[Rand, Asa]. Letter to the Rev. Dr. Beecher, on the Influence of his Ministry in Boston. From the Volunteer. Lowell, Ms.: Printed and Published by Rand and Southmayd, 1833. [12115]
Removed, no wrapper, 8 1/2 x 5 inches, 16 pp., dark foxing. Good. Pamphlet.
No, 4438 in Roberts, Revival Literature: An Annotated Bibliography. "Beecher was in the thick of the revival controversy a good share of the time."
The author takes issue with the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, then pastor of a church in Boston, and his support of the revival ministry of Charles Grandison Finney. Rand lays out the "New Measures," attacks them, and points out the Arminianism of Finney's theology. He states that the season of religious excitement soon dissipates, and the supposed conversions are ephemeral.
Asa Rand (1783-1871), a native of New Hampshire, he graduated at Dartmouth (1806), was for a brief time a private tutor, then studied theology with Rev. Dr. Bruton of Thetford. He was the Congregational minister at Gotham, Maine, for thirteen years. Poor health led him to relinquish the ministry, and Rand took up editing and publishing The Christian Mirror, the Recorder, and the Youths Companion among others.
In 1833 he established a book store and printing office at Lowell, Mass., where he published the Observer. Rev. Rand was an anti-slavery lecturer. He later was pastor of churches at Pompey and at Peterboro, New York. Peterboro was the home of the celebrated abolitionist Gerritt Smith.
Rand was an early critic of Charles G. Finney and his "New Measures." He published his views in the rare and short-lived periodical, The Volunteer: devoted to the promotion of Revivals, Evangelical Doctrines, and Congregationalism.
