“THAT IS THE young woman whom I told you about two weeks ago. I have brought her to you.”
This was the word which the Lord spoke to Mrs. Robinson when Mrs. Marlatt announced to her that there was a young woman—Miss Eva MacPhail, who wished to see her. Miss MacPhail had heard of Mrs. Robinson for the first time earlier that same day and had made haste to come to see her if possible.
Miss MacPhail came of a long Scotch ancestry in whose veins flowed the blood of martyrs. While a student in Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, she had received a mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit. An energetic, zealous, personal worker, she had a great love for souls. After graduation from Moody Bible Institute, she had volunteered for missionary service in China and had been accepted by the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Then followed a period of such questioning and uncertainty about her decision, during which she lost the glory of her baptism, that she set aside a day for fasting and prayer—February 14, l909—to ascertain the perfect will of God for her. As she waited upon the Lord He made it clear to her that she should go to the president of the Woman’s Auxiliary Band and tell her she would not go to China. When she promised to do this, back came all the glory which had left her.
Before going to the board with her announcement the next day, Miss MacPhail stopped to see a friend, Mrs. Peter Toews, whose husband was a professor of modern languages in Toronto University. She had met both Professor and Mrs. Toews at Pentecostal meetings in the city, for these educated people were humble seekers after the truth of God. Sewing that day for Mrs. Toews was a poor widow woman, Mrs. Mallaby, in whose home Elder and Mrs. Brooks and their children were then living.
As Mrs. Mallaby heard Miss MacPhail’s story, she ventured a suggestion: “The Lord shows me you should meet a Mrs. Robinson who has been shut up with the Lord for three months at Five St. Albans Street.” To this suggestion Miss MacPhail felt an immediate response in her soul. After tending to her errand at the Woman’s Auxiliary Band, she went directly to the address of the Marlatts, arriving there in the late afternoon, and asked to see Mrs. Robinson who indicated she should come to her room.
“Mrs. Robinson had a little common room, directly over the kitchen,” Miss MacPhail related, “which was simply furnished with a sheet iron stove, one chair, and a wooden bed. But when I entered that room, I thought I was in heaven, the presence of the Lord was so greatly manifested there. Mrs. Robinson was sitting on the floor, wrapped about in a blue woolen bathrobe, when I entered. Soon the glory of the Lord so filled our souls that we were dancing under the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Then the Lord began to speak through Mrs. Robinson, teaching Miss MacPhail. He discerned her experience, the present needs she had in her life, and gave her a mighty deliverance, so that she was freed from certain bondages which otherwise would have destroyed her usefulness in the kingdom of God and completely wrecked her own life. How exceedingly free and happy Miss MacPhail was and how bowed in humility and thanksgiving that, exactly at the right time, in His great mercy, God had so miraculously brought her in contact with one by whose ministry she could be so greatly helped and delivered.
About seven o’clock Mr. Robinson, who had been away working, joined them, and Mrs. Robinson continued teaching and ministering by the power of the Holy Ghost. At eight o’clock there was a rap at the door. Elder and Mrs. Brooks had been definitely led of the Lord to come from their home in the country, ten miles away, to see Mrs. Robinson that night. When the Brookses had settled themselves—the room was so small that visitors could be accommodated no other place than on the floor—the Lord began to speak concerning His plan and said that He now had the ones together He had been waiting for and that they should start regular meetings Wednesday night (Feb. 17, 1909). These services were not to be advertised, but they should let the Lord send in the people whom He would.
It was eleven o’clock before the little group separated that night. The six and a half hours that Miss MacPhail had been with Mrs. Robinson had passed so swiftly that they seemed but a few minutes. By this visit, the course of her whole life and ministry was completely changed. On the same occasion there was inaugurated a five-fold fellowship of friendship and ministry which would be broken only by death.
The meetings were begun in due order and held on Sunday afternoon in the Marlatt home and once a week on Saturday night in Mrs. Mallaby’s home. To accommodate everybody, the group sat on the kitchen floor in the latter place. Eagerly and hungrily the worshippers gathered and, Quaker fashion, waited upon the Lord for Him to manifest Himself in whatever way He chose. And how the hungry were fed and the thirsty satisfied with the bread and water of life as it was ministered through His vessel.
“The thing which blessed people so greatly in Mrs. Robinson’s teaching was that she pointed them to Christ,” Mrs. Brooks testified. “It was not a new doctrine which was preached; it was just the simplicity of the gospel, Christ Himself. He alone was exalted. The Lord met with those who gathered there in a great way and performed many miracles of divine grace in our midst.”
