American Minute for September 14th:
Son of a butcher, his family died when a plague swept England, leaving him an estate. He attended Emmanuel College, was ordained, married and sailed for Massachusetts where he pastored the First Church of Charlestown. At age 31, he died of tuberculosis on SEPTEMBER 14, 1638. His name was Rev. John Harvard. The College at Cambridge was renamed for Rev. Harvard. Fifty-percent of 17th-century graduates were ministers, as were 10 out of 12 of Harvard's presidents prior to the Revolution. Harvard's founders wrote: "After God had carried us safe to New England, and we...rear'd convenient places for God's worship...dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches, when our present Ministers shall lie in the Dust...it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard, a godly gentleman and a lover of learning...to give the one half of his estate...towards the erecting of a college and all his Library." As 106 of the first 108 schools in America were founded on Christianity, Harvard's Rules & Precepts stated September 26, 1642: "Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. John 17:3."
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