Additional information can be found in Johnson’s Wikipedia page; an obituary published in the New York Times; and Charles E. Robinson, Herrick Johnson: An Appreciative Memoir (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1914).
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Johnson User Guide
Robert H. Ellison
The User Guide for the Library of Appalachian Preaching is a Google Sheet that can be searched, sorted, and downloaded for offline use.
This part of the Guide provides information about Johnson's sermons and other addresses. It includes the title, scripture text, date and place the discourse was delivered (if known), and so on. This information is available in the master list of sermons as well.
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Banners of a Free People Set Up in the Name of Their God. A Thanksgiving Sermon Preached before the First and Third Presb. Congregations, in the First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Thursday, November 24, 1864
Herrick Johnson
On October 20, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring “the last Thursday in November next” as “a day of thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God” (p. 4). Johnson, who was pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh at the time, preached this sermon to commemorate the occasion.
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Charge Delivered to President Roberts
Herrick Johnson
From 1886 to 1892, William Charles Roberts served as the president of Lake Forest University (now Lake Forest College), a school located a short distance from Lake Michigan. His official inauguration took place on June 22, 1887. Johnson, a professor at Chicago’s McCormick Theological Seminary and a member of Lake Forest’s Board of Trustees, delivered the “charge,” which was later published in Addresses Delivered at the Inauguration of Rev. William C. Roberts, D.D, LL.D. as President of the Lake Forest University. June 22, 1887 (Chicago: Geo K. Hazlitt & Co., 1887). The charge was delivered outside Appalachia; it is included in the Library to help paint a complete picture of Johnson’s oratory.
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Christianity's Challenge and Some Phases of Christianity Submitted for Candid Consideration
Herrick Johnson
The publisher’s note states that “This volume comprises the Sunday afternoon lectures delivered during the past winter in Farwell Hall, Chicago, under the auspices of the Young Men’s Christian Association, together with several new and hitherto unpublished papers upon vital themes” (p. 4). In his Preface, Johnson writes that the lectures “are now given to a wider public” in the hope that “they may prove steps into the kingdom of truth for some, and helps to a surer footing in the King’s highway for others” (p. 6). The lectures were delivered outside Appalachia; they are included in the Library to help paint a complete picture of Johnson’s oratory.
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Edward North: A Memorial Address
Herrick Johnson
Edward North (1820-1903) graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in 1841 and taught Latin and Greek there from 1843 to 1901. In Herrick Johnson: An Appreciative Memoir (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1914), Charles Edward Robinson writes that Johnson was chosen to deliver North’s memorial address on the basis of the “peculiarly warm and devoted friendship” that developed between the two men at Hamilton, when Johnson was a student and North a member of the faculty. According to M. Woolsey Stryker, Hamilton’s president at the time, Johnson did so “in most complete and welcome style” (pp. 24, 25). The address was delivered outside Appalachia; it is included in the Library to help paint a complete picture of Johnson’s oratory.
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From Love to Praise
Herrick Johnson
This book is the 4th volume of The Presbyterian Pulpit, published in Philadelphia by the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work. Others by preachers with Appalachian ties include James Russell Miller, Our New Edens and Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, The Power of God Unto Salvation.
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God's Ways Unsearchable: A Discourse, on the Death of President Lincoln, Preached before the Third Presbyterian Congregation, in Mozart Hall, Pittsburgh, PA., Sunday, April 23d, 1865
Herrick Johnson
In the first paragraph, Johnson writes that he had intended to use Romans 11:33-36 as the basis for “a discourse commemorative of our recent victories” in the Civil War (p. 3). Lincoln’s assassination changed his plans, and he wrote a eulogy instead.
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Memorial Sermon
Herrick Johnson
Elias Root Beadle (1812-79) was a missionary to Syria and pastor of Presbyterian churches in Albion, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; New Orleans; and Philadelphia (pp. 13-17). In Herrick Johnson: An Appreciative Memoir (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1914), Charles Edward Robinson writes that he and Johnson “had been intimately associated while they were pastors together in Philadelphia (pp. 78-79); on the basis of that friendship, the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia invited Johnson to preach Beadle’s memorial sermon, which was published in Memorials of Rev. Elias R. Beadle, D.D., LL. D. (Philadelphia: Chandler Printing House, 1881). Johnson was working in New York at the time, and the sermon was delivered outside Appalachia; it is included in the Library to help paint a complete picture of his preaching.
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Nation's Duty; A Thanksgiving Sermon, Preached in the Third Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Thursday, November 27, 1862
Herrick Johnson
Johnson describes the occasion of the sermon in these words: “We are summoned this day, by the Chief Magistrate pf the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to ‘solemn Prayer and Thanksgiving to the Almighty’” (pp. 15-16). In addition to giving thanks, he laments that the “nation is in mourning by reason of God’s judgments,” that it is “blighted and blasted with the curse of civil war” (pp. 12, 16).
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Plain Talk About the Theater
Herrick Johnson
This book contains two works, “Plain Talk About the Theater” and “Plainer Talk About the Theater.” We do not know when (or even whether) they were spoken before an audience. The titles, however, suggest that they were intended for oral delivery, as does this passage from the first work: “It would be easily possible to declaim, in a denunciatory way, and to fill the hour with a great zeal and vehemence of talk about the dreadfulness of the influence of dramatic performance. But I invite you, rather, to a test with me of the worth of the stage in the light of history, of reason, of Christian morals and of common sense” (p. 7). It is on the basis of this description that these pieces are included in the Library.
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Sanctuary of God as a Source of Influence
Herrick Johnson
On June 1, 1863 the Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh was destroyed by a fire. Exactly 3 years later, the cornerstone of the new building was laid, and the finished building was dedicated on November 29, 1868. Johnson, who had been pastor of the church from 1862 to 1867, delivered a sermon to mark the occasion. The sermon, along with a “dedicatory prayer” and a “historical address” by David Hunter Riddle, pastor from 1833 to 1857, was published in Dedicatory Services of the New Edifice of the Third Presbyterian Church, of Pittsburgh, Penn'a: With Some Account of the History of the Church from its Organization, together with a Full Description of the Present Building, and its Appointments (Pittsburgh: W.G. Johnston, 1869).
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Shaking of the Nations. A Sermon Preached by Rev. Herrick Johnson, Pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Sunday, September 11th, 1864
Herrick Johnson
On September 3, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln requested “that on next Sunday, in all the places of worship in the United States, thanksgiving be offered to Him for His mercy in preserving the national existence against the insurgent rebels…and also that prayer be made for Divine protection to our brave soldiers and leaders in the field” (p. 3). Johnson preached this sermon to mark that occasion.
