ChrisFieldblog.com

This is the day that … Wilson Carlile died, in 1942.
Carlile was born in Brixton, London on 14 January, 1847. His favourite toy as a child, he tells us, was Joey Billy, a wooden doll that he played with until “arms and legs and hair had been lost.” But, adds Carlile, “Joey Billy taught me [...]

This is the day that … Charles Simeon was born in 1759.
The place was Reading, England, and the aristocratic home in which young Charles was reared was one of ‘affluence’.
It was during his education at Kings College, Cambridge that he was wonderfully converted through the reading of a sermon on the subject of the scapegoat [...]

This is the day that … Charlotte Elliott died in 1871.
Born in Clapham, England (18 March, 1789), she achieved some fame as the writer of frivolous verse and a portrait artist. But by the age of 30 she was a bed-ridden invalid.
The visit of Swiss evangelist Cesar Malan led her to a knowledge of sins [...]

This is the date that … John Coleridge Patteson was speared to death, in 1871.
He was born in London on 1 April, 1827, to devout upper-class parents, his father being a lawyer of good repute. Educated at Eton, he was elected captain of the College cricket team. Because it was the custom to sing ‘bawdy [...]

This is the day that … George Cadbury was born in 1839, in Birmingham, England.
George’s father, John Cadbury, was a tea and coffee dealer. George’s mother, Candia, died when he was in his mid-teens and John’s health was poor. So George’s education was cut short by his need to work in the business.
At the age [...]

This is the day that … The Marechale was born, in 1858.
She was the second child of William and Catherine Booth … and she, too, was named Catherine (but usually called Katie).
At the age of 22, she was taken to Paris by her mother and left there with a small group of equally young women [...]

This is the day that … Tommie Titcombe was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1881.
It was at the age of 21 that he and some friends took shelter from a rainstorm by entering a Salvation Army hall. A meeting was in progress. Conviction of sin entered … and a few days later Tommie “was saved [...]

This is the day that … John Marriott was born near Lutterworth, England, in 1780.
Marriott apparently displayed both a strong academic bent and an interest in music from his youth.
He was educated at Oxford and was the second student to attain first class honours there. He was then ordained to the Anglican ministry, and became [...]

This is the day that … Samuel Wilberforce was born in Clapham, England, in 1805.
His father was William Wilberforce, famous parliamentarian who fought for the abolition of the slave trade - and won.
Raised in the evangelical tradition, young Samuel was “not particularly studious” during his education at Oxford, but set his sights on “holy orders” [...]

This is the day that … Henry Francis Lyte preached his last sermon. Three books give the date as the 4th, but the biography states it was the 5th. Certainly it was the first Sunday in September, in 1857.
Born in Scotland 64 years previously, 1 June, 1793, Lyte began life in an unhappy home. The [...]