Robert Hall passed into the presence of his Saviour on this day in 1831.
Shortly after his birth in 1764, it was predicted that he would never amount to anything. As the youngest of fourteen children, his ability to speak and walk was far slower than any of his siblings. But with the help of a faithful nurse he eventually progressed beyond expectations and was dismissed from public school because he had advanced farther than his instructor. At the age of 15, he entered Bristol College to study for the ministry, but when asked to speak publically, he became so nervous that his mind went blank. As this continued, getting even worse, Robert determined all the more to become successful in the service of Christ.
After graduating and serving as the assistant to Caleb Evans, pastor of the Breadmead Church in Bristol, in 1791 Brother Hall became pastor of the Baptist church in Cambridge, succeeding Robert Robinson, the unitarian-leaning author of the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The church expected to be taken further down the liberal road in Robinson’s direction, but the more Pastor Hall considered the doctrines of his predecessor the more he became convinced of the fundamentals of the faith. The intellectualism of Cambridge was no match for the truth of the Word of God.
Robert Hall spent 15 years at Cambridge, then nearly 20 at Leicester, before returning to Cambridge where he died. As with most of the men in these vignettes, I am sure that we might differ on various points of doctrine, but with this man we have an illustration of perseverance and divine grace.