William Robinson's Long-Lost Letter

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We must always remember when we turn one eye upon ourselves and our guilt, blemishes, vileness, and loathsomeness, we must let the other eye be fixed upon Jesus Christ! — William Robinson

William Robinson is one of the most influential colonial American Presbyterian ministers about whom we know so little. He was born in England, the son of a well-to-do Quaker physician, around the beginning of the 18th century, and after falling into the sins of big city life in London, made his way to America to work as a teacher, before a conversion experience led him to become a student for the ministry at William Tennent’s Log College. Samuel Miller tells the story of that experience in his biography of John Rodgers:

He was riding at a late hour, one evening, when the moon and the stars shone with unusual brightness, and when every thing around him was calculated to excite reflection. While he was meditating upon the beauty and grandeur of the scene which the firmament presented, and was saying to himself, "How transcendently glorious must be the Author of all this beauty and grandeur," the thought struck him with the suddenness and force of lightning: "But what do I know of this God? Have I ever sought His favor or made Him my friend?" This happy impression, which proved, by its permanence and effects, to have come from the best of all sources, never left him until he took refuge in Christ as the hope and life of his soul.

Marker located at the Historic Polegreen Church in Mechanicsville, Virginia (photo by R. Andrew Myers).

An alumni of William Tennent’s Log College; Robinson was called to succeed William Tennent as pastor of the Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, but declined the call; he was a leader of the Great Awakening, and a friend of George Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent; he served as moderator of New Brunswick Presbytery; and he preached the first Presbyterian sermon in central Virginia (July 6, 1743), and paved the way for the ministry of Samuel Davies, who wrote of him that "The work was begun and mainly carried on by that favored man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I reflect on it, astonishes me.” Davies also said:

Probably Mr. Robinson, during the short period of his life, was the instrument in the conversion of as many souls as any minister who ever lived in this country. The only circumstance relating to his person which has come down is that he was blind of one eye [as a result of scarlet fever]; so that he was called by some “the one-eyed Robinson.”

It was his dying wish that Davies would be sent to minister to the people of Hanover County, Virginia, where Robinson had preached three years before, and accepted a financial gift from his grateful hearers only with the proviso that it would go to support Davies’ theological education. He died on August 1, 1746, just six years after his ordination to the ministry, and his funeral sermon was preached by Samuel Blair. But although the stories of his travels throughout Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and his ministry in Delaware, are fascinating to read, and his role in the education and missionary efforts of Samuel Davies was key to bringing the Great Awakening to Virginia, we have nothing to read that was written by his own hand — or so it was thought until very recently.

James P. Williams is an American Baptist minister who was serving as pastor of four Baptist churches in England from 2007 to 2010. While cleaning one of those churches, he discovered a letter from William Robinson to his [unnamed, female] cousin in England dated June 16, 1741. The letter is transcribed in his book Light the Fire Again: Eighteenth-Century Light for the Twenty-First Century Darkness, which tells more fully than has been done before the story of Robinson’s life and ministry. The letter rejoices in the news that Robinson had received that his cousin was born again. He tells her about reports he has heard from George Whitefield concerning revival in England, and gives a report on revival throughout the northern colonies:

…here has been such Surprising Effusions of God’s spirit in the ministry Especially under Mr. Whitfield & our new Brunswick Presbytery in which are the famous Tennents my dear brethren, that all New England, the Provinces of York, the Jersies, Pensilvania, and Maryland are filled with Convinced & Converted souls, many are the thousand Brot to Christ and on the way Children, youth & aged persons, rich & poor, Black & White, tis no Great Matter here to preach unto Five Thousand People, for my Brethren to preach 3-4 or 5 times a day.

It is a letter that practically drips with the sweet savor of the gospel. In all his rejoicing of the communion in Christ which he now shares with his cousin, and in all his descriptions of revival, Robinson is concerned to give God the glory rather than himself or even those brethren of whom he speaks so highly. Robinson: “I cannot tell what great things God has done for ME, what honors conferred on me a poor ignorant wretch. Oh that I may be humble and thankful.” The work of both conversion and revival is by the hand of God, and brings Robinson to a humble adoration of the One who has merciful done and continues to do great things among the people on both sides of the pond. The whole letter takes up a handful of pages in transcription, and Williams helpfully includes a summary of its highlights as well. The life story of Robinson is given in Light the Fire Again with a view towards inspiring 21st century readers to catch the flame that stirred Robinson, Whitefield, the Tennents, Davies, Jonathan Edwards and others in the 18th. We are most grateful to Williams for finding Robinson’s letter and sharing its contents with this generation. May that spark contained within, by the grace of God, help to light the world again today!

