RADIANT GLORY
THE LIFE
OF
MARTHA WING ROBINSON
By
GORDON P. GARDINER
Copyright © 1962 by Gordon Gardiner, 1987 by Robert D. Kalis and Paul Munsinger
To the memory of
My Mother and Father
who dared to prove all things
and to hold fast that which was good.
PREFACE
MARTHA WING ROBINSON was an unassuming, little woman, her name known to few besides those with whom she had immediate contact during her lifetime. Among those few, however, were several ministers and missionaries who have labored extensively and successfully in this and other lands, and during the course of their ministry they have referred to the unusual life and experience of their teacher to whom they owed so much. In addition to their testimony numerous of Mrs. Robinson’s writings have been published and circulated the world over in recent years. The result is that today the name of Martha Wing Robinson is much more widely known and her influence far greater than when she died in 1936, over a quarter of a century ago.
With this increase of knowledge of the name and of the works of Mrs. Robinson, there has come an increased interest in her and the desire to know more about her. To satisfy this wish is one of the purposes of this biography.
The story of Martha Wing Robinson is the odyssey of a soul from “the quicksands on Unbelief’s shore” to Beulah Land — “a land flowing with the milk and honey of His own presence,” to employ her own descriptive phrases of these experiences. Converted from near-atheism just before the turn of this century, she immediately consecrated herself to a life of prayer, Bible study, and implicit obedience to the will of God. At that time she was an invalid, pronounced incurable by attending physicians, but during the course of her seeking God, He revealed to her Christ as the Healer of the body with the result that she was made every whit whole. Forthwith, she entered upon a life of active and useful Christian service. As she continued her life of prayer and obedience, she was led on into a number of deeper experiences with God, and with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1906, she found Christ as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit.
With her baptism in the Spirit, the Lord gave her an all consuming cry to know Jesus in all His fullness, to sink into nothingness herself, and to be absolutely and fully possessed by Christ in her body as well as in her soul. And after nine months of the most intense crying out to God, overwhelming as it may seem, God met her in exactly the manner which her soul craved.
Thus it was that Martha Wing Robinson was used of God to blaze a trail, for others to follow, into the realm of God’s complete possession of body and spirit where it is literally and actually true — not just figuratively or spiritually speaking — that it is ‘Christ living in me.” Most fittingly, therefore, she has been called a trail blazer.
“Perhaps to the majority of Christians, settled down with their beginning experiences with Christ, wonderful as they may be, Mrs. Robinson’s intense passion for Christ is almost unintelligible,” commented one of the critics who reviewed this book in manuscript. “And yet it is ironic that to many who so glibly use the clichés of Christianity it should seem strange when God permits one of His lovers to experience actually the fullness of God.”
This narrative does not purport to be a complete record either of Mrs. Robinson’s personal experiences or of her ministry. Truly “it is only a slight part of the story and great wonder of God.” The salient facts of her life, however, are set before the reader with the hope that he will note the notches which she left on the trail and so be encouraged and inspired to go on until he, too, finds Jesus Christ in all His fullness.
Ridgewood, N. Y. March 20, 1962
Gordon P. Gardiner
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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.