47 Years Ago Today

I am too young to remember but on this day 47 years ago (November 22, 1964) three famous people died. 

This is from Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds:

C. S. Lewis—one week shy of his 65th birthday—collapsed and died at 5:30 PM (GMT) at his residence at The Kilns, outside Oxford, England.

Two hours later, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX, pronounced dead at 1:21 PM (CST). He was only 46 years old.

Exactly six hours later, Aldous Huxley, the English writer and author of Brave New World, died at 5:21 PM (PST) in Los Angeles. He was 69.

William Cowper: The Troubled and Talented Saint

The English poet and hymn writer William Cowper (1731-1800, pronounced Cooper) was afflicted with severe bouts of depression and haunting despair for virtually all of his life. While he was a contemporary of George Whitefield and John Wesley, and Rev. John Newton served as a mentor, many have not heard.

His friends then intervened, and he was sent to an insane asylum run by a poet and committed Christian, Dr. Nathaniel Cotton. Under the guidance of Cotton he read Scripture and withdrew for a time from the misery inside his mind. Cowper read a passage from Romans 3:25: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Cowper declared:

Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel. Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport; I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and wonder.

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