Additional information can be found on Nevin’s Wikipedia page; in Theodore Appel, The Life and Work of John Williamson Nevin, D.D., LL. D. (Philadelphia: Reformed Church Publication House, 1889); and Volume 1 of Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ: C. S. Robinson & Co., 1891).
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Nevin 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 Nevin's sermons and 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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College Chapel Sermons
John Williamson Nevin and Henry M. Kieffer
This collection of 24 sermons was edited by Henry M. Kieffer, a member of the Class of 1870 at Franklin and Marshall College. Like many preachers represented in the Library, Nevin rarely prepared complete manuscripts of his sermons; with the exception of the baccalaureate sermon at the end of the volume, which had previously been published in a periodical entitled The Mercersburg Review, the texts presented here are based on the “very full and careful notes” Kieffer took while Nevin spoke (p. 6, 11). While they “do not profess to be exact and verbal reports,” Kieffer was confident that they nonetheless captured, “with some degree of fidelity, the peculiar style of Dr. Nevin, both as to the thought and the expression” (p. 11).
These sermons were delivered outside Appalachia; they are included in the Library to help illustrate the full range of Nevin’s oratory.
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Life and Work of John Williamson Nevin, D.D., LL. D
Theodore Appel
This lengthy biography (over 750 pages) contains extensive quotations from—and in some cases the complete texts of—Niven’s addresses, periodical articles, and other publications. Information about 3 of those addresses is given in the User Guide.
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Christ, and Him Crucified: A Concio ad Clerum, Preached in Grace Church, Pittsburgh, November 18, 1863, at the Opening of the First General Synod of the German Reformed Church in America
John Williamson Nevin
“Concio ad clerum” translates as “discourse to the clergy.” As the title page indicates, the clergy in this case were the ministers gathered in Pittsburgh for the “first General Synod of the German Reformed Church in America.”
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Life and Character of Frederick Augustus Rauch, First President of Marshall College, a Eulogy Delivered on the Occasion of the Re-Interment of His Remains at Lancaster, Pa., March 7th, 1859
John Williamson Nevin
The circumstances of Rauch’s re-interment are described in the Introductory Note to this address. In 1853, Marshall college in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, merged with Franklin College in Lancaster. With the approval of his family and the Board of Trustees, Rauch’s body made the move as well, and was buried in a cemetery in Lancaster in March of 1859 (pp. 3-5).
In the eulogy, Nevin describes Rauch as a man whose greatest desire was to help Marshall become “an ornament to the state, and the glory of the Church under whose auspices particularly, it [had] been established” (p. 24). He concludes with the hope that everyone associated with Franklin and Marshall would “take home to themselves with new honor and affection the memory of the man,” and that the school itself would “never cease to be known as worthy of the name, and true to the spirit, of its first President, Frederick Augustus Rauch” (p. 29).
The eulogy was delivered outside Appalachia; it is included in the Library to help illustrate the full range of Nevin’s oratory.
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Address on Behalf of the Faculty
John Williamson Levin
In 1853, Marshall College in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania merged with Franklin College in Lancaster to become Franklin & Marshall College. Nevin, who had served as Marshall’s last president (1841-53) and would go on to become a faculty member and president of Franklin & Marshall (1861-76), was one of the speakers at the new institution’s formal opening ceremony. His address was published in Formal Opening of Franklin and Marshall College in the City of Lancaster, June 7, 1853: Together with Addresses Delivered on the Occasion (Lancaster, PA: Published by Order of the Board of Trustees, 1853). It is not a sermon, nor was it delivered in Appalachia; it is nonetheless included in the Library to help illustrate the full range of Nevin’s oratory.
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Man's True Destiny: A Baccalaureate Address, to the First Graduating Class of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., August 31st, 1853
John Williamson Nevin
According to the first paragraph, Nevin delivered this address at the “special and earnest request” of the graduating class (p. 3). He saw this occasion as a kind of transitional moment, marking not only the first graduation for Franklin and Marshall, but also “the last of a whole series of such Classes” of Marshall College, which had merged with Franklin College to form the new institution. His message for the alumni of both schools is that the “true end of [their] being” lies in “seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (p. 14). The address was delivered outside Appalachia; it is included in the Library to help illustrate the full range of Nevin’s oratory.
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German Language: An Address, Delivered Before the Goethean Literary Society, of Marshall College, at Its Anniversary, August 29, 1842
John Williamson Nevin
As Nevin states in his opening paragraph, this is not a tribute to Goethe, after whom the Literary Society was named, but rather an address on “the rich and noble language which [he] spoke, and of which his writings are considered generally to be the brightest mirror, and the brightest ornament at the same time” (p. 3, emphasis in the original). Nevin speaks of the value of German for those students who are “candidates for the sacred ministry, in the bosom of the German Reformed Church” (p. 21). The address is not a sermon, nor was it delivered in Appalachia; it is nonetheless included in the Library to help illustrate the full range of Nevin’s oratory.
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Party Spirit: An Address Delivered Before the Literary Societies of Washington College, Washington PA.
John Williamson Nevin
In this address, Nevin defines “party spirit” as “selfishness expanded and strengthened by means of the social principle, under all, and more than all, the forms of corrupt affection, which belong to it in the original man” (p. 5, emphasis in the original). He contends, in the words of the concluding paragraph, that it is “irreconcileably [sic] at war” with “the genius of the gospel,” and encourages his hearers to embrace the gospel’s “lofty, large, and free” spirit, and to avoid the “illiberal passions” and “narrow conceptions of men” (p. 30).
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English Bible
John Williamson Nevin
This sermon, on Deuteronomy 4:7-8, commemorates “the birth-time of our English bible [sic]” (p. 114). It was “preached for one of the Bible Societies of Pittsburgh, the last Sabbath in November [1835], in the First Presbyterian Church” (p. 113) and published in the January 1836 issue of the Pittsburgh-based Presbyterian Preacher. At the time of its publication, Nevin was a professor at the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary).
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Election Not Contrary to a Free Gospel
John Williamson Nevin
The “substance” of this sermon, on John 6:37-40, “was originally preached in the First Presbyterian Church” (p. 209); the city is not specified, but it was probably either Allegheny or Pittsburgh. It was published in the July 1833 issue of the Pittsburgh-based Presbyterian Preacher; at the time of its publication, Nevin was a professor at the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary).
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Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines Concerning Jesus Christ
John Williamson Nevin
This sermon, on Romans 9:5, was published in the October 1832 issue of the Pittsburgh-based Presbyterian Preacher. At the time of its publication, Nevin was a professor at the Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary).
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Scourge of God: A Sermon Preached in the First Presbyterian Church, July 6, 1832, on the Occasion of a City Fast, Observed in Reference to the Approach of the Asiatic Cholera
John Williamson Nevin
According to the introductory material, a group of Pittsburgh clergymen met on June 27, 1832 and called for July 6 to be set apart “as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer” in response to “the appearance of Asiatic Cholera” in North America (iii, iv). Nevin, who was serving on the faculty of the Western Theological Seminary at the time, delivered a sermon to mark the occasion, and published it at the request of some who were in the congregation that day.
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Address on Sacred Music Delivered at the Anniversary of the Handel and Hastings Society, in the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.
John Williamson Levin
Nevin was both a student and instructor at Princeton Theological Seminary. He began his studies there in 1823, and from 1826-28 he taught in the department of Oriental and Biblical Literature while Charles Hodge was on a 2-year trip to Europe. This address was delivered during this time period. The subject matter is religious, but the address is not a sermon, nor was it delivered in Appalachia. It is nonetheless included in the Library to help illustrate the full range of Nevin’s oratory.
