27 - Enduring as Seeing Him

IN JANUARY, 1908, Mr. Robinson, his father now dead, sent for his wife to join him in Montreal. Before going there, she had a brief visit with former parishioners and old friends in Detroit who received her warmly. Arriving in Montreal after a dreary journey, Mrs. Robinson received but a “scant welcome” from her mother-in-law. A woman of good qualities, she did not, however, have the spiritual insight necessary to understand the vicissitudes through which her son and daughter-in-law had passed dur­ing the year since they had embraced Pentecost. A most attentive mother, she pitied her only son, and attributed his recent misfortunes to his wife whom she regarded as in error, to say the least. In various ways, therefore, she slighted and showed her disapproval of her daughter-in-law. Martha put forth every effort to be gracious; but whether she was sociable or silent, she was unable to please her mother-in-law. With Mr. Robinson’s determination to break with his Pentecostal associations, his mother was in full agreement. Especially was this so in his desire to keep his wife from Pentecostal practices and from protracted periods of prayer. To this end, her mother-in-law treated her as the servant of the house and kept her busy with various manual labors, some of them very arduous and difficult. Graciously Martha submitted to the orders given. Heartily she performed each task “in the name of the Lord Jesus as to the Lord, and not unto men.” Fortunately she had long since learned that, however desirable, it was not necessary to be on her knees or to use her lips in order to pray. She had learned how to pray without ceasing by means of that interior prayer which, like incense, can arise without interruption from the altar of the heart that loves and worships Jesus. This kind of prayer no man nor woman nor circumstance of any kind can hinder or stop. Without abatement this condition continued for some time. All the while she endeavored to keep in perfect love, but at length she feared lest there had come in her heart "a tiny bit of resentment” because of the ill treatment ac­corded her. Had she not, through all that had happened, lost out on the answer to her prayer for perfect love? She began to pray again over First Corinthians Thirteen, care­fully searching her heart for even the smallest root of bitter­ness. Shortly, she was stopped, and the Holy Spirit assured her that she had not lost the slightest part of the answer to her prayer. And through all the provoking circumstances of the succeeding weeks, she suffered long and was kind, bear­ing all things, enduring all things, with joyfulness. So disheartened, however, did Mrs. Robinson become over her present situation that she longed, even prayed, to die. After all, would it not be far better to be with Christ? Re­provingly the Lord spoke to her, “I don’t want you to pray to die.” Then He went on to explain, “In so doing you have opened the door for a sickness which I will bind up now but which you will have to fight out later.” Obediently she stopped her prayer and bowed to the perfect will of God. Her inner feelings of this period are well expressed in a poem she wrote in July (1908) and aptly titled, God’s Means of Grace “He endured as seeing Him Who is invisible,” And you, my soul, endure as seeing Him! What tho’ the way he rough with stones of trial, And joys of life be clouded o’er and dim? What though your earthly hopes are torn and shattered? What though your earthly plans must each one fail? Endure, as seeing Him, though yet invisible, Save as my soul meets Him within the veil. Endure, my soul. —The service you are giving Is not to meet the plaudits of the throng. ‘Tis He you serve; He only sees your effort, He only knows how, day by day, you long To please Him more; to be a yielded vessel Made fit for use as Potter moulds the clay; Tho’ man may scorn your weak attempt and failure, The Saviour gently bears with thee alway. O soul, get free from all the weight and bondage Of selfish flesh, of clinging worldly cares; The Father, coming out to meet thy yielding, Doth heed thy supplicating tears and prayers; This span of time in God’s great arch eternal Is passing swiftly onward from our view; O, rise to see Him,—One who never passes, Whose Love is endless as His Word is true. Endure unto the end. Night passes. Dawn is breaking. Be ready for thy Saviour’s call to thee; What matter then what trials have crossed thy pathway, What stormy billows tossed thee on life’s restless sea? Behold, He cometh! O my soul! As clothed upon With immortality you meet Him in the skies And see Him as He is, ‘twill well reward thee To have one glance of welcome from His eye. So help me live as seeing Him, invisible To mortal eye, but present with the soul; As unto Him perform each humble duty, The daily task, or seeming fruitless toil, Each uttered word, as heard by Him Who listens, Each simple act as guided by His Word, That when He comes, my soul may, earth forgetting, Leap forth to be forever with her Lord. For worship and fellowship