Today In History – November 20th

Otto von Guericke, inventor, was born today in 1602. He invented the air pump and through his experiments Guericke disproved the idea “that nature abhors a vacuum,” which had been a real problem for philosophers and scientists for centuries. Guericke proved that substances were not pulled by a vacuum, but were pushed by the pressure of the surrounding fluids.  Or to put it another way, vacuums do not suck.

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In 1752 on this date, Thomas Chatterton, an English poet, was born. A mere 17 years later, he killed himself by drinking arsenic rather than die of starvation.  The painting above, “The Death of Chatterton,” was painted in 1856, by Henry Wallis, and is the most famous image of Chatterton in the 19th century.  One of his poems appears below.

A Hymn for Christmas Day

Almighty Framer of the Skies!
O let our pure devotion rise,
Like Incense in thy Sight!
Wrapt in impenetrable Shade
The Texture of our Souls were made
Till thy Command gave light.

The Sun of Glory gleam’d the Ray,
Refin’d the Darkness into Day,
And bid the Vapours fly;
Impell’d by his eternal Love
He left his Palaces above
To cheer our gloomy Sky.

How shall we celebrate the day,
When God appeared in mortal clay,
The mark of worldly scorn;
When the Archangel’s heavenly Lays,
Attempted the Redeemer’s Praise
And hail’d Salvation’s Morn!

A Humble Form the Godhead wore,
The Pains of Poverty he bore,
To gaudy Pomp unknown;
Tho’ in a human walk he trod
Still was the Man Almighty God
In Glory all his own.

Despis’d, oppress’d, the Godhead bears
The Torments of this Vale of tears;
Nor bade his Vengeance rise;
He saw the Creatures he had made,
Revile his Power, his Peace invade;
He saw with Mercy’s Eyes.

How shall we celebrate his Name,
Who groan’d beneath a Life of shame
In all Afflictions tried!
The Soul is raptured to conceive
A Truth, which Being must believe,
The God Eternal died.

My Soul exert thy Powers, adore,
Upon Devotion’s plumage sar
To celebrate the Day;
The God from whom Creation sprung
Shall animate my grateful Tongue;
From him I’ll catch the Lay!

- Thomas Chatterton

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Fanny Crosby underwent a spiritual conversion at age of 30 on this date in 1850. Fifteen years later, she began writing the first of over 8,000 hymns texts she composed during her lifetime. Many of these are still popular today, including “Rescue the Perishing,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” and “Tell Me the Story of Jesus.”  Also during here life, this Methodist laywoman was one of the most well known women in the United States and preached and taught at various churches throughout the country.  She was also blind, and had been so since shortly after her birth.  One of her lesser known hymns is entitled “Blind Bartimeus.

Blind Bartimeus

Son of David! hear my cry;
Savior, do not pass me by;
Touch these eyelids veiled in night,
Turn their darkness into light.
Son of David, hear my cry!
Savior, do not pass me by.

Though the proud my voice would still,
They may chide me if they will,
Yet the more I’ll pray for grace,
Only here shall be my place.
Son of David, hear my cry!
Savior, do not pass me by.

Though despised by all but Thee,
Thou a blessing hast for me;
Faith and prayer can never fail,
Lord, with Thee I must prevail,
Son of David, hear my cry!
Savior, do not pass me by.

Glorious vision! heav’nly ray!
All my gloom has passed away;
Now my joyful eye doth see,
And my soul still clings to Thee,
Thine the glory evermore,
Mine to worship and adore.

- Fanny Crosby

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The famed Russian author Leo Tolstoy died on this date at 82 years of age in 1910.  From Wikipedia, we read that Tolstoy:

was a Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists. His masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina stand, in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life, at the very peak of realist fiction.

Tolstoy’s further talents as essayist, dramatist and educational reformer made him the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some of his more well-known quotes include:

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

“Everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”

“Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.”

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