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Christian History

Today in Christian History

September 4

September 4, 1736: Robert Raikes, an English newspaper editor who founded Sunday schools (which met from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to educate poor children, is born in Gloucester (see issue 53: William Wilberforce).

September 4, 1842: After a 284-year hiatus, construction of the Cologne Cathedral continues. And you thought road crews took long breaks!

September 4, 1965: Albert Schweitzer, German theologian, organist, and medical missionary, dies in what is now Gabon. He wrote The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1910) received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

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April 27, 1667: Blind, bitter, and poor, Puritan poet John Milton sells for ten pounds the copyright for Paradise Lost—a book that would influence English thought and language nearly as much as the King James Version and the plays of Shakespeare. The theme of the epic appears in its opening lines: "Of man's disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste / Brought death into the world, and all our woe, / With loss of Eden.

April 27, 1775: Moravian minister ...

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