Moments Almanac Episodes

On September 30, 1685, twenty-two-year-old Benjamin Hewling sat down in Taunton, England, knowing he had only hours to live. Condemned for his part in the failed Monmouth Rebellion—and having already lost his younger brother to the executioner—Benjamin picked up a pen and wrote one final letter to his mother. What he wrote was not filled with anger or despair, but with an extraordinary confidence in Christ. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we remember a young man facing the end of his life ...

On September 29, 1770, George Whitefield climbed onto a barrel in Exeter, New Hampshire, and preached what would become his final sermon. His body was failing, his breathing was labored, but he believed that if God had given him one more opportunity to speak, he should take it. Exactly 218 years later, on September 29, 1988, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off—the first shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster 975 days earlier. NASA had grieved, investigated, examined what had gone wrong...

On September 28, 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed something strange in a contaminated culture dish: bacteria were dying around a patch of mold. What looked like a ruined experiment became one of medicine’s most important discoveries. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we look at the story of penicillin, the power of paying attention, and the possibility that what seems like an interruption may actually be an invitation to see something new. Sometimes the interruption isn’t ruining the experim...

The God Who Pursues a Wandering Heart Robert Robinson and the story behind “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” What happens when the man who writes one of Christianity's most beloved hymns knows all too well the struggle of a wandering heart? Born on September 27, 1735, Robert Robinson was just seventeen when he heard the great evangelist George Whitefield preach a sermon that would change the course of his life. The message, drawn from Matthew 3:7, left Robinson wrestling with his soul for t...

You probably know Johnny Appleseed as the barefoot wanderer with a cooking pot on his head, scattering apple seeds across the American frontier. But behind the beloved folk hero was John Chapman, a deeply religious man whose life was about much more than apples. Born on September 26, 1774, Chapman traveled through the wilderness of early America, establishing orchards, sharing religious literature, and building relationships with frontier families. He planted trees whose fruit he might never ta...

Who has the right to decide what you believe—your ruler, your government, or your conscience? On September 25, 1555, the Peace of Augsburg established a religious settlement in the Holy Roman Empire that allowed territorial rulers to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism. For ordinary believers, religious freedom remained largely out of reach. Exactly 234 years later, on September 25, 1789, the United States Congress submitted proposed constitutional amendments to the states, including w...

What does a brilliant Greek scholar have in common with a Russian monk who could barely read? More than you might imagine. On September 24, 1934, A. T. Robertson, one of the most influential New Testament scholars of his generation, walked into his classroom at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for the last time. Earlier that afternoon, he had been studying Matthew 6:11: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Before the day was over, he would be gone. Four years later, on the same date, Silou...

On September 23, 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier climbed the stairs to a room in lower Manhattan and prepared for a noon prayer meeting. He had printed invitations, posted a sign, and made the room ready. At noon, no one came. For thirty minutes, Lanphier prayed alone. Then one man arrived. By the end of the hour, there were six. The next week there were twenty, then forty, and soon the meetings became daily. What began in an almost empty room grew into the Prayer Meeting Revival of 1857–58, spreadin...

On September 22, 1776, twenty-one-year-old Nathan Hale was executed by the British as an American spy. Tradition remembers his final words as a declaration that he regretted having only one life to give for his country. More than a century later, missionary C. T. Studd would write another unforgettable line about the brevity of life: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” In this episode of Moments Almanac, we look beyond the question of what we would be w...

On September 21, 1522, Martin Luther’s German New Testament—known as the September Testament—was published, placing the words of Scripture into the hands of ordinary people in language they could understand. Luther believed the Bible should not sound distant or academic, but like the language spoken in homes, marketplaces, workshops, and everyday life. His translation would help shape the German language and dramatically expand access to Scripture. But five centuries later, the challenge has c...

William J. Kirkpatrick gave the church some of its most beloved gospel music, including the melodies associated with “Jesus Saves,” “He Hideth My Soul,” and “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.” But one of his most remarkable songs began with a burden for a young soloist who could sing the gospel beautifully—yet always left before the preaching began. Kirkpatrick prayed for him and wrote a song: “Lord, I’m Coming Home.” The young man sang it, stayed to hear the message, and according to the story,...

Three generations. Three journeys. One calling. On September 19, 1853, twenty-one-year-old Hudson Taylor sailed from England for China. Decades later, Jonathan Goforth carried that same missionary burden deeper into the Chinese interior. And on September 19, 1955, Nate Saint flew over the Ecuadorian jungle searching for the Waorani people — a journey that would soon cost him his life. Their stories were separated by years, continents, and methods, but each was marked by the same simple realit...

