On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ency in the classical languages . He likewise acquired a knowledge of the French , which he was enabled to do the more readily , as the French usher lodged at his mother ' s house . When he was fourteen , however , the poverty of his mother compelled her to take him from school , and endeavour to procure him some employment . An attempt to obtain a more desirable situation having failed , he was bound apprentice to a hairdresser in London , who had offered to receive him without a premium .
During his apprenticeship , he rose at four or five in the morning to study , procuring old books from stalls . He was tolerably attentive to his trade , and strictly virtuous in his conduct . His mind was much occupied by religious topics , and he was fond of attending a variety of preachers among the different sects of the Calvinistic Dissenters . But he was particularly attached to Whitfield , whom he used to call his spiritual father ; and on leaving his trade , when he was about twenty years of age , he commenced preaching among the Methodists , which he continued for about two
years . During his apprenticeship and afterward , he kept a regular diary , which sufficiently proves his religious simplicity . In one place , he says , " I think this day our dear king is seventy-four years of age . O ! my soul , bless God for " the liberty we enjoy under his mild and gentle reign . Lord , bless him with the choicest of thy blessings , spiritual and temporal ! I went to the monthly meeting at Mr . Hall ' s , and found it was good to be there . A
good man in his own hair from Deptford prayed first ; then old Mr . Cruikshanks preached a sweet sermon , very awakening , from Hebrews xi . 7—* the oldest preachers are the most thundering of late . God prosper them . Mr . Hitchin prayed next very sweetly ; then Mr . Conder dismissed us with an affecting prayer . Lord hear us for this sinful land . ' * From the mention of the age of George II ., this appears to have been written after he was twenty years old . In the following extract , the conception expressed of the piety of Frederick the Great and the Prussian army is somewhat
startling : " As the Lord has been pleased so signally to own and bless the Prussian arms , ( having on the 5 th of November , when many I trust were praying for them , enabled him with about 3 700 men , * to conquer an army of French and Austrians of 60 or 70 , 000 : the Lord stirred up the King of Prussia and his soldiers to pray ; they kept up three fast days , and spent about an hour praying and singing psalms before they engaged the enemy : O how good it is to pray and fight !) we kept this day at the tabernacle , " &c .
Such characteristics of an individual like Robinson ought not to be kept out of sight . It is only with those who look but on the surface of things , that they can injure his fame , or affect the influence of what is excellent in his character and writings . They are highly instructive . It is a very rer markable fact , and a decisive proof of the original strength of Robinson ' s
mind , that from being an apprentice to a hairdresser , and the author of such a diary , he rose to be one of the eminent men of his age , a keen and vigorous writer , and a most eloquent and powerful preacher . We learn from his diary , how different are the forms which the mind may assume at different periods of life . Nor is this the only nor the most important lesson which it teaches . It may instruct us , when disposed to regard such
extra-? This is the number given in the volume before us j but Robifyson probably wrote 17 , 000 , which would be near the truth . He refers to the battle of Kosbach , fought the fifth of November , 1757 .
Untitled Article
514 Memoir of Robert Robinson .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 514, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/2/
-