(8th April 1839 to 23rd September 1898)
(4) Retirement, Travels and Death
Resurrectional Responsibility
The issue of the judgment of the believers, and who would or would not be raised, was a difficult question for many years, including while Brother Thomas was still alive. Brother Roberts had commenced a series on The Judgment Seat of Christ as early as the October 1866 Ambassador.
1.Background
Brother Thomas published Anastasis, a treatise on resurrection and judgment, on 8th December 1866. On page 35 Brother Thomas clearly stated the responsibility of the enlightened rejecter to judgment:
“Nevertheless, if a sinner come to the understanding of the truth, the result being the same, he is held accountable. An enlightened sinner cannot evade the consequences of his illumination. I have known some of this class flatter themselves that they would not be called forth to judgment; but would perish as the beasts, if they did not come under law to Christ. Such reasoning, however, is simply ‘the deceitfulness of sin’.”
Page 35, 1947 edition; also
The Christadelphian, 1894, page 185
Following the burial of Brother John Thomas in New York on 30th April 1871, brethren Roberts and Bosher left Jersey City to visit most of the larger ecclesias in North America. Their visits revealed that at least four ecclesias were disturbed by the doctrine of the judgment.
2. Brother JJ Andrew
Brother John James Andrew was the most prominent brother in the ‘Resurrectional Responsibility’ dispute. From June 1893 a number of articles by Brother Roberts and by various other brethren dealt with the responsibility question. This was evidently in response to the growing uncertainty on the matter.
In April 1894 Brother Roberts wrote an Editorial on resurrectional responsibility, and an article on The Resurrection to Condemnation: who will come forth to it? in response to a pamphlet by Brother JJ Andrew – The Blood of the Covenant. This was the start of the controversy that would go on for the last four years of Brother Roberts’ life and still prevails in North America to this day as the ‘Unamended Fellowship’. The level of disquiet in the Brotherhood led to Brother Roberts going to London to debate with Brother Andrew.
The transcript of the debate was published and has been reprinted since. Part of it has also been included in the book Christadelphian Unity in Australia: the Accepted Basis, because much of the problem in Australia in 1958 (when unity was achieved) related to the JJ Andrew/Thomas Williams error more than any other false view, such as ‘clean flesh’. Sadly elements of the Andrewism error can still be found in Australia today.
3. The outcome
Brother Andrew’s ecclesia, London North, divided over the doctrinal differences. Interestingly Brother Bosher of London showed that Sister Andrew was the originator of the error (The Christadelphian, 1894, page 477). By January 1898 the Birmingham ecclesia had resolved to amend its ‘Statement of The Faith’ to read:
“That at the appearance of Christ prior to the establishment of the kingdom, the responsible (namely, those who know the revealed will of God, and have been called upon to submit to it), dead and living – obedient and disobedient – will be summoned before His judgment-seat ‘to be judged according to their works’; ‘and receive in body according to what they have done, whether it be good or bad.’ 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1; Rom. 2:5, 6, 16; 14:10–12; 1 Cor. 4:5; Rev. 11:18.”
The Christadelphian, 1898, page 79
It is of interest to note that this occurred while Brother Roberts was in Australia, never to return to England, as he died in America on his way there.
Partial Retirement
1. First Voyage to Australia – 21st August 1895 to 19th August 1896
Brother Roberts began to consider the possibility of travelling to Australia when, early in 1895, his doctor advised him to take a sea voyage. By June he reported that the Australian brethren had paid for his fare to sail there. By August he had left England for Australia.
He sailed on 24th August, stopping at Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Colombo and Albany. On 1st October he arrived at Largs Bay jetty in Adelaide.
On 7th October he took a train to Ballarat, Leonard’s Hill, Daylesford, Bendigo and Inglewood. In this area he found that several were affected by the ‘Cornish’ error, a form of ‘Clean Flesh’. In Melbourne, where he arrived on 14th October, he met with Cornish. On 28th October he left Melbourne for Beechworth, Albury, Moss Vale and Sydney. There he found one large ecclesia of 106 members (Albert Hall), and three other smaller groups separated on various issues.
Then on 16th November he travelled by train to Newcastle, and from there to Toowoomba and Southbrook. On 28th November he took the train to Brisbane (an ecclesia of 40–50) and Gympie (an ecclesia of 30). Here he rode a horse for the first time and saw a koala.
On 10th December Brother Roberts sailed from Brisbane for Rockhampton. He returned on 18th December, then on to Sydney. From 7th January to 10th March 1896 Brother Roberts’ travels took him to New Zealand. Here he visited Auckland, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Woodville, Dannevirke, Napier, Wellington, Port Lyttleton, Christchurch, Sumner, Timaru, Dunedin (where he had discussions to achieve reconciliation between brethren regarding who should be chief in the ecclesia, and on the role of sisters), Stirling, Balclutha and Invercargill.
Brother Roberts reviewed his labours over the previous five months (Adelaide to New Zealand). He had visited 33 places; given 61 lectures and 37 exhortations; addressed 753 brethren and sisters; and addressed about 10,000 strangers.
From New Zealand Brother Roberts returned to Melbourne via Tasmania. Further travels took him to Ballarat, Adelaide and Daylesford. He began his return to England by travelling to Sydney via Albury, stopping at Beechworth, where he successfully achieved a reconciliation between brethren separated over personal differences.
Brother Roberts reached Sydney on 8th May where again he became involved in meeting with brethren to achieve reconciliation. His farewell words are illuminating of his physical and mental condition at this time:
“In a few days, I shall be setting sail for Vancouver, on my return home, and it occurs to me to write a few words of farewell before going. I depart with very different feelings from those with which I landed on the shores of Australia about eight months ago. My health is almost entirely restored, and this alone makes a great difference to one’s spirits. Besides this, God has permitted my ideas and prospects a revival and enlargement that open before me a new world by comparison. When I landed, it was with a feeling that my day was over and my work done. As I depart, I look back upon a busier and more effectual work for the truth than I have done during any previous eight months of my life; and forward to a wider door of utterance and a more fruitful field of ministration among the saints than I have been permitted to use at any time in the past.”
The Christadelphian, 1897, page 182
On 11th June Brother Roberts sailed for Canada, stopping at Suva in Fiji, and Honolulu, reaching Victoria in British Columbia on 5th July. From there he sailed to Vancouver, and then travelled by train to Toronto (where he met with brethren to attempt reunion), Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia and Boston. Here he had two meetings with brethren with extreme views of ‘wilful sin’, and regarding ‘marriage with the alien’. On 8th August Brother Roberts sailed for Liverpool where he arrived on the 16th to be met by Sister Roberts.
Indications that Brother Roberts may return to Australia after his return to England were made whilst still in New Zealand and Australia during March to June 1896.
“Sympathising with the spoliations of which I have been the victim; the brethren have spontaneously put in motion a scheme to deliver me from my burdens on the understanding that I will in future abstain from business, that I will give the Colonies something of my presence in days to come, without requiring my total absence from England.”
The Christadelphian, 1897, page 103
2. Second Voyage to Australia – 27th July 1897 Onwards
The second journey to Australia, this time with the whole family (Robert Roberts, Jane Roberts, Eusebia Roberts, Sarah Jane Roberts and Amy Wilkes), began on 23rd July 1897 when Sister Jane Roberts and daughters Eusebia and Sarah Jane left Birmingham for London. Brother Roberts and Amy Wilkes left Birmingham on 27th July, all then staying with Brother Roberts’ son Edward Augustus and his family. They left for Melbourne on 2nd August by train to Southampton and then sailed on the SS Darmstadt. The journey included stopovers at Genoa, Naples, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Albany and Adelaide.
Their home was to be in a house donated by Brother Firth, called ‘Orient House’, in Coburg near Melbourne.
“In Coburg, we are in ‘the country’, two-anda- half miles beyond the post office – about half a mile off the main road to the left, in the seclusion of a cross-country road, stands Orient House, our future abode – a large, square structure with a tower.”
The Christadelphian, 1898, page 145
3. Travels in Australia – 1897–1898
From 26th September to 26th December Brother Roberts gave at least nineteen public lectures in Melbourne. From there he travelled to Warragul, Trafalgar, Tyers, Geelong, Albury, Sydney, Newcastle, Toowoomba and Brisbane. Here he had news that his daughter Eusebia had been united in marriage with Brother Thomas H Firth.
From Brisbane he travelled to Gladstone, Rockhampton and Ipswich. In Newcastle, he found the ecclesia divided – 20 at Newcastle and 50–60 at Lambton. On 13th March there was a meeting of both groups, and unity was restored. Hearing that Sister Roberts was unwell he returned to Melbourne, arriving on 20th March.
4. Tour of New Zealand – 25th May to 5th August 1898
On 25th May Brother and Sister Roberts sailed for New Zealand via Hobart. On 31st May they arrived at the Bluff near Invercargill. From there they visited Riverton, Otautau, Stirling, Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch. This ecclesia had been affected by the ‘Cornish’ heresy, and others were opposed to the use of a ‘Statement of Faith’.
From Christchurch they travelled to Port Lyttleton, Wellington, Napier, Palmerston, Wanganui, Hawera, Stratford, New Plymouth and Auckland. On 1st August they left for Sydney, a four day voyage.
5. Journey to North America – 1898
Brother Roberts left Sister Roberts in Australia when he left for Britain. She returned to Melbourne, while on 29th August he commenced his return journey to Britain via North America, sailing first to San Francisco (a journey of 3½ weeks).
He arrived in San Francisco on 21st September where he stayed in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. That evening he had an upsetting meeting with Brother RC Bingley in the home of Brother Cheetham.
6. Death
On 23rd September 1898 Brother Cheetham arrived at the hotel soon after 8:30am to help Brother Roberts board his ship to Vancouver (which sailed at 10:30 am). He soon discovered the body, Brother Roberts having taken some heart medicine from a bottle. A doctor diagnosed valvular disease of the heart.
When he heard of Brother Roberts’ death Brother CC Walker sailed from Liverpool to New York to bury Brother Roberts next to Brother Thomas.
His legacy
Brother Islip Collyer sums up Brother Roberts: “It was most noticeable that Robert Roberts never took the easy course. There was no lukewarmness in his character. His convictions were overwhelmingly strong, and they had to find expression, sometimes with an emotional urge of dangerous intensity. A medical doctor who was on board warned the daughters that there was danger in such excitement for a man of their father’s build.”
Robert Roberts, Islip Collyer, page 164
“From the earliest days he was a being apart. In seriousness of outlook, in intellectual maturity, and above all in knowledge of Scripture, he was so far ahead of his contemporaries that hardly anyone would venture to criticise him, unless it was in an angry mood which would deprive the words of their value. When at the age of 24 he became Editor of the magazine, the separation was still more marked. Plenty of bitter enemies with unreasonable complaints, but no irrepressible and candid critic to administer those salutary checks, which in a family where love reigns, and where there is a reasonable measure of equality, come so easily from a man’s brothers or sisters …
We have encountered many ordinary men of strong convictions who have proceeded to illogical extremes, straining at gnats, and if not swallowing camels, at least showing no objection to much larger gnats. Their incongruities are not very obvious, merely because their mental level is never very high. The recollection of little faults in Robert Roberts is painful just because he was a great man.”
Robert Roberts, Islip Collyer, page 166
Brother CC Walker said of him: “‘If thou seekest a monument, look around’. For he did much to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
My Days and My Ways, page 287
His ‘monument’ can rightly be seen as the worldwide Brotherhood today, and also by a list of his major writings, most of which are still readily available:
- The Bible Companion, reduced from the original seven to the present three portions per day (1853–1869)
- Twelve Lectures (1862), then, with additional chapters, Christendom Astray (1884)
- The Birmingham Amended Statement of the Faith (BASF), including positive and negative clauses and the Commandments of Christ (1864–1898)
- The Ambassador of the Coming Age / The Christadelphian magazine, 34 years as Editor (1864–1898)
- The Golden Harp hymn book, and subsequent revisions (1864, 1869, 1874)
- The Slain Lamb (1873)
- Seasons of Comfort (1879), Further Seasons of Comfort (1884)
- Thirteen Lectures on the Apocalypse (1880)
- The Ways of Providence (1881)
- The Trial (1882)
- The Visible Hand of God (1883)
- A Guide to the Formation and Conduct of Christadelphian Ecclesias (1883)
- Dr Thomas: His Life and Work (1884)
- Letters to the Elect of God in a Time of Trouble, The Final Consolation (1885)
- The Christadelphian Instructor (1886)
- Nazareth Revisited (1890)
- The Blood of Christ (1895)
- England’s Ruin (1895)
- The Law of Moses (1898)
- True Principles and Uncertain Details (1898)
- The Ministry of the Prophets – Isaiah chapters 1 to 5 (1898)
As important as his writings and addresses are, his example of profound care for all the brethren, whether materially or spiritually, stands out, especially his frequent efforts to bring about unity between brethren. Like his Lord, “for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor 8:9).