Mr. Robinson became affiliated with a small congregation of the Brethren in Christ Church which held many of the same beliefs as Zion, such as divine healing. A church like this was acceptable to him, and the people were most congenial. Evidently this assembly was without a pastor, for upon learning that he was a minister, Mr. Robinson was soon asked to act in that capacity for them. Mrs. Robinson accompanied her husband to the services, sitting in the audience, no one realizing that she, too, was a minister. Occasionally, as she was led, she testified briefly as anyone in the audience was free to do when the opportun­ity was given. As she always exalted the Lord Jesus and re­minded the people of the fact that He was in the midst, her simple words proved a blessing to the congregation. Some of the worshippers would come to her afterwards to tell her of the blessing they had received from her testimony. Then a member went to Mr. Robinson and told him the same thing, suggesting that his wife should be ministering with him. Mrs. Robinson knew, of course, that this was what God wanted. But, under the circumstances, she also knew that she could not do one thing about it and that, if the door for public ministry for her were ever to open again, God Himself would have to open it, for it had been fast closed and bolted. Obediently and without complaining she had submitted, as a Christian wife should, to her husband’s interdict, but hum­bly and without saying a word to anyone she had taken her case to God. She could not conscientiously give up her call from God nor could she disregard the fact that He had so signally equipped and gifted her for working in His vineyard. Quietly she prayed about the matter, asking God to get His will done. At last, she had prayed through, and then God gave the answer in a miraculous, unexpected way. One day Mr. Robinson was preaching with great liberty and eloquence when suddenly he stopped short in the middle of his sermon. To the surprise of everyone, including his wife, he announced: “Mrs. Robinson will come to the plat­form and finish this sermon.” Without hesitation Mrs. Robinson arose from her seat in the audience and under the controlling power of the Holy Spirit went to the platform. Calmly and just as though it might have been planned, she took up her husband’s sermon. Mr. Robinson had been speaking about immature Christians and how they ought to grow up in Christ. Now she con­tinued the sermon with an illustration which the Lord brought to her mind from her childhood. As a little girl she and her sister were playing with dolls one day when her sister remarked, “Mattie, you know, when we get big, we won’t play with dolls anymore!” “What!” Mattie replied, “When I’m big, I’m going to play with dolls all I want!" So Mrs. Robinson pointed out that babes in Christ are permitted to do some things which they won’t think of doing when they grow up to be mature Christians. From there on she developed the subject and concluded it in a striking manner. Amazed at this unusual performance, coupled as it was with such an evident knowledge of the Scriptures and such able exposition, the people agreed that she should be ministering with her husband. One old deacon, in par­ticular, who had been strongly opposed to women ministers, was completely satisfied and won over. The result of all this was that the congregation voted that from then on Mrs. Robinson was to have an equal place with her husband on the platform. Thus by her obedience and faith, the seemingly impossible had happened. God Himself had fought for her and restored her to her ministry. The congregation, which had been a mere handful in the beginning of Mr. Robinson’s ministry there, had steadily in­creased. Now under their united ministry, the place was crowded to capacity. This marked success caused the church to desire that time Robinsons would be ordained by the min­istry of their denomination and then duly installed Mr. Robin­son as their pastor, while Mrs. Robinson was to conduct a Bible school. First, however, the church felt it would be well if Mr. Robinson would attend a term in their theological school, Ashland College, located at their denominational headquarters in Ashland, Ohio. Inasmuch as the proposition was appealing and logical, Mr. Robinson accepted their offer and left Montreal in August (1908) to enroll in the college for the fall term. Enroute to Ohio, Mr. Robinson decided to stop with a Mr. and Mrs. Aman who lived on Big Island, about five miles from Belleville, Ontario, in the Bay of Quinte. In years gone by, Mr. Robinson had lived with these people quite a while, and they had come to regard him as an enjoyable son. The Amans had also been members of Zion. Consequently, there was a strong bond of spiritual fellowship as well as of per­sonal friendship between them. Mr. Robinson decided to leave his wife with these friends while he went on to the college in Ohio to secure an adequate place for them to live. The plan was that Mrs. Robinson was to follow with their trunks when he notified her.