Among those who regularly attended these cottage meetings were Professor and Mrs. Toews. Humbly they took their places on the floor with the other members of the group, most of whom were poor and from less-educated walks of life. In one of these simple services, Mrs. Robinson said that the Lord would like somebody to offer a room in his home where Miss MacPhail could wait upon time Lord absolutely uninterrupted for as long as He desired. A stiff Prussian gentleman, Professor Toews was not given to entertaining guests and was especially averse to having strangers in his house, for he did not desire anyone to intrude on his privacy nor to interrupt the routine of his home life. Nevertheless, Professor Toews immediately offered a room in his home for this purpose.
There Miss MacPhail went and for five weeks tarried until she was endued with power from on high. During this period time Lord changed Miss MacPhail so completely that she was brought out of the natural into the spiritual in body as well as soul. He possessed her and gave her a truly “spiritual mind”—the mind of Christ—”where,” as she described it, “I was conscious of Jesus only.” In this connection, among other blessings, she was given a gift of prophecy.
The Lord gave Mrs. Brooks a similar call. For years, she had been asking God to come to her, and in the months immediately preceding this time, God had been preparing His servant for this next step by a great emptying out of her self and by the crucifixion of her flesh. Therefore, God was able to work very quickly in her soul and body. At that time God gave her the gift of the word of wisdom. Some little time later the Lord poured out His Spirit upon Elder Brooks and gave him a gift of interpretation of tongues and “the power to preach by the Lord in prophecy and wisdom.”
“The Lord guided and controlled our actions in a supernatural way,” wrote Mrs. Brooks in a short, autobiographical account, “and we entered into an experience somewhat similar to that which Mrs. Robinson had entered into in November, 1907. . . . By the experience which the Lord gave me at this time, my inner life and communion with Jesus was completely changed as well as my ministry. I had found Him Whom my soul loved and longed for. I lived continually in His presence and under the shadow of His wing. Christ had become very real to me.... God had answered the prayer which he had put on me... when I prayed that He would come to me and do the work Himself—the work we were not sufficient to do.”
Many years later Mrs. Robinson described these early days in this way: “Away back in the beginning of this work when we prayed through to our death, we passed over into a change, which was not like anything we had ever heard of. It included everything from head to foot.... In a moment we were gone and a greater One was there. Entire spirit, soul, and body were in a new and divine control. We walked out of the natural into the spiritual in the body as well as in the soul. This was the experience by which God opened this work.”
All who attended the gatherings of the first year of the work in Toronto were unanimous in their testimony that they never witnessed before or after meetings upon which the presence of God rested so greatly and in which God worked so supernaturally. On the “platform” were Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, Elder and Mrs. Brooks, and Miss MacPhail. These five ministered as a unit, one or another being used of God as the Holy Spirit led or directed, supplementing or complementing the ministry of each other, all working in harmony and to one end. A marvelous example of the teaching set forth in First Corinthians twelve—”many members . . . one body,” “diversities of gifts,” of ministries, and of operations, but the same Spirit.
“We always sat in silence until the Lord began to do something—give some prophecy . . or some teaching by wisdom through Mrs. Robinson. Sometimes all of us just sat in silence, worshipping God for quite awhile, and then we would sometimes have wonderful praises.” Such was the description of the meetings by Miss McPhail.
It is very important that one understands the various references to prophecy in this narrative. It does not refer to or imply the foretelling of future events. No. Rather, as in the Word of God, he that prophesied spake “to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (See I Cor. 14:3). In addition, by prophecy, oftentimes the secrets of the hearts of those present were made manifest. (See I Cor. 14:25). By such ministrations God convinced many of the authenticity of the gifts manifested, showed them their need, and brought victory into their lives. Nor were these parlor meetings a mutual admiration society, “saints” gathering to feed on messages, dreaming dreams, and building aircastles. No. The ministry was too strong for that. Flesh was exposed. People were told the truth about their natures. Often this was uncomfortable. Only the great presence of God could make such a ministry possible. God confirmed His word with signs following. People were healed, baptized in the Spirit, and delivered from many bondages.
Almost thirty years later one of this first group—”old Mrs. Dunlop”—testified that in one of these early meetings she was instantly and perfectly delivered from chronic—probably migraine—headaches by the word of His power. Never after did she have a single one of these headaches, though they had been her horror for years previously. A minor miracle, one might say, unless one has been distracted with such a torment for years, or lived with one so afflicted.
