Hello and welcome to episode 50 of the Giants of the Faith podcast. This is the podcast where we look at men and women from the age of the Church whose lives have had an impact for the Kingdom of God. It's been a while since I've been able to record an episode so I thought we'd jump right into what I'm calling season four and for the duration of season four the episodes will focus exclusively on folks who have written some of the greatest hymns this side of heaven.
We're going to kick off this season by looking at the life and times of Robert Robinson. Robinson wrote the excellent hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, which is sung by churchgoers every Sunday in churches all around the world and every night by me when I'm putting my eldest grandson to bed. I love this song, and since it happens to be my wife's favorite hymn, I could not help but kick the season off with Robinson.
Robert Robinson was born on September 27, 1735, in Swaffham, England, to parents Michael and Mary. Michael was a customs officer in government service and Mary was the daughter of the wealthy Robert Wilkin. The family home was not a happy one. Michael was in constant debt, pursued by creditors in the courts, and left the family when Robert was still a boy, then died shortly after leaving. Then Robert's grandfather died and, despite his wealth, left his grandson the equivalent of about $100 as a legacy. He'd never approved of Mary's marriage and this was his way of getting revenge.
Mary was determined to provide an education for her son, despite their circumstances. She opened up her home to boarders and took up work as a seamstress in order to place him in school. Times were tough, however, and by the time Robert was 13 years old he had to drop out. A friend of the family had a brother who was a barber in London who agreed to take Robert on as an apprentice. So, at age 14, Robert packed his bags and headed off to London to work for seven years as a barber's apprentice.
It was a common thing for apprentices that left the relative calm and safety of the countryside to fall into temptation in the big city. And Robert was no exception. He fell into bad company and began drinking and carousing. By day he was a responsible, studious young man. But, when out on the town he was prone to find himself mixed up with trouble.
The story of his true conversion was born out of a troublesome episode. On the evening of May 24, 1752, Robert and his group of friends came across a gypsy fortune teller selling her fortunes in a London pub. They got her drunk on cheap gin and forced her to tell them their fortunes for free. Robert would later recall that she told him, "you will live to see your children and grandchildren," and this had a great impact on him.
After they'd finished with the gypsy, the young men decided to head to the famous Methodist minister and evangelist George Whitefield's Tabernacle at Moorfields. They were there to mock Whitefield and his listeners. But God had other plans. Robinson was cut to the quick by Whitefield's sermon on Matthew 3:7 and the phrase Whitefield repeated, "Oh, my hearers! the wrath to come! the wrath to come!" Robinson was troubled at his own sin and entered a 2.5 year period of introspection and a deep sense of his own sinfulness. He continued at his work and he continued coming to hear Whitefield preach. Until finally, on December 10, 1755, in his own words he "found full and free forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.”
His mind turned away from barbering and toward Christian ministry. In his room he would compose and practice sermons and write poetry and songs. It was during this time, in 1757, that he wrote the famous hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. In 1758 he left London and moved to his uncle's farm in Suffolk, near where he'd grown up. He began preaching in town, imitating Whitefield by preaching without notes. He began to be noticed and was soon invited to preach at James Wheatley's Tabernacle in Norwich. Robinson was a successful preacher - preaching to hundreds of souls and converting many. And it was Wheatley who first published Come Thou Fount in his Methodist hymnbook.
Norwich would wind up playing an important role in the rest of his life. For it was in Norwich that he met and married Ellen Payne. Robert and Ellen would go on to have twelve children. Norwich was also where Robert left the Methodist movement. He was questioned about the practice of infant baptism which was something he'd never considered as a question. He'd grown up in the CofE and then as a Methodist infant baptism was standard practice. When he did consider finally it, he went to the scriptures and became convinced that believer's baptism was the only Biblical baptism. He was soon baptised himself, and remained a Baptist the rest of his life.
Robinson setup his own Independent Calvinistic church but was soon called, in 1759 and on the advice of author Anne Dutton, to pastor at the Stonebridge Baptist Church in Cambridge. After a two year internship there he was called as the full-time pastor. He would remain pastoring at Cambridge for the rest of his life. Under his leadership the church grew and regular attendance averaged between six and seven hundred, including many students from the university there. Eventually, a new church building had to be built to accommodate the crowds. In addition, Robinson setup 15 preaching stations around the city. He traveled to these stations during the week to preach and minister on a more personal and local level.
Robinson's life story isn't all sunshine and rainbows, though, at least from an Orthodox Christian perspective. Late in his life Robinson drifted toward Unitarianism. For those that aren't familiar, Unitarianism rejects Trinitarianism and instead believes that Jesus was inspired by God and did act as the savior but is not, indeed, God. It's basically repurposed Arianism. Robinson was influenced toward Unitarianism by Joseph Priestly. Priestly was a famous chemist and philosopher and you might remember him as the man that discovered oxygen.
Robinson had been invited by a group of Baptist preachers in London to come there and write a Baptist history using materials from the British Museum. Once Robinson's Unitarian leanings were known, however, this invitation was revoked. Robinson continued the work on his own at the Cambridge library and published The History of Baptism in 1790 and Ecclesiastical Researches, posthumously, in 1792, which included a defense of the Uniatarian heresy.
The final sermon of Robinson's life was from Joseph Priestley's pulpit in Birmingham where he attacked and mocked the Trinity as a doctrine with much fervor. Two nights later, in the small hours of Wednesday, June 9, 1790, Robinson was found dead in his bed. Many have tied his death to this sermon and some have likened the latter part of his life to the closing verse of Come Thou Fount - Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave this God I love. Take my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.
And that's it for this episode of Giants of the Faith. I considered whether or not to include Robinson in this season but, due to the overwhelming popularity of the hymn and the value of Robinson's life as a cautionary tale, I decided for it. Only God knows if Robinson was a true believer who fell into error or was a false prophet all along. I hope for the former. Until next time, God bless.
RESOURCES
Baptist Bible Tribune: https://www.tribune.org/the-strange-case-of-robert-robinson/
Blue Letter Bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/hymns/bios/bio_r_o_robinson_r.cfm
Desiring God: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/was-he-too-prone-to-wander
Christianity.com: https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/did-robert-robinson-wander-as-he-feared-11630313.html
St. Augustine Record: https://www.staugustine.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2016/04/29/story-behind-song-come-thou-fount/16310394007/