Samuel Pearce was born on this day in 1766. As a young man he happened to be in a house where a man lay dying. The man in despair cried out, “I am damned forever.” The words filled young Samuel with terror. For more than a year, the death of that man and the realization of his own sinfulness filled him with anguish. Eventually, at the age of fifteen, through the preaching of a man named Birt, he was pointed to the Lamb of God, When he put his trust in Christ the Saviour he found his heart filled with assurance of forgiveness and peace with God.
Soon after his salvation, Samuel Pearce made a covenant with God, signing it with his own blood, pledging himself completely to the service of the Lord. He studied for the ministry, and in 1790 he was called to pastor the Cannon Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, England. The following year he married Sarah Hopkins and met William Carey for the first time. From the moment of that meeting, Peace wanted to join Carey as a missionary to India, but Mrs. Pearce, knowing her husband, was not sure it was the Lord’s will. Samuel Pearce was not of good health. For a short while, Sarah opposed the idea of serving abroad, but eventually she told him, “Though parting from my friends will be almost more than I can bear, I will make myself as happy as I can, and God can make happy anywhere.” Samuel confessed, “For me that was peace, joy, gratitude, rapture.” But then he was counseled by his church not to go, and he realized that what the Lord wanted was simply the full surrender of himself and his wife. He wrote in his journal, “One thing I have resolved, if I cannot go abroad, I will do all I can to serve the mission at home.” And that is what he did for the short time remaining in his life. Samuel Pearce died as the age of 33, serving the Lord with all his heart.
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History (I & III)” – Thompson and Cummins