Letters to a Young Minister by D.A. Wallace

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David Alexander Wallace (1826-1883) served as a faithful minister of the gospel, as the first President of Monmouth College in Illinois, and as a Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). As the title of his memoir — A Busy Life — would suggest, Wallace was active in contributing to the good of the church in many ways throughout his ecclesiastical career. This memoir includes — besides his inaugural address, sermons, and other writings, his letters to a young minister, from which we highlight certain extracts here today. They reflect wisdom from pastoral experience which can enrich the ministry of faithful undershepherds still today.

For Wallace, author of What Must I Do To Be Saved, the gospel was at the heart of pastoral work. It was the raison d'être of what it means to be an ambassador for Christ, as he explains.

Your work as a preacher is to teach men the gospel of the grace of God. You may, on different occasions, give men instruction on other subjects, but this does not belong to your ministerial work. I have no hesitation in saying that you should confine yourself to this grand old subject. In illustrating and expounding the way of salvation through Jesus Christ you will find ample scope for all your powers, and enough to do to occupy all your time.

In respect to the gospel, I desire to impress upon your attention the importance of ascertaining precisely what it is, and of placing it before the people with the utmost fulness and clearness. One would think that the most careless reader of the Bible could not fail to know the gospel exactly. Yet, if you will talk a little with Christian people of aver- age intelligence, and note carefully statements which you will see in print and hear from the pulpit, you will find prevalent very indistinct and inadequate views of the subject. The preacher undertakes to prescribe for the spiritual diseases of his people, and lie ought to make his prescription correct in every particular. Study the subject carefully. Go to your Bible. Examine every scripture that bears on the gospel, every illustration of it, every allusion to it. Be sure that you have the full Bible doctrine. Beware of taking a part for the whole; of confounding things that differ, and of making distinctions where there is no difference. Study carefully the expositions which the great lights of the Christian church have given of it. Rest content only when you are assured that you have found the truth, and the whole truth on the subject. Having found it, use all diligence to teach it clearly to your people. If you adopt the methods of statement and illustration employed by any one writer, your preaching will become tame and uninteresting from sameness. If, however, you vary your modes of presentation to set forth the gospel in all the forms, under all the aspects, and with all the variety of the Scriptures themselves, your preaching will constantly be new and interesting. The more closely you follow the Bible, the more varied will your preaching be.

As believers must be encouraged not to forget their first love — Christ — ministers of the gospel will benefit from encouragement to remember their first duty: to lead sinners to Christ.

The first and great work of the gospel minister is to bring souls to Christ. The inquiring sinner, crushed under a load of guilt, needs Christ at once. We should point him to the Lamb of God, and exhort him to flee to him without a moment's delay. We should put nothing between the inquirer and Christ. We should put every obstacle out of his way. We should by all means help him to the only Saviour. He may reform his life, he may make a personal profession of faith, he may take his place with the people of God in all worship and all service, and still, if he is not in Christ, he is a child of wrath still under the curse. Hence, in this way do all you can to bring sinners to the Saviour.

Among his final remarks in the fourth letter, Wallace highlights an often overlooked aspect of pastoral ministry, which is that the work of a minister, though first and foremost is pulpit-centered (pertains to the public preaching), yet much of a minister’s work is done outside the pulpit, as a shepherd tends not only to the flock, but to all the sheep individually under his care.

There is a prevailing feeling that the whole work of the preacher must be performed in the pulpit. Hence many, to a great extent, excuse themselves from the more private preaching. This, however, is not according to apostolic practice. Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders speaks of having taught "publicly and from house to house," and of "warning every one, night and day, with tears." Thus he labored in the gospel of God. The most successful ministers in all ages have followed his example in this thing. My own observation has satisfied me that no part of one's ministry is so effective as the personal dealing of man with man. He who neglects it, fails to use one of the most important elements of power. Let me, therefore, press on you the importance of doing your utmost to attain excellence in this department of your work . Study it. Pray for wisdom, strength and grace to help you in it. Talk with old ministers about it, and avail yourself of the lessons of their experience.

