00 Preface
LIFE AND INFLUENCE OF THE REV. BENJAMIN RANDALL
FOUNDER OF THE FREE BAPTIST DENOMINATION Mr. Randall never ceased to love the larger Baptist body. In his spirit and that of our common Master this volume is written. By FREDIRICK L. WILEY
------------ American Baptist Publication Society
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E-Sword Edition <www.baptistlibraryonline.com>
<www.freebaptist.net>
2004
CONTENTS
(This title carries a total of 42 chapters. Those not included here appear in the original as Part II: Posthumous Influence)
FOREWORD The first Free Baptist church I ever saw soon became my religious home; and membership in the body of Christians that church represented has been continuous to the present time, during more than sixty years. Mine was a case of " falling in love at first sight." But, like all properly placed affection, that love has deepened and strengthened with the passing years.
While yet in the days of my youth, I began to investigate the conditions that were claimed in justification of our existence as a separate religious body. That interested me in the founder of this body, Benjamin Randall. As I studied the character, labors, and usefulness of this man, I was thrilled with an inexpressible admiration for him.
I eagerly devoured all available printed literature about Mr. Randall and his times. I visited New Durham, the place of his residence during his ministry, while yet unpublished facts and authentic traditions about him were fresh in the memory of the oldest people of the locality. Some of these were questioned. I had access to records written by Mr. Randall, which, if published, would make two or three respectable volumes. These were laid under tribute. The Rev. Hosea Quinby, D. D., had it in his heart to publish a biography of Benjamin Randall; but, in 1878, died with only a mass of scrappy material to represent his purpose. This was placed in my hands for discretionary use. A careful reading of this collection discovered but few facts usable for this work that I had not already gleaned from other sources. Some of these facts have been assimilated.
Up to this stage of my search for facts respecting Mr. Randall, some of my experiences-though lacking in some points of analogy-have reminded me of Carlyle’s quest for Cromwell. For more than two hundred years, facts about the religious life and wise statesmanship of Oliver Cromwell were buried in comparative obscurity. " Thomas Carlyle, with his passion for men who have done something, divined the truth about Cromwell, even before he began his search among the rubbish-heaps of papers and pamphlets relating to his period of the commonwealth, which had been dumped in a confused mass in the British Museum."
Among the books that have been helpful for reference, especially in writing the section on " Posthumous Influence," grateful mention would be made of the " Life of Benjamin Randall," by Rev. John Buzzell; "History of the Freewill Baptists," by Isaac D. Stewart, D. D.; "Centennial Record," by the Free Baptist Printing Establishment; the "Free Baptist Cyclopedia," by Rev. G. A. Burgess, A. M., and John T. Ward, D. D.; "Missionary Reminiscences," by Mrs. M. M. H. Hills; and the "History of the Free Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society," by Mrs. Mary A. Davis. As all of these works are now out of print, it seems fitting that a brief biography of Benjamin Randall and a summary of his posthumous influence be given to the current public. "Men who have understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," have conceded the demand for such a work. To have the assurance of the same men that the humble manuscript submitted holds the supply of this demand is very gratifying to the writer.
If the finished product shall to any extent serve as an interpreter of Benjamin Randall and our people to the world-if to any extent it shall strengthen the bond of union between our people and the larger Baptist body, so that the relation, now sympathetic and cooperative, may, in the near future, become organic-these results will be in line with the desire, prayer, and hope of the author.
Frederick L. Wiley. Laconia, N. H, October, 1914.
(Copy located at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis Missouri.)