Shinn, Asa (2)
Shinn, Asa
an eminent Methodist Protestant minister, was born in New Jersey, May 3, 1781, of poor but honest Quaker parents. He received his education chiefly among the western hills of Virginia, became a Methodist at the age of eighteen, was requested to become an exhorter, and before his twentieth year was employed as a travelling preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which connection he continued over twenty-seven years. The fact that he never saw an English grammar or a clock until he entered upon his first circuit pictures his illiterate and inexperienced condition; yet such was his progress that in 1809 we find him by appointment in the city of Baltimore. He gave himself wholly to the work, utilized his opportunities as a student, and whether in season or out of season, in town or in country, in the woods or on horseback, his tireless mind was at work, until he became a theologian before whose logic and masterly delivery no foe of the truth could stand. In 1825 Mr. Shinn was transferred to the Pittsburgh Conference, and in 1829 withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church, helped to organize the Methodist Protestant Church, and at its first conference, which was held that year, in Ohio, he was elected president. He afterwards was the first president of the Pittsburgh Conference. In 1834 he was elected editor of the Methodist Protestant, and served two years. When a young man Mr. Shinn experienced an accidental fracture of his skull, which, because of improper surgical attention, caused his insanity in old age, and he was removed to Brattleboro (Vermont) Lunatic Asylum, where he died, February 11, 1833. Mr. Shinn produced two theological works: The Plan of Salvation, and The Benevolence and Rectitude of the Supreme Being; they evince great logical power, piety of heart, and loyalty to Christ. See Bassett, Hist. of the M.E. Church, page 325.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Shinn, Asa (2)
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in New Jersey, May 3,1781. He was converted at the age of seventeen years, and in his twentieth year entered the itinerancy in the Baltimore Conference. In 1824 Mr. Shinn took a prominent part in the discussion of lay representation in the Methodist Episcopal Church; and when the discussion culminated in the disciplining of a number of the advocates of the measure, he withdrew from the Church, and identified himself with the lay-representation movement. He took an active part in the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church, and received the most important offices in the gift of his constituents. He was frequently elected president of the Annual Conference, and twice (1838 and :1842) president of the General Conference. In 1834 he was elected, with Rev. Nicholas Snethen, editor of the Methodist Protestant of Baltimore. Owing to an accident received in his youth, and overstrain of work and care, he had four attacks of insanity- in 1813, 1819,1828, and 1843. From the last he never recovered, but was sent to an asylum in Philadelphia, and then to another in Brattleborought Vt., where he died, Feb. 11,1853. He was a strong and effective speaker and a ready. and forcible writer. He published, Essay on the Plan of Salvationa (Baltimore, 1813; 2d ed. Cincinnati, -1831): The Benevolence and Rectitude of the Supreme Being (Baltimore, 1840; 12mo). He also wrote a series of articles in the Mutual Rights. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, vii, 360; Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.