The Life And Death Of John Houghton
Gospel Standard 1866:
Death. On August 1st, 1865, aged 47, John Houghton.
He was often engaged to preach at different places, and should have gone to Chorley at the time he was taken ill. He was a subscriber to the “Gospel Standard” for more than 20 years.
During his short illness, (not a fortnight,) he was tried very much by the enemy of souls; so much so that he said he thought that Satan came to him with a net to catch him, and he drew up his net, “but,” he said, “I was not in the net. He knocked me down, but he could not wound me, for I had a helmet of brass on my head.” Sometimes he would say he had had to fight some hard battles; and then I heard him pray fervently: “O Lord, do thou undertake for me; and should the enemy come in like a flood, do thou lift up thy standard against him. O,” he said, “this is not called the swellings of Jordan for nothing. A prayer in the hand and none in the heart would never do here. What should I have done now, if I had no hope beyond the grave?” Blessed be God, he said, he had not his religion to seek on his death-bed.
Sankey, near Warrington, April 20th, 1866.
John Houghton (1818-1865) was a Strict and Particular Baptist preacher. He served as an itinerate minister of the gospel for churches without a settled pastor.
