Tuesday, April 15, 2025

It is the 15th of April 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Of course it was Shakespeare in his play “Julius Caesar” that warned us to “beware the Ides of March”- that is, the 15th of March. But I’m afraid the Ides of March have nothing on the 15th of April. Of course, in America it is none other than tax day… or rather, tax day for people who waited until taxes were due to do their taxes (I’m a simple man, I over pay for computer software and just try to come out close to even every year). But even before the IRS, the 15th of April was ominous.

The 15th of April was the day in 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln died having been shot by John Wilkes Booth. Two security guards in Massachusetts were gunned down on this day in 1920 and the famed anarchists Saccho and Vanzetti would take the fall. It’s the day of the Belfast Blitz by the German Luftwaffe in 1941. In 1989 April 15th is the day of the Hillsborough Disaster- a soccer tragedy that took 97 lives. April 15th is the day of the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013 and Notre Dame caught fire on this date in 2019. Yikes. And that’s leaving out perhaps the most famous tragedy on this day- it was at about 11:40 on the night of April the 14th in 1912 that the ocean liner Titanic hit against the side of an iceberg tearing the starboard side. Of course we have the movies and dramatizations such that this, what the Onion has called “the Worlds Largest Metaphor”, has no shortage of tall tales and romantic retellings (despite it ultimately being a tragedy that cost over 1500 lives.

But one story sticks out for our purposes- and we do well to separate wheat from chaff- it is the story of the Reverend John Harper, his daughter known as Nana (or Nina) and his niece Jessie. The three had moved together from Scotland to London where John was called to be a pastor having had success growing a small congregation in Glasgow. The reverend Harper had come to the attention of the Moody Chapel and having been a popular preacher in 1911 he was invited back the following year. He was to travel on the Lusitania (famous later for other reasons) but was delayed and took his second class tickets on the famed ship. Tragedy had already struck the family- his wife, Annie had died shortly after Nina was born and thus his niece Jessie would become her nanny.

And Harper had previously had dangerous encounters with drowning- as a two year old he fell in a well and had to be resuscitated. At 26 he was swept out to sea and had to be rescued and at 32 he was on a ship in the Mediterranean as it sprung a leak and they had to be rescued. This would all pale in comparison to the Titanic tragedy but perhaps stories of his calm nerves amidst the sinking ring more true if we know he had faced calamity before.

We know that he quickly took his daughter and niece to what limited lifeboats there were. He parted ways with them there and he was never seen by them again. His daughter would live until the 1986- the longest surviving Scot that was on the ship.

Stories abound about the actions of people on board need to be taken critically as we are bound to get exaggerations of both heroism and villainy. The story goes that Harper called for all women, children and the unsaved to get lifejackets. This would fit an evangelist, although calling for the martyrdom of other Christians is questionable. It was said that he died because he gave his piece of driftwood and lifejacket to a man who said that he was not saved. At at least two occasions a man either unidentified or identified as Aquila Web or George Henry Cavell would be known as Harper’s “Last Convert”. There are no historical avenues to knowing what happened and we don’t need the dramatic last minute rescue to praise a man devoted to preaching and evangelizing, who was on the Titanic and was able to procure safety for his daughter and niece and most likely minister to others in the time it took for the ship to break and sink and the cold waters to become an untimely grave. The waters finally took John Harper- but he was surely looking forward to his glory in those last minutes. Born in 1872 the revered John Harper was 39 when he perished on this ominous date in 1912.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary from Psalm 118:

¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my defense;

he has become my salvation.

¹⁵ Shouts of joy and victory

resound in the tents of the righteous:

“The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!

¹⁶The Lord’s right hand is lifted high;

the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”

¹⁷ I will not die but live,

and will proclaim what the Lord has done.

¹⁸ The Lord has chastened me severely,

but he has not given me over to death.

¹⁹ Open for me the gates of the righteous;

I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.

²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord

through which the righteous may enter.

²¹ I will give you thanks, for you answered me;

you have become my salvation.

²² The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

²³ the Lord has done this,

and it is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴ The Lord has done it this very day;

let us rejoice today and be glad.

 

 This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 15th of April 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who asked me to paint him like one of his French girls? He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who never saw the movie- but it did almost directly lead to an early college break up… Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.