Samuel Howe passed into the presence of his Saviour on this day in 1641. For seven years he had been the pastor of the church that met in Deadman’s Place, London. One has to wonder how that name came to be.) With very little formal education, Pastor Howe had a notable ministry, preaching Christ and even writing. His book, “The Sufficiency of the Spirit’s Teaching,” set off one of many periods of persecution against the man and his church, because it proved from the scriptures that true saints, “owned no other head of the church but Jesus Christ.”
Roger Williams met Howe and spoke well of him. In one of his books he wrote: “I cannot but with honourable testimony remember that eminently Christian witness and prophet of Christ, even that despised and yet beloved Samuel Howe, who, being by calling a cobbler yet by searching the Holy Scriptures, grew so excellent a textuary, or Scripture-learned man, that few of those high rabbis…. could apply or readily from the Holy Scriptures outgo him.”
Brother Howe died in prison for preaching the true gospel. At his death, the state church refused his burial in so-called “consecrated ground,” whereupon he was interred at Agnes-law-Clair, but still, hundreds of people were able to find the place and attended the service honouring one of God’s chosen vessels.