Introduction

Biography

Robinson’s wi­dowed mother sent him at age 14 to Lon­don to learn the trade of bar­ber and hair dress­er. How­ev­er, his mas­ter found he en­joyed read­ing more than work.

Converted to Christ at age 17, Ro­bin­son be­came a Me­tho­dist min­is­ter. He lat­er moved to the Bap­tist de­no­mi­na­tion and pas­tored in Cam­bridge, Eng­land. He wrote a num­ber of hymns, as well as on the sub­ject of theo­lo­gy.

His lat­er life was evi­dent­ly not an ea­sy one, judg­ing from a well known sto­ry about his hymn Come, Thou Fount of Ev­ery Bless­ing. One day, he en­coun­tered a wo­man who was stu­dy­ing a hym­nal, and she asked how he liked the hymn she was hum­ming.

In tears, he re­plied, Madam, I am the poor un­hap­py man who wrote that hymn ma­ny years ago, and I would give a thou­sand worlds, if I had them, to en­joy the feel­ings I had then.

Works

• Plea for Pe­ti­tion­ers to Par­lia­ment
• A Plea for the Di­vi­ni­ty of Our Lord Je­sus Christ, 1776
• The His­to­ry and the Mys­te­ry of Good Fri­day
• The His­to­ry of Bap­tism and the Bap­tists