Part of my prayer of thanks to God for leaders He has provided His Church
Thanks for Athanasius, who
stood for Trinitarian truth against the majority of churchmen; Chrysostem, the
golden-tongued preacher of Constantinople; Augustine, the African bishop who taught
the church her confidence as Rome fell around her; Patrick, who converted most
of Ireland without any violence; Columba, who took the Gospel to the Scots and
the rest of barbarian Europe; Boniface, who courageously cut down their idols;
Charlemagne, who provided for much Christian learning; Anselm, who considered
the infinite atonement needed for the infinite dishonour of our sin; for
faithful soldiers serving the Lord as they knew best against militant Islam in
Spain and in Israel, for Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller; for the
learning of Abelard and Aquinas; the piety of Francis of Assissi; the reforms
of Wycliffe and Hus, Tyndale and Bucer, Luther and Zwingli, Calvin and Knox;
for the enterprise and ambition to take the faith to a new world of Columbus,
John Smith, Willliam Bradford; for the faithful walking into a modern world,
for Westminster assemblymen like Jeremiah Burroughs and Samuel Rutherford,
Pascal, Bunyan, Whitefield, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Jonathan Edwards,
Kierkegaard, Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, David Brainerd, Machen, Bonhoeffer, and
Francis Schaeffer.
