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FREDERICK WILLIAM ROBERTSON (1816-1853)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 405 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FREDERICK See also:WILLIAM See also:ROBERTSON (1816-1853)  , See also:English divine, known as See also:Robertson of See also:Brighton, was See also:born in See also:London on the 3rd of See also:February 1816_ The first five years of his See also:life were passed at See also:Leith Fort, where his See also:father, a See also:captain in the Royal See also:Artillery, was then See also:resident . The military spirit entered into his See also:blood, and throughout life he was characterized by the; qualities of the ideal soldier . In 1821 Captain Robertson retired to See also:Beverley, where the boy was educated . At the See also:age of fourteen he spent a See also:year at See also:Tours, from which he returned to See also:Scotland, and continued his See also:education at the See also:Edinburgh See also:Academy. and university . In 1834 he was articled to a See also:solicitor in See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds, but the uncongenial and sedentary employment soon See also:broke down his See also:health . He was anxious for a military career, and his name was placed upon the See also:list to return to See also:Cheltenham, but after doing See also:duty for two months at St Ebbe's,.See also:Oxford, he entered in See also:August 2847 on his famous See also:ministry at Trinity See also:Chapel, Brighton . Here he stepped at once into the foremost See also:rank as a preacher, and his See also:church was thronged with thoughtful men of all classes in society and of all shades of religious belief . His See also:fine See also:appearance, his flexible and sympathetic See also:voice, his See also:manifest sincerity, the perfect lucidity and See also:artistic symmetry of his address, and the brilliance with which he illustrated his points would have attracted hearers even had he had little to say . But he had much to say, He was not, indeed, a scientific theologian; but his in-sight into the principles of the spiritutal life was unrivalled . As his biographer says, thousands found in his sermons " a living source of impulse, a See also:practical direction of thought, a See also:key to many of the problems of See also:theology, and above all a path to spiritual freedom." His closing years were full of sadness . His sensitive nature was subjected to extreme suffering, arising mainly from the opposition aroused by ' his sympathy with the revolutionary ideas of the 1848 See also:epoch . Moreover, he was crippled by incipient: disease of the See also:brain, which at first inflicted unconquerable lassitude and depression, and latterly agonizing See also:pain .

On the 5th of See also:

June 1853 he preached for the last See also:time, and on the 15th of August he died . Robertson's published See also:works include five volumes of sermons, two volumes of expository lectures, on See also:Genesis and on the epistles to the See also:Corinthians, a See also:volume of See also:miscellaneous addresses, and an See also:Analysis of " In Memoriam." See Life and Letters by Stopford A . See also:Brooke (1865) .

End of Article: FREDERICK WILLIAM ROBERTSON (1816-1853)
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