At the beginning of the meeting one night, the Lord spoke through Mrs. Robinson and named four or five people present who had not received their baptism in the Holy Ghost as yet. He went on to say that He would baptize all of these people that night before they left the meeting if they would be willing to receive the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues. Those mentioned said they would. Then one of the ministers saw in a vision, or by the Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ enter the meeting with a lighted lantern in His hand. This He held before each one who had been indicated. That was all “the evidence” there was.
During the next few days, however, reports began to come from members of the families of the baptized ones how they had been so tremendously changed. The fruit of the Spirit— love, joy, peace—was manifested in such a marked degree that others could not but notice it and be impressed. In due time, throughout the next two years, one and then another did speak in tongues “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” All except one woman. Her husband, a denominational minister, was so opposed to tongues that it seemed the Lord withheld that evidence in her case.
All this while meetings had been held in the house which the Marlatts rented. Most unexpectedly, on the first of April, 1909, Mr. Marlatt received a notice from his landlord to move out, that the back yard was going to be taken to be added to a lumber yard. “He got all wrought up,” wrote Mrs. Robinson in a letter to a friend. “There was a question of law that he looked into, something about lumber being too near a building. He didn’t want to move, as it is a very good place for him. He thought he could block the lumber yard and hold on to the house, for they wouldn’t let him go if they couldn’t get that back yard. He blew around about it for a day or two, and then it occurred to him to ask the Lord about it.
“Now Mrs. Marlatt talked this way: ‘If Jesus wants us to move, then we want to move, and if He doesn’t want us to move, we’ll stay, lumber or no lumber. We’ll stay at the price we have to pay, whether we like it or don’t like it. When we move we’ll let the Lord pick the house out. I’m perfectly willing to turn time whole thing over to the Lord and never do a thing until He directs.’
“Mr. Marlatt readily agreed. He wanted those directions right that minute, and not a sign of a direction could he get. He waited, and he waited, and he waited. He would remind me about four times a day. The notice was upon them. They had boarders who were a part of their support. They did not know where in the city they could get a suitable house, and they were dreadfully willing to do anything the Lord told them to do, and they asked about four times a day.
“I don’t know that they would ever have gotten an answer if they had not died over it. They simply got to the place where there was no answer, and they slowly and unconsciously rose up to the consecration they had just made to truly turn it over to God. It was on the first of the month that they had notice to be out on the thirtieth. About the fifteenth they stopped inquiring of the Lord. About the twentieth they were quite happy. By the twenty-fifth they had forgotten they ever had a notice, and by the twenty-ninth they were cheerfully remarking in a jovial way that they were ready to get out on the street anytime, but that God was going to keep them there evidently.
“On the evening of the twenty-ninth, in a little meeting, the Lord suddenly spoke through me quite unexpectedly, ‘Mrs. Marlatt, Jesus says your house is a very nice place for these meetings. He will keep you here for the summer.
“The next day the landlord said to Mr. Marlatt in a very humble sort of way, ‘By the way, Marlatt, did you make any move after that notice?’
“Mr. Marlatt said, ‘Not a move.
“The man answered, ‘Well, we’d awfully like to have you stay.’
“And Mr. Marlatt said, ‘Yes, so the Lord said.’”
Mrs. Robinson went on to “point the moral and adorn the tale” for the benefit of the correspondents to whom she related the incident, showing some of the ways of the Lord when one wants to be led of Him: “When Mrs. Marlatt turned that over to the Lord, she did it absolutely. She did not worry. She believed God would hold the house for her. Mr. Marlatt ….failed to deal directly with God in passive faith. If Mrs. Marlatt alone had been dealing with the matter, that message would have been given the day she turned it over to the Lord. But to give Mr. Marlatt the opportunity to come in the same passive faith and perfectly restful obedience, Mr. Marlatt was allowed to ‘die’ [to his impatience] by getting no message, and Mrs. Marlatt shared the little privation with him.”
Among those who came to the meetings in the Marlatt home was Mrs. Aman in whose home on Big Island the Robinsons had stayed the previous summer. During Mrs. Aman’s visit the Lord baptized her in the Holy Spirit and greatly blessed her, and she invited the Robinsons to her home again. Consequently, accompanied by Miss MacPhail, they spent two months amid the truly enchanting surroundings of their beautiful island. Much of this time was spent in prayer and waiting upon God, and Mrs. Robinson was used to teach the Word.
About this time, the Lord showed Mrs. Robinson that He desired that a house should be secured in Toronto, suitable both for living quarters for the various ministers who had been brought together and for holding the services. Mrs. Robinson, however, was restrained from saying a single word to anyone about the Lord’s plan until He had revealed the same thing to one of the other ministers, Mrs. Brooks. Thus, in the mouth of two independent witnesses, was the matter established.
