Quotes by Herrick Johnson

  ​ It is not simply a theological treatise, a code of laws, a religious homily, but the Bible— the book—while the only book for the soul, the best book for the mind.

— Herrick Johnson

  ​ If God is a reality, and the soul is a reality, and you are an immortal being, what are you doing with your Bible shut?

— Herrick Johnson

The most destructive criticism has not been able to dethrone Christ as the incarnation of perfect holiness. The waves of a tossing and restless sea of unbelief break at His feet, and He stands still the supreme model, the inspiration of great souls, the rest of the weary, the fragrance of all Christendom, the one divine flower in the garden of God.

— Herrick Johnson

Christ was either the grandest, guiltiest of impostors, by a marvelous and most subtle refinement of wickedness, or He was God manifest in the flesh.

— Herrick Johnson

  ​ Other men have said, "If I could only live, I would establish and perpetuate an empire." This Christ of Galilee says, "My death shall do it." Other martyrs have died in simple fidelity to truth. This martyr dies that He may make His truth mighty over all hearts. He was a man; but was He only a man?

— Herrick Johnson

O, let us understand that the power of Christianity lies not in a hazy indefiniteness, not in shadowy forms, not so much even in definite truths and doctrines, but in the truth and the doctrine. There is but one Christ crucified. All the gathered might of the infinite God is in that word.

— Herrick Johnson

If Christianity were only a development, then Christ was not needed. If Christianity were only a scheme of morals, then the Divine incarnation was a thing superfluous.

— Herrick Johnson

Here is Christianity. Whence came it? What is it? It is a force in the world, a prodigious force. It has revolutionized society. It has lifted man out of himself. It has changed the face of the world. There it lies, imbedded in more than eighteen centuries of human history; and history of no mean sort, the best record of the race.

— Herrick Johnson

Christianity, Christ, heaven, hell, the judgment, sin, holiness. God,—these, and whether they be true or false, and our personal relations to them, whether they be right or wrong, are things to know about , not to be doubting or guessing about.

— Herrick Johnson

He who tears down the cross, what is there left to lift him to heaven? The church claiming to be a Christian church is false to the title, if she make the cross of Christ of none effect.

— Herrick Johnson

Life everywhere is in vast and endless variety. So it is with life eternal, that gift of God, constituting, in its length and breadth and height and depth, the reward of the righteous. The penitent, dying thief is not going into heaven like the triumphant, dying Paul.

— Herrick Johnson

Take Christ out of the gospel, and you take its very heart out. He has not only originated a system, but He has put Himself into it, as its very life and soul and power.

— Herrick Johnson

Sinner, listen now. Christ knocks again. Here, in the hush of this still hour, He waits to be received and welcomed. Peace like a river, joy such as angels do not know, hopeful of an ever-brightening and evermore blessed immortality—all heavenly benedictions would be thine—"if thou knewest the gift of God."

— Herrick Johnson

God is merely tuning the soul, as an instrument, in this life. And these joys of the Christian, are only the notes and chords that are sounded out in the preparation—preludes to the perfect harmony that shall flood the soul—forerunners of the perfected and rapturous joy that shall bless the soul, in that exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

— Herrick Johnson