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Horace Greeley said that "no man should die without planting a tree or writing a book." I have planted many a tree and I have written much in various forms; why should I not write a book also? The only apology I feel like making is that it has in it so much about myself. But if I had not written it the book would never have been written. — Nathan R. Johnston, Preface to Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or, People Worth Knowing
It was 200 years ago today that Reformed Presbyterian minister Nathan Robinson Johnston was born on October 8, 1820. He lived a remarkable life, as told in his 1898 autobiography, Looking Back From the Sunset Land: Or, People Worth Knowing, and in biographical sketches found in the histories of the Reformed Presbyterian Church by W. Melancthon Glasgow and Owen F. Thompson.
Nathan R. Johnston — younger brother of John Black Johnston (1802-1882) — was born near Hopedale, Ohio, studied at Richmond Academy and Miami University, and ultimately graduated from Franklin College in 1843. Before commencing his seminary studies, he served as Principal of the Academy in St. Clairsville, Ohio for two years. He also edited the New Concord, Ohio Free Press in 1848. Johnston was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) in 1852, and his first of many pastorates was at Topsham, Vermont.
With a heart for reaching the lost, he served as a missionary at Port Royal, South Carolina in 1863. He also engaged in missions work in Minnesota and founded a missions school for the Chinese at Oakland, California. In Johnston’s autobiography, he writes about a missionary tour he took through the Southern United States, including Selma, Alabama. His thoughts on the RP Mission to Syria are expressed as well (he was called to serve there but declined).
He served as Principal of Geneva College for two years, thus helping to revive that institution founded by his brother. He later served briefly as a Professor there. He also opened his own academy, located variously at New Castle, Blairsville and New Brighton, Pennsylvania.
As a Covenanter, Johnston was a committed abolitionist. His support for the cause of freedom and activities of the Underground Railroad are evident in his autobiography, and in correspondence with his friend William Still, who included Johnston’s letters in his important work The Underground Railroad. His heart bled, as he himself says, for those in bondage, and both before and after the War, he made every effort to aid those suffering oppression.
What stands out particularly in his autobiography is the notice he takes of the people he met and formed friendships with over the years. His observations and reflections are valuable as they reveal insights about the famous and those who ought to be more so. They include William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Samuel May; Chinese ministers Jee Gam and Chan Hon Fan; Covenanter ministers such as Lewis Johnston and George Elliott, James Renwick Willson, John M. Armour, J.R.W. Sloane, Samuel O. Wylie, Alexander McLeod Milligan, and others. They are not biographical sketches but a record of the interactions with and thoughts concerning those of great interest to church history and history in general, as well as an appreciation of the times in which Johnston lived. He crisscrossed the country in the service of the church, and met many along the way. As a journalistic editor and correspondent, as a pastor and missionary, and as an educator, his experiences are well-rounded and varied. And the people he met are, as he says, “people worth knowing.” So is Johnston himself, who, in a lifetime of contributions to the cause of Christ, “planted” many trees and wrote a book.
In his later years, he returned to Topsham, Vermont, where he entered into glory on March 21, 1904.
Get to know Nathan R. Johnston, Reformed Presbyterian minister and author, by reading his fascinating autobiography and other writings here. Happy birthday to a saint now at rest after a long and valuable life of service.
