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Boyhood Memories and Lessons

Boyhood Memories and Lessons is a fascinating collection of autobiograph- ical articles with rare and interesting insight into pioneer life and piety in early nineteenth century America.

Isaiah Reid vividly describes what it was like to be a pre-teen in a staid Scottish Covenanter community in the rugged hills of Indiana. Readers are drawn in by his poignant recollections, keen nature observations, inspirational jewels, and homespun humor.

In these pages Isaiah Reid—preacher, author, publisher, national columnist, interdenominational leader, and educator—looks back from his late sixties on how his unique pioneer childhood shaped him. He muses on the experiences and influences that, he said, “were poured liquid into the molds which fixed the cast of my future life.”

Sunnyside Papers

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.” Because these words of Jesus were taken to heart by Isaiah Reid throughout his life, insights and truths from God’s creation frequently inspired his writing. Another gifted author, one of Reid’s contemporaries, praised Reid’s “beautiful sketches of Nature” as the work of genius.

Some of Reid’s best-loved writings were his “Sunny- side Papers,” a series of articles in which he described and unfolded these spiritual truths from nature. His subject matter ranged from the ordinary dandelion in his Dallas Center, Iowa lawn to the majesty of California’s Mount Shasta. Offering a fresh look at these gems, this book, Sunnyside Papers, presents an original, annotated collection of some of Reid’s most delightful nature pieces and devotional thoughts.


Rev. Isaiah Reid, founder of the Iowa Holiness Association

Rev. Isaiah Reid
(1836-1911)
Founder of the Iowa
Holiness Association

Isaiah Reid (1836-1911) was called by a contemporary an “Abraham of the holiness movement.” Certainly he was a very influential figure in the American Holiness Movement, especially in the Midwest, for thirty years.

Born in 1836 to a Scottish Covenanter family in Indiana, Reid was saved in 1856. Graduating from college in 1861, he pursued a theological education from 1861 to 1864, then served an Iowa prairie Presbyterian church for over a decade. The turning point of his life, however, was his experience of entire sanctification under the preaching of national holiness leader John Inskip in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1873.

From that point, Reid’s deep and diverse reservoir of talents came to the fore. Having already served as a pastor, he went on to many additional roles (often simultaneously), including itinerant evangelist, mentor, author, publisher, editor, columnist, educational innovator, professor, and college president. But he is most remembered for his organizational genius in founding and presiding over the formative first three decades of the Iowa Holiness Association, which, at Reid’s zenith, was an evangelical powerhouse and the envy of state holiness associations across the United States.

Whether as a Presbyterian, Independent, Methodist, or Nazarene, Reid’s life exemplified the “perfect love” promised by those who “proclaimed Scriptural holiness throughout the land.”


The Three-Book Isaiah Reid Series

But, strangely, Reid’s life has remained unexamined until recently. After two years of nearly full-time research involving nearly 9,000 miles of travel, minister and historian Rev. Jim Kerwin (M.A., Regent University School of Divinity) is making available the fruits of his intensive study of this holiness hero.

  • Boyhood Memories and Lessons is Isaiah Reid’s inspiring, autobiographical account of his Covenanter childhood in Walnut Ridge (Washington County), Indiana (near Salem). This material has never been seen before in book form.
  • Sunnyside Papers: Inspirational Sketches from God’s “Book of Nature” is a collection of Reid’s descriptive and inspirational nature writings (a book Reid intended to publish, but never did).
  • The capstone of this three-book series will be the extensive biography Isaiah Reid: Portraits of a Prairie Prophet of Purity, a considerable expansion of Kerwin’s 300-page groundbreaking Master’s thesis, Isaiah Reid (1836-1911): His Life, Leadership, and Influence in the American Holiness Movement. Portraits is expected by Summer 2008 and features numerous never-before-seen photos, along with an index and a comprehensive Reid bibliography.

Isaiah Reid Links: Online Resources

Parbar Westward Bible Teaching Ministry makes available online the following Isaiah Reid resources: