“Mr. Hall has, like Jeremy Taylor, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, the subtlety of a schoolman, the profoundness of a philosopher, and the piety of a saint.”
Robert Hall was born at Arnsby, Leicestershire, England, in August, 1764. His father, who was a Baptist clergyman of considerable note, early perceived a wonderful degree of intellectual development in his child. He said to a friend,—
“Robert at nine years of age fully comprehended the reasoning in the profoundly argumentative treatises of Edward on the Will and the Affections.”
When fifteen years old, Robert became a student in the Baptist College at Bristol; and in his eighteenth year entered King’s College, Aberdeen. Here he became acquainted with Sir James Mackintosh, which acquaintance ripened into a life-long friendship.
Upon leaving college, Mr. Hall commenced preaching, and with a power which immediately drew around him, and elicited the admiration of, crowds of the most intellectual of hearers. His biographer says of him,—
“Mr. Hall’s voice is feeble, but very distinct: as he proceeds, it trembles under his energy. The plainest and least-labored of his discourses are not without delicate imagery and the most felicitous turns of expression. He expatiates on the prophecies with a kindred spirit, often conducting his audience to the top of the ‘Delectable Mountains,’ where they can see from afar the gates of the Eternal City. He seems at home among the marvellous revelations of St. John; and, while he dwells upon them, he leads his hearer breathless through ever-varying scenes of mystery far more glorious and surprising than the wildest of Oriental fables. He stops where they most desire he should proceed, where he has just disclosed the dawnings of the inmost glory to their enraptured minds, and leaves them full of imaginations of things not made with hands, of joys too ravishing for similes.”
Robert Hall’s life was devoid of adventure, having been spent almost exclusively in the study and the pulpit. His conversational powers were of the highest order; and, in everysocial circle, crowds gathered around him, charmed by the unstudied eloquence which flowed from his lips. He was an indefatigable student; and, though one of the most profound thinkers, was one of the most childlike of men in unaffected simplicity of character. His pre-eminence in the pulpit was universally acknowledged, and his extraordinary powers ever crowded his church with the most distinguished auditors. During his life he issued several pamphlets, which obtained celebrity throughout all Christendom. A sermon which he preached upon Modern Infidelity was published in repeated editions, and “sent a thrill to every village and hamlet of Great Britain.” Its arguments were so unanswerable, that no serious attempt was made to reply to them.
“Whoever,” Dugald Stewart wrote, “wishes to see the English language in its perfection, must read the writings of that great divine, Robert Hall. He combines the beauties of Johnson, Addison, and Burke, without their imperfections.”
A very severe chronic disease of the spine caused him throughout his whole life severe suffering. Once or twice the disease so ascended to the brain, that the mind lost its balance; and Mr. Hall was compelled for a short time to withdraw from his customary labors.
The works of this distinguished man are still read with admiration, and will be ever regarded as among the highest productions of the human intellect. He died, universally beloved and lamented, on the 21st of February, 1831, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.