Robert Roberts was, by any standards, a remarkable man. As the organiser and, for over thirty years, one of the ‘leading lights’ of a religious sect whose history is not entirely without interest even for the world at large, his life and work are worthy of serious consideration. A journalist of exceptional quality (he was given work on the Birmingham Daily Post on the recommendation of John Bright, the city’s illustrious M.P.), a debater of extraordinary ability (even the celebrated Charles Bradlaugh could not overcome him in public debate), the author of many works which have sold in the hundreds of thousands, and a man of prodigious energy and high output, his achievements must command respect, even from those who may only wish to see him as a historical phenomenon peculiar to the context of his times.
For those who share his religious faith, and who have cause to be personally grateful for the part he played in promoting and guiding the affairs of an earlier generation of Christadelphians, he represents a topic of special relevance, since his own biography is so closely bound up with the story of their own spiritual heritage. To follow the life of Robert Roberts is essentially to relive the history of so much of the development, under the guiding providential hand of God, of that system of belief now known familiarly, and affectionately, amongst Christadelphians as ‘the Truth’.
For these reasons alone this book will be welcomed by a wide circle of readers. And if the approach of the compilers is largely uncritical and often unashamedly partisan towards its subject, the book is still not by any means a volume of mere hero-worship. As the Foreword makes clear, the book was prepared as a means both of introducing a new generation of Christadelphians to a heritage of which many are unaware, and also of drawing important lessons from the personal example of one who showed such determination and tenacity in holding to the Truth “in its simplicity and beauty”.
And if the volume inevitably covers much of the same ground as Robert Roberts’s autobiography (My Days and My Ways, 1917) and the late brother Islip Collyer’s Robert Roberts: a study of life and character (1948), it nevertheless makes an additional contribution to our appreciation of the subject by its essentially pictorial and documentary approach. For the book not only brings together, from a variety of printed sources, much scattered material long since out of print, but also reproduces, some for the first time in published form, many contemporary photographs and manuscripts from private collections. These all combine with the text to provide fascinating insights into both the private and public worlds of a Victorian ‘man of God’.
The book is divided into seven convenient sections, of varying length, organised in a loose kind of chronological order. An interesting family tree from which we learn that Brother Roberts was one of no less than eleven children, and that of his own seven children only three lived beyond infancy is followed by the longest section of the book, which covers his life, from his birth in Aberdeen in 1839 to his death in San Francisco in 1898.
Every salient feature of Brother Roberts’s ‘career’ is considered in this section, with thumbnail sketches of the principal events of his biography supported on every page by helpful maps, charts, or original photographs. There are, for example, pictures of his birthplace, of the John Street Baptist chapel which he attended in his childhood, of the chapel where as a boy of ten he heard Dr. Thomas preach, of the River Dee where he was baptised at the age of fourteen, and of the Old Castle meeting room (the Wallace Tower’) where he first broke bread.
There is hardly an incident or a place mentioned in the text that is not illustrated in this way a fact which gives the book the character of a documentary dossier. In fact, the dates and summaries at the top of most pages intended to make for easy reference would make it possible to follow the course of Brother Roberts’s life without even reading the text itself: “1857, aged 18: Delivered his first lecture moved to Edinburgh”; “1858, aged 19: Engaged to Jane Norrie—transferred to Huddersfield”; “1859, aged 20: Married Jane Norrie association with the Halifax Ecclesia”. Particularly staggering is it to be reminded in this way that he was only fifteen when he designed the Bible Companion reading tables; and especially touching it is to see a photograph of him and Sister Roberts on their wedding day.
It is a salutary exhortation to watch, thanks to the many excellent photographs of Brother Roberts that follow this early one, the dramatic ageing process which he underwent over the thirty-eight years from his marriage to his sudden demise at the age of fifty-nine. The pictures of him in the 1890s in particular show the evident effect of his willingness to spend and be spent in the service of the Truth. His relationship with Dr. Thomas, the progress of the work of preaching, and the problems of division in the ecclesias these are all interwoven in this section with Brother Roberts’s personal difficulties: the death of two of his children (from smallpox?) within a single month (1872), the breakdown of his own health due to the enormous strain of his duties (in 1875), and the disappointment and privations arising from the collapse of the Sugar venture (in 1889).
The story is an epic one, and bears retelling—and not least because the tale is so graphically and sympathetically told. Again and again the reviewer found himself musing on the meaning of it all, on the ways of Divine providence (so clearly recognised by Brother Roberts himself), wanting to know more, and rereading the further detail set out in the other published sources.
Saddest of all though not sad in the same way as for those who “have no hope” is the separate section devoted to Brother Roberts’s lonely death in a hotel bedroom on the West coast of America. Far from home and family he may have been, but not, in any sense, far away from God! Finishing off his Law of Moses, embarking on the early chapters of The Ministry of the Prophets, preparing editorials for The Christadelphian, drawing up publicity material for a planned lecture-series in Birmingham, and exhorting his distant brethren and sisters in regular personal correspondence from all this incessant activity emerges the picture of a man of God whose sole aim in life was to “redeem the time”, knowing that the Lord’s coming might only be a heartbeat away for him, as for everyone.
A Midlands newspaper obituary reprinted as a curiosity in a further section strikes some strangely discordant notes in Christadelphian ears; but even the reporter of the Birmingham Owl had to recognise R.R.’s “uprightness, warmheartedness and breadth of knowledge”. Much more satisfying is the compiler’s own summary of Brother Roberts’s labours for his Lord: “He was a man committed to the furtherance of the Truth, no matter what the cost. . .”
The penultimate section something of a tidying-up operation, but of interest from the biographical point of view concerns Sister Roberts and her family in her widowhood. It is comforting to learn that Brother Roberts’s faithful companion lived to a grand old age still enjoying the benefits of a close family life in the Truth. But most impressive of all and, perhaps as far as we ourselves are concerned, most valuable, is the final section, which consists of a list of the many important publications produced by Brother Roberts which he left as a legacy to those who would follow in his faith. The list occupies sixteen pages, and is most helpfully arranged in date order of publication. The informative device of reproducing the covers or title-pages of the items listed means that, right to the last, this little book succeeds in making its own original contribution to the worthwhile reconsideration of a life dedicated to the service of God.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)