University of Virginia Library

RT. REV. JOHN JOHNS, D. D.

BY RT. REV. R. A. GIBSON.

The Rt. Rev. John Johns, D. D., third Bishop of Virginia,
was born in New Castle, Delaware, July 10, 1796.
He was the son of Kensey and Anne (Van Dyke) Johns.

In his eighteenth year he became a communicant of the
Episcopal Church. When nineteen he was graduated from
Princeton College. There he also studied theology, and
with the greatest exactness, according to the testimony of
the Rev. Dr. Hodge, a lifelong friend. He was ordained
deacon by Bishop White in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia,
May 19, 1819, and priest probably about 1820. His first
Parish, when too young for priest's orders, was All Saints
Church, Frederick, Maryland.

In 1829 he became rector of Old Christ Church, Baltimore.

The tide of population was moving westward, a new
Church was erected in 1837-'38 on Gay street (now the
Church of the Messiah), of which Mr. Johns was rector,
until he was consecrated Assistant Bishop of Virginia, to
which office he had been elected on Saturday, May 21, 1842,
at the Council in Staunton. In Monumental Church, Richmond,
October 13, 1842, he was consecrated Bishop by
Bishops Griswold, Meade, Ives and Whittingham.

In his address to the Council the year after Bishop Meade
said: "For this kind dispensation of Providence to myself
and the Diocese of Virginia I have cause for daily gratitude."

As the years went by Bishop Meade felt it more and more
a cause of gratitude that Bishop Johns was with him.

After living in Richmond a few years Bishop Johns was,
in 1849, elected president of William and Mary College, to
which position he remained for several years. Of this period

Rt. Rev. John Johns, D. D.,

Fourth Bishop of Virginia.

Bishop Meade says: "During the five years of his continuance,
notwithstanding the arduous labors of his Episcopal
office, he so diligently and wisely conducted the management
of the College as to produce a regular increase of the number
of the students, until they had nearly reached the maximum
of former times; established a better discipline than
perhaps ever before had prevailed in the institution; and
attracted more students of divinity to its lectures than had
ever been seen there in the memory of any now living."

In 1854, feeling that Alexandria was the centre of the
Diocese, so far as travelling facilities were concerned, he
built a house near the Theological Seminary, and in September
of that year removed thither with his family. At the
death of Bishop Meade, in June, 1862, he became Bishop of
Virginia. The Journals of 1863 and 1864 show how busy
he was in supplying the Confederate army, personally and
officially, with the ministrations of the Gospel.

Gen. Jackson, just before his death, sent him a special request
to send, if possible, forty faithful ministers to supply
that number of vacant Chaplaincies in the army on the Rappahannock.
Gen. Lee added his earnest request, and the
Bishop appealed to the Council. By a solemn resolution
the Bishop was asked to call upon the ministers then without
Parishes to render religious services to the army for such
a time and at such a place as he might designate; and the
whole clergy of the Council, in a body, offered themselves for
the work.

In 1865, the re-union of our Diocese after the war between
the States took place. Bishop Johns was ready to participate
in this movement, but the Diocese preferred to wait until
the General Council of Confederate Dioceses sanctioned
such action.

Alone now in the office of the episcopate, Bishop Johns
began the toilsome work of rebuilding the wasted Parishes,
and cheering the many darkened homes and broken hearts
of his clergy and people. The re-united Episcopal Church
proved immensely attractive to the people of the Diocese and
the confirmations numbered a thousand or more every year.
Though blessed with an uncommon degree of health and
vigor, Bishop Johns soon began to feel the incessant labor

too great for one who had already attained his "three score
years and ten." In the spring of 1867 he intimated his need
of an assistant. The majority of the committee to whom
were referred the subjects of an assistant and the division of
the Diocese were in favor of a division; but as the need
seemed pressing, they yielded their own wishes to the
Bishop's necessity. His request was granted by the election
of the Rev. Francis M. Whittle, of St. Paul's Church, Louisville,
Ky.

Eight years longer was our Bishop spared to us, fulfilling
more than thirty-three years of a most useful and honored
episcopate. The Psalmist's description was true of him, he
"shall bring forth fruit in old age, his leaf also shall not
wither." His love to God and his fellowman seemed to increase
as he grew older. His mind and heart expanded and
grew more tender. His influence in the House of Bishops
was year by year more distinctly felt and acknowledged.
His opening sermon at the General Convention of 1871,
"The love of Christ constraineth us," touched a chord in
every true Christian heart, and largely promoted the spirit
of harmony and charity and missionary zeal which marked
the proceedings of that body. It was at this Convention,
also, our Bishop showed his unabated vigor of mind, and his
skill in the command of language, as well as his increasing
influence among the Bishops, by the important part he took
in framing the "Declaration of the House of Bishops" on the
use of the word "regenerate" in the baptismal service. It
cost him nights' sleep to fix upon the single word "determine"
in the sentence, "We declare that in our opinion, the word
`regenerate' is not there so used as to determine that a moral
change in the subject of baptism is wrought by that sacrament."
But the expression was satisfactory to the two warring
factions, a burning question was removed from the
midst of an imperilled household of faith, and the declaration
was adopted almost unanimously.

On the 19th of February, 1876, the Bishop preached his
last sermon, and soon after had a slight attack of paralysis.
His death occurred April 5, 1876, and his burial took place
on the seventh of the same month from the chapel of the
Theological Seminary; Bishops Pinkney, of Maryland, and

Dudley, of Kentucky, and the Rev. Dr. Packard, of the Seminary,
officiating.

Bishop Johns was a preacher of consummate power and
of exquisite polish. His memory was trained in his seminary
days on the elaborate divisions and subdivisions of "Turretin
Theology" and his voice was sweetened and extraordinarily
flexible. It was his habit to distribute mentally the different
sections of his sermon to different parts of the church building
in which he was speaking. This seemed to help his
memory, for he always spoke without notes, and at the same
time prevented the suggestion of the effort of speaking memoriter.

The Southern Churchman of April 16, 1876, says of the
Bishop: "He was devoted to the Protestant Episcopal Church,
and in times when others were thought careless of such
things was himself strictly rubical. He was inclined to be
conservative in practice, hopeful of the future of the Church.

"The influence of his steady adherance to evangelical
truth and unabated confidence in the formularies and
standards of our Church, will always be remembered by those
who write the history of our Zion."