He got off to a rough start after his father died while he was young and his mother was unable to control him, so she sent him off to London, thinking it would settle him down to learn a respectful trade. All he learned though was drinking and gang-life. At 17 he and some of his friends visited a fortune teller for fun. Relaxed and incognitive because of the alcohol, they laughed when she tried to tell them their futures. But something bothered him about that encounter with the medium and he talked his buddies into attending an evangelistic meeting by George Whitefield that evening.
Whitefield was one of the most prominent preachers of the day and one who could hold throngs of people almost spellbound for hours as his fiery messages went forth! Preaching from Matthew 3:7 "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, 'Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He burst into tears and yelled, "Oh my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!
The young man immediately sobered up and sensed that Whitefield was preaching directly at him! The preacher's words haunted him for nearly 3 years until December 1755 when he gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Robert Robinson soon entered the ministry and at 23 years of age was preaching at Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England. Little did he know when he passed away in the Lord's work in 1790, at the age of 54, that the song He wrote for the sermon he was preaching on that Pentecost Sunday "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" would bless the hearts of multiplied millions world-wide for generations to come!