How, Samuel B, Dd

How, Samuel B., D.D.

was born in 1788, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1710, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1813. He was settled successively in Presbyterian churches at Salisbury, Pa., 1813-15; Trenton, N. J., 1815-21; and New Brunswick. N. J., 1821-23. From 1823 to 1827 he was pastor of the Independent Church at Savannah, Ga., then for a year in New York, whence he was called to the presidency of Dickinson College, Pa., 1830- 31. In 1832 he accepted the charge of the First Reformed Dutch Church in New Brunswick, N. J., but resigned on account of ill health in 1861. In all these positions his fine classical scholarship and solid and extensive theological learning were studiously maintained and conspicuously displayed. Devout, conscientious, a Christian gentleman in the best sense of the term, a most faithful preacher and pastor, fearless and independent, zealous and successful, as a minister he was remarkable for scriptural instruction and pious fervor. His ideal of the ministry was lofty, and his life was the best commentary upon it. In 1855 he published an elaborate pamphlet entitled Slaveholding not sinful, which grew out of the request of the North Carolina Classis of the German Reformed Church to be united with the Reformed Dutch Church. The important and excited discussion which followed in the General Synod of the latter body ended in a decided refusal to comply with the application. Dr. How's pamphlet was answered in the same form by the Rev. Hervey D. Ganse and others, and it was long before the interest produced by it died away. Dr. How published also several occasional sermons of eminent ability. He was a frequent contributor to religious periodicals, especially in relation to the pending theological controversies of his time. The last seven years of his life were spent in retirement from public service. He preached when his health would permit. He dwelt among his own people, a model of Christian virtues and of ministerial excellence. He died in 1868. — Corwin's Manual Ref. Church, p. 118; Christian Intelligencer; Rev. R. H. Steele, D.D., Hist. of Ref. D. Ch. New Brunswick (1869). (WV. J. R. T.)