important project which used his new process was the printing of the Bible – commonly called The Gutenberg Bible. 

It is believed that only 158 Bibles were printed.  48 full copies are known to still exist along with numerous partial Bibles and/or single pages.  (One source says a single page sold in 1999 for $26,000.)  Bibles are said to be about 1282 pages in length and were, interestingly, printed on two kinds of pages: paper and vellum (calf’s skin).  Printing is thought to have begun around 1450 and concluded c. 1455. His press was a boon to the Reformation – allowing the dissemination of Reformers’ writings.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (his full name) is thought to have been born c. 1400 in the same town where he died.

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Kathrina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel – birth, Oct. 22, 1697

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Kathrina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel was born this date, 10/22/1697 in Germany.  She was a Lutheran with leanings toward pietism and holiness. “Be Still, My Soul” (1752) is one of some twenty hymns.

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Johann Lorenz von Mosheim – birth, Oct. 9, 1693

…Vigilantius…denied that the tombs and the bones of the martyrs were to be honored…maintained that prayers addressed to departed saints were void of all efficacy; and treated with contempt fasting and mortifications, the celibacy of clergy…

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 49.

 

…imperfect mortals…are much more disposed to worship with the eye than with the heart…

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 53.

 

The doctrine of Augustine, who was of opinion that, in the work of conversion and sanctification, all was to be attributed to a divine energy, and nothing to human agency, had many followers in all ages of the church; though his disciples have never been entirely agreed about the manner of explaining what he taught upon that head.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 89.

 

The terror of Mahomet’s arms…persuaded such multitudes to embrace his religion…his law was artfully and marvelously adapted to the corrupt nature of man.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 157.

 

It is highly probable that the Valdenses, or Vaudois [Waldenses] had already, in this century [Cent. VII] retired into the vallies [sic] of Piedmont, that they might be more at liberty to oppose the tyranny of those imperious prelates.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 167.

 

The clergy…were distinguished by their luxury, their gluttony, and their lust; they gave themselves up to dissipation of various kinds, to the pleasures of hunting and what was still more remote from their sacred character, to military studies and enterprises.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 214.

 

This horrid opinion [that excommunication included loosing the “claims and privileges of humanity”] which was a fatal source of wars, massacres, and rebellions…was borrowed by…the clergy, from the pagan superstitions.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 221.

 

Johann (John) Lorenz von Mosheim was born this date, 10/9/1693 (or 1694), at Lubeck, Germany.  He was a highly esteemed Lutheran, Church historian. In 1747 he was made chancellor of the University of Göttingen.  He wrote An Ecclesiastical History.  Johann Mosheim died 9/9/1755.

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George Muller – birth, Sep. 27, 1805

George Muller was born this date, 9/27/1805, near Magdeburg, Germany.  He was converted to Christ (1825) from a wild, sinful, even criminal life, under the ministry of the Moravians.  George began evangelistic work among Jews, children and others.  He came to England (Bristol) and eventually started his famous Faith orphanages.  This work of faith was supported by prayer, obedience, and private gift.  It is said that he (and his many helpers) took care of 10,000 orphans and that at his death (1898) some eight million dollars had passed through his trusting hands.  Only heaven will reveal the wonderful work this man accomplished, relying upon His Savior.

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Erdmann Neumeister – birth, May 12, 1671

Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall.

Refrain

Sing it o’er and over again;
Christ receiveth sinful men;
Make the message clear and plain:
Christ receiveth sinful men.

2.

Come, and He will give you rest;
Trust Him, for His Word is plain;
He will take the sinfulest;
Christ receiveth sinful men.

3.

Now my heart condemns me not,
Pure before the law I stand;
He who cleansed me from all spot,
Satisfied its last demand.

4.

Christ receiveth sinful men,
Even me with all my sin;
Purged from every spot and stain,
Heaven with Him I enter in.

 Erdmann Neumeister was born this date (5/12/1671) Uechteritz (near Weissenfels), Germany.  Neumeister received his MA at the University of Leipzig in 1695, and later lectured there.  In 1704 Duke Johann Georg invited him to Weissenfels to tutor the Duke’s only daughter.  He became senior court preacher.  Wrote at least ten hymns in addition to “Christ Receiveth Sinful Men.”  He died 8/18/1756, Hamburg, Germany.

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Nicholas von Zinzendorf – death, May 9, 1760

“Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness”

          (translated John Wesley)

 

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
’Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

 

Bold shall I stand in Thy great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

 

The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,
Who from the Father’s bosom came,
Who died for me, e’en me to atone,
Now for my Lord and God I own.

 

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, e’en for my soul, was shed.

 

Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full atonement made.

 

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
Ev’n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.

 

This spotless robe the same appears,
When ruined nature sinks in years;
No age can change its glorious hue,
The robe of Christ is ever new.

 

Jesus, the endless praise to Thee,
Whose boundless mercy hath for me—
For me a full atonement made,
An everlasting ransom paid.

 

O let the dead now hear Thy voice;
Now bid Thy banished ones rejoice;
Their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness.

 

Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf died this date (5/9/1760) at Herrnhut.   He was Count  Zinzendorf,  born  at Dresden, Saxony, Germany,  5/26/1700.  He wrote several works including at least nine hymns.

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Paul Gerhardt – birth, Mar. 12, 1607

“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”

 

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.

 

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

 

Men mock and taunt and jeer Thee, Thou noble countenance,
Though mighty worlds shall fear Thee and flee before Thy glance.
How art thou pale with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy visage languish that once was bright as morn!

 

Now from Thy cheeks has vanished their color once so fair;
From Thy red lips is banished the splendor that was there.
Grim death, with cruel rigor, hath robbed Thee of Thy life;
Thus Thou hast lost Thy vigor, Thy strength in this sad strife.

 

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

 

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

 

My Shepherd, now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me, O source of gifts divine.
Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love;
Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above.

 

Here I will stand beside Thee, from Thee I will not part;
O Savior, do not chide me! When breaks Thy loving heart,
When soul and body languish in death’s cold, cruel grasp,
Then, in Thy deepest anguish, Thee in mine arms I’ll clasp.

 

The joy can never be spoken, above all joys beside,
When in Thy body broken I thus with safety hide.
O Lord of Life, desiring Thy glory now to see,
Beside Thy cross expiring, I’d breathe my soul to Thee.

 

My Savior, be Thou near me when death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me, forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish, oh, leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish by virtue of Thine own!

 

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

 

Paul Gerhardt was born this date (3/12/1607) near Wittenberg, Germany.

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