Thus, Wallace encourages a young minister to get to know his people, young and old, their views, their needs, spiritual and otherwise, while he also encourages avoidance of the opposite error - to undervalue the primary place of pulpit work and thus to neglect the minister’s key mission. Preaching is first, but the congregation to whom a minister is preaching, whom he serves in the Lord, are people that a faithful shepherd must know and love.

Each of his letters to a young minister — and more to a theological student — are full of nuggets of wisdom gained through experience. There is great value in consulting with older ministers, and these letters reflect that truth. Bookmark Wallace’s memoir, A Busy Life, here, and whether you are an older or a younger minister, or a member of the flock, be encouraged in the Lord by Wallace’s focus on communion with Christ and love for the saints.

An American Eyewitness to a Massacre: W.P. Mills at Nanjing

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Born on December 1, 1883, in Winnsboro, South Carolina, Wilson Plumer Mills, son of a Presbyterian pastor, went on to serve as an American Presbyterian missionary in China during a crucial and tragic episode that has been forgotten by some and will never be forgotten by others.

Mills’ extensive studies included course work at Davidson College, North Carolina (BA, 1903); the University of South Carolina (M.A., 1907); Christ Church College, the University of Oxford, where, as a Rhodes Scholar, he graduated with honors in theology (B.A. 1910); Columbia Theological Seminary, South Carolina (B.D., 1912); and Union Theological Seminary, New York (S.T.M., 1932). From 1912 to 1932, he worked for the YMCA in China; in that year Mills resigned from the YMCA, was ordained, and joined the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in Nanjing (then the capital of China).

When the Second Sino-Japanese War began in July 1937, Mills played an important diplomatic role as the Japanese prepared to occupy Nanjing. He attempted to negotiate a truce, and also suggested the creation of a Safety Zone to protect civilians. After the occupation, in November 1937, Mills was appointed vice-chairman of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone (later in February 1938, he became the chairman).

For his role in protecting the 250,000 citizens of the Nanjing Safety Zone (about 70,000 of which were dependent upon the committee for food and fuel), Mills received the Order of the Green Jade, the highest honor given to Westerners by the Chinese government. During World War II he was interned* for nine months in Shanghai by the Japanese, was repatriated in 1943, and returned to China the following year and stayed there until 1949. He worked for the Missionary Research Library at Union Theological Seminary in New York City until 1955, and died there four years later.

At Log College Press, we have available a set of letters which he wrote from Nanjing, mostly to his wife, which recount his personal experiences in the midst of what came to be known to the world as the “Rape of Nanjing,” a massacre by Japanese soldiers that resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 40,000-300,000 civilians, as well as barbaric atrocities, all of which became the subject of war crime trials after the end of World War II. His efforts to help arrange a truce are described in letters dated January 22/24 and January 31, 1938. The story of his eyewitness account of the Japanese occupation of the city and the reign of terror that existed is told sequentially in letters from January to March 1938. These letters, which with great effort were sent out through the American embassy, constitute part of the primary source material which documents a tragedy that is forgotten in many parts of the world, but whose painful memory is still borne by survivors and descendants of the massacre some 82 years later.

Reading this correspondence — which is mostly typewritten, but also contains handwritten notes — one is struck by the increasingly horrifying realization of just how evil the occupation became. Following initial reassurances to his wife about his personal safety, as the details were explained and anecdotes related over time, one can imagine how Nina must have felt and had cause to pray as she read his letters.

While one can read more about the awful details of this massacre elsewhere too, the letters by Mills reveal how one American Presbyterian missionary did what he could, in God’s Providence, to help those in need, and how he was able to relate the story to his family about what happened in installments while much of the world remained in the dark about the extent of the tragedy. To read a gripping story about a painful but important chapter in world history in the words of one who was there, visit his page here.

*Another Protestant missionary, Eric Liddell, was interned by the Japanese at Weihsien Internment Camp (site of an American Presbyterian mission compound) at Shandong, China from 1943 until his death in 1945.