Isaiah 54:17

This day is notable in English history for two great deliverances God brought about for us:

1. On this day in 1605, the plot by supporters of the Papacy to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered.

   “While for our princes they prepare
   In caverns deep a burning snare,
   He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
   And the dark treachery brought to day.”

2. Secondly, today is also the anniversary of the landing of King William III at Torbay in 1688, by which the hope of Papal ascendancy was quashed and religious liberty was secured.

This day should be celebrated not with the wild revelry of young people, but with the songs of saints. Our Puritan forefathers most devoutly made it a special time of thanksgiving. A record still exists of the annual sermons Matthew Henry preached on this day. Our Protestant feeling and our love of liberty should make us regard its anniversary with holy gratitude.

Let our hearts and lips exclaim, “We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the wondrous things which thou didst in their day, and in the old time before them.” You have made this nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen against her, you have shielded her.

Help us to offer repeated songs for repeated deliverances. Grant us more and more a hatred of Antichrist, and hasten the day of her complete extinction. Until then and always, we believe the promise, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”

Should it not be laid upon the heart of every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to plead for the overturning of false doctrines and the extension of divine truth? Would it not be well to search our own hearts and turn out any of the Papal clutter of self-righteousness which may lie concealed within them?