Naturally speaking, Sunday night, the twelfth of December, 1909, was not a propitious time to announce such a venture. The day had been cold and miserable. The thermometer had not risen above 29 degrees, and at the time of the evening service it was snowing. Three inches of snow fell that day. But God’s ways are not man’s ways, and the Lord had said that the announcement of the proposed home was to be made in the service that night. Therefore, in spite of the fact that only a very few were present, due to the inclement weather, the announcement was made exactly as the Lord had directed it should be.
Now the Lord had said that the home should be opened Wednesday of that week—three days from then. Not a single preparation had been made for such a move. As yet, they had not even looked for a place. Furthermore, as for cash, the ministers did not have more than ten cents between them! To rent, to furnish, and to move into a place within three days was almost unthinkable.
During the course of the meeting, however, just when the Lord so directed, it was announced that the Lord desired to have a home for such purposes as already indicated, that it was to be opened on Wednesday of that week. To do this seventy-five dollars were needed.
Immediately after this announcement, an old man in the audience, Alexander Campbell, gave exactly seventy-five dollars for the proposed home and then told how he happened to have that amount with him. After he had left his home that evening for the meeting, he had been impressed to return and to get seventy-five dollars from the safe of his grocery store. So strong was this feeling that in spite of the weather and the fact that he could see no need for having such a sum, he retraced his steps and secured the money. Thus, most signally, the Lord confirmed His word.
But this was but the beginning of wonders. The next morning, at the direction of the Lord, Mrs. Brooks and Miss MacPhail went out and, under the power of the Holy Ghost, walked until they came to 23 Surrey Place, a house just east of the Ontario Parliament Building. There they were stopped, and the Lord said to them, “This is the house.” Then they learned the house was for sale.
Immediately they proceeded to the agent’s office and asked to rent it. When the owner learned that it was desired for religious work, he gave permission for its rental at twenty-five dollars a month. These terms were acceptable, and forthwith the house was rented without further examining it, simply because the Lord had said it was the place He desired.
Once secured, they found it to be perfect in its appointments and layout for their purposes. On the first floor there were two large, adjoining rooms, completely separated from the kitchen and other rooms, which were suitable for the services. On the two upstairs floors the bedrooms were so arranged as to afford a maximum of privacy for all. Thus, once again the Lord confirmed His word and the direction given to His servants.
Finally, on Wednesday, the fifteenth, exactly as the Lord had said, those whom the Lord chose to move in first did so:
Elder and Mrs. Brooks, their two children, Ruth and Eugene, and Mrs. Mallaby and her two daughters, Velma and Pearl. Thus “the thing was done suddenly” for it was of the Lord, and God had prepared His people for it.
Now, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the house was fully furnished and made ready for the others whom the Lord designated to come. Within a few days Miss MacPhail and her sister Margaret joined the household. Margaret was to be a helper in prayer and together with Mrs. Mallaby, the efficient and ingenious housekeeper of the new family, was to care for the secular duties of the home, thus leaving the ministers free to give themselves “continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” At length, when the house was fully settled, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson came to live there, sometime after Christmas.
In addition to his original gift, Mr. Campbell sent a wagon-load of groceries and stocked the larder of the new home.
Within a month’s time the Lord supplied four hundred dollars from various sources for furnishings. A little later, Mr. Campbell, who received a call to the ministry, gave up his store and came to live in the home. Soon after his coming, the Lord poured out His Spirit upon him so that he became a very exceptional preacher. And so a sixth minister was added to the group.
Thus by His own ways and means the Lord brought together the people He desired to be in this Toronto faith home and selected and furnished the place itself by His own direction and appointment. And with the opening of this home, the attendance at the services increased and the work enlarged.
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Martha Wing Robinson (1874 - 1936)
Martha held meetings which touched people to return to the work of the service of God. The Robinsons opened a "Faith Home" where people would come for teaching and prayer. Like George Muller they depended on God to provide what was needed for expenses. Thousands came through her home and healings were a regular occurrence. Her husband died in April of 1916, but Martha continued in her ministry. She had a very sharp gift of discernment and regularly told people the secrets of their hearts. She often had directive prophetic words for those under her care. Many young people came to the home for training and went into the mission fields and evangelistic endeavours.Martha Wing Robinson died June 26, 1936. Shortly before she died she stated her life's message "Nothing matters but Christ Jesus." Her whole life was spent in the service of God and for the Glory of His Son Jesus. She had seen many healed, saved, delivered, empowered and sent out. She was truly a mother in Israel. In 1962 Gordon P. Gardiner wrote a book about her life called "Radiant Glory" because that is how she lived her life.