Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
On the occasion of my parents’ forty-fifth wedding anniversary.
Updated June 6, 2012, 2:28 pm
On June 7, 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
Go to article »On June 7, 1909, Jessica Tandy, the American stage and film actress, was born. Following her death on Sept. 11, 1994, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1654 Louis XIV was crowned king of France in Rheims. 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence. 1848 Postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin was born in Paris. 1892 Homer Plessy was arrested when he refused to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans. The case led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark “separate but equal” decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. 1929 Vatican City became a sovereign state as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome. 1939 King George VI arrived at Niagara Falls, N.Y., from Canada on the first visit to the U.S. by a reigning British monarch. 1972 The musical “Grease” opened on Broadway. 1981 Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons. 1998 James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old African-American man, was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. 2000 A federal judge ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp. 2002 A yearlong hostage crisis in the Philippines involving three Americans came to a bloody end as Filipino commandos managed to save only one of the captives. 2003 In a national first, New Hampshire Episcopalians elected an openly gay man, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, to be bishop. 2006 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike. 2009 Roger Federer of Switzerland became the sixth man in tennis history to win a career Grand Slam and tied Pete Sampras’ record of 14 major singles titles when he won the French Open. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor Liam Neeson turns 60 years old today.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Actor-comedian Bill Hader (“Saturday Night Live”) turns 34 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1928 James Ivory, Director, turns 84 1937 Bert Sugar, Boxing journalist, turns 75 1940 Tom Jones, Singer, turns 72 1946 Jenny Jones, TV talk show host, turns 66 1953 Colleen Camp, Actress, turns 59 1953 Johnny Clegg, Singer, songwriter, turns 59 1954 Louise Erdrich, Author, turns 58 1956 L.A. Reid, Record producer, turns 56 1958 Prince, Rock musician, turns 54 1967 Dave Navarro, Rock musician (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers), turns 45 1975 Allen Iverson, Basketball player, turns 37 1979 Anna Torv, Actress (“Fringe”), turns 33 1981 Anna Kournikova, Tennis player, turns 31 1988 Michael Cera, Actor, turns 24
Historic Birthdays
Jessica Tandy 6/7/1909 – 9/11/1994 American stage and motion-picture actress.Go to obituary »
83 Gregory XIII 6/7/1502 – 4/10/1585
Italian pope (1572-85)79 Celia Fiennes 6/7/1662 – 4/10/1741
English travel writer62 Beau Brummell 6/7/1778 – 3/30/1840
English fashion leader87 Carlota 6/7/1840 – 1/19/1927
Belgian wife of emperor Maximilian of Mexico54 Paul Gauguin 6/7/1848 – 5/8/1903
French Post-Impressionist painter87 Max Kretzer 6/7/1854 – 7/15/1941
German Expressionist writer60 Charles Rennie Mackintosh 6/7/1868 – 12/10/1928
Scottish architect and designer35 Kevin O’Higgins 6/7/1892 – 7/10/1927
Irish statesman73 George Szell 6/7/1897 – 7/30/1970
Hungarian-born American conductor, pianist and composer73 Elizabeth Bowen 6/7/1899 – 2/22/1973
English novelist and short story writer
MORNING
“There fell down many slain, because the war was of God.”
1 Chronicles 5:22Warrior, fighting under the banner of the Lord Jesus, observe this verse with holy joy, for as it was in the days of old so is it now, if the war be of God the victory is sure. The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh could barely muster five and forty thousand fighting men, and yet in their war with the Hagarites, they slew “men, an hundred thousand,” “for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them, because they put their trust in him.” The Lord saveth not by many nor by few; it is ours to go forth in Jehovah’s name if we be but a handful of men, for the Lord of Hosts is with us for our Captain. They did not neglect buckler, and sword, and bow, neither did they place their trust in these weapons; we must use all fitting means, but our confidence must rest in the Lord alone, for he is the sword and the shield of his people. The great reason of their extraordinary success lay in the fact that “the war was of God.” Beloved, in fighting with sin without and within, with error doctrinal or practical, with spiritual wickedness in high places or low places, with devils and the devil’s allies, you are waging Jehovah’s war, and unless he himself can be worsted, you need not fear defeat. Quail not before superior numbers, shrink not from difficulties or impossibilities, flinch not at wounds or death, smite with the two-edged sword of the Spirit, and the slain shall lie in heaps. The battle is the Lord’s and he will deliver his enemies into our hands. With steadfast foot, strong hand, dauntless heart, and flaming zeal, rush to the conflict, and the hosts of evil shall fly like chaff before the gale.
Stand up! stand up for Jesus!
The strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle,
The next the victor’s song:
To him that overcometh,
A crown of life shall be;
He with the King of glory
Shall reign eternally.
EVENING
“Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”
Numbers 11:23God had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month he would feed the vast host in the wilderness with flesh. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means, and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. But doth the Creator expect the creature to fulfil his promise for him? No; he who makes the promise ever fulfils it by his own unaided omnipotence. If he speaks, it is done–done by himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfilment upon the co-operation of the puny strength of man. We can at once perceive the mistake which Moses made. And yet how commonly we do the same! God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why look we to that quarter at all? Will you look to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? Verily, you would act no more foolishly if ye did this than when you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature to do the Creator’s work. Let us, then, put the question on the right footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but the all-sufficiency of the invisible God, who will most surely do as he hath said. If after clearly seeing that the onus lies with the Lord and not with the creature, we dare to indulge in mistrust, the question of God comes home mightily to us: “Has the Lord’s hand waxed short?” May it happen, too, in his mercy, that with the question there may flash upon our souls that blessed declaration, “Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”