On September 18, 1905, Scottish minister, novelist, and fantasy writer George MacDonald died—never knowing how far his stories would travel. Years later, a young C. S. Lewis discovered MacDonald’s Phantastes and said it had “baptized my imagination.” That seed would eventually bear fruit in one of Christianity’s most influential writers. Today on Moments Almanac, we explore the remarkable legacy of a man whose pulpit may have disappeared—but perhaps only because it got larger. It’s a reminder t...

September 17, 1942. In wartime Romania, a Pentecostal believer named Voicu Rusin stood before a military court and faced a devastating choice: compromise his convictions and go free—or remain faithful and pay an almost unimaginable price. This episode of Moments Almanac tells the little-known story of an ordinary Christian whose quiet refusal became an extraordinary testimony. It’s a story about conscience, courage, and the moments when faithfulness comes down to one simple question: What are ...

September 16 — Joseph Samuel Murrow: He Stayed On September 16, 1857, twenty-two-year-old Joseph Samuel Murrow was ordained to the ministry. Soon after, he headed west to serve among Native peoples in Indian Territory—and what began as a missionary appointment became a lifetime of service. Murrow helped establish churches, train Native pastors, strengthen schools, care for orphans, and share the gospel across generations. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about his story is also the simpl...

On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair. The tragedy came on a Sunday when the church’s Youth Day carried an almost unbearable theme: “A Love That Forgives.” In this installment of Moments Almanac, we remember four lives, a nation confronted by the horror of racial hatred, and a difficult question that still reaches across the decades: What does forgiveness...

On September 14, two remarkable lives meet across more than thirteen centuries. John Chrysostom — the famed “Golden Mouth” of the early church — died in forced exile in 407 after years of preaching with unusual courage against corruption, luxury, and indifference toward the poor. His words could fill a cathedral, but they also unsettled powerful people because he refused to let the comfortable forget the suffering around them. On that same date in 1736, Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, E...

On September 11, 2001, evil left a terrible mark. But it was not the only thing present that day. In this solemn Moments Almanac, we remember the loss—and the courage, compassion, sacrifice, and grace that appeared in the darkness. Share Your Thoughts

On this day in 1819, Joseph Scriven was born in Ireland — a man whose private grief would one day give the church one of its most beloved hymns. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we trace the quiet, sorrow-shaped life of a man who endured deep personal loss, served others with unusual humility, and discovered that friendship with Christ was not sentimental language for easy days, but solid ground for hard ones. Sometimes the songs the church sings most confidently were first written through te...

Four hundred and thirty-eight years apart, Philipp Melanchthon and President Dwight D. Eisenhower faced very different questions of authority. One helped articulate a Reformation conviction that Scripture stands above human institutions. The other signed the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, as America wrestled with whether justice could be left to the will of individual states. Two moments. Two very different struggles. And one enduring question: Who gets the final w...

When the Walls Don’t Hold On September 8, AD 70, the Roman siege of Jerusalem came to its devastating end. On the same date in 1941, Leningrad was cut off from the outside world, beginning a siege that would last nearly 900 days. Two cities. Two sieges. Nineteen centuries apart. One story remembers people who fled when warned. The other remembers people who had nowhere to go and endured. Sometimes faith means go. Sometimes faith means hold on. And both stories remind us of something we easily...

On September 7, 1807, Robert Morrison arrived in China with a Bible and a calling, beginning decades of quiet missionary work that would help bring Scripture to the Chinese people. Ninety-four years later, the Boxer Protocol marked the bitter aftermath of an uprising fueled partly by resentment toward foreign influence. Two moments on the same date offer both a calling and a warning: carry the gospel faithfully—but be careful what else you carry with it. Share Your Thoughts

On September 6, 1529, Anabaptist preacher Jörg Blaurock was executed for a conviction that had already cost him his position, his freedom, his friendships, and ultimately his life. Four years earlier, Blaurock had knelt in a small house in Zurich and asked to be baptized upon his own confession of faith—helping ignite the Swiss Anabaptist movement. Arrested, beaten, banished, and threatened with death, he kept preaching. Even during his final weeks in prison, he wrote hymns rather than pleas fo...

On September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa died in Calcutta after a lifetime spent among the poor, the abandoned, and the dying. To the world, she seemed to embody unwavering spiritual certainty. But letters published after her death revealed a surprising private struggle: for decades, she often lived without any felt sense of God’s presence. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we look beyond questions of Catholic sainthood to something every Christian can understand—the experience of praying when God...