The Life And Ministry Of Robert Roff

Gospel Standard 1863:

Mr. Robert Roff, Minister Of The Gospel, Stow-On-The-Wold, Gloucestershire.

My deceased friend was called by grace about the year 1823. While under great exercise of soul, as he walked with me he used to sigh and groan, not knowing what to do; and sometimes along-side a wall near the road which led to my home he would pour out his soul in prayer to God. When parting he would say, “Do pray for me;” and I being in the same state of feeling, would reply, “And you pray for me.” When we went on the Lord’s day to the Baptist chapel, his looks in some measure spoke out the inward feelings of his soul, as if weighed down with grief and sorrow. Sometimes when I have met him, his first looks seemed as if he were a little eased of his burden; and when he spoke out he would say, “I have a little hope.” After some weeks of exercise, sorrow, and woe, on a day he never could forget, as he was sitting at the tea-table with his heart ready to break, he got up, and, going into his little room, took the Bible to read before he bowed his knees. He opened the book, when a solemn feeling came over his soul, and such joy unspeakable entered into his breast as obliged him to bow his knees to praise instead of pray. All his sins he could see were put away, and that his soul was covered with Christ’s precious robe. This made him sing for joy and gladness of heart. And one time, as he went part of the way home with me, he said the Lord blessed him in such a way as, to use his own words, “I was as light as a feather. All gloom, sin, and sorrow were gone, and Jesus shone with brightness and glory.” But he has said many times since it was somewhat of a trial to him ofttimes, because he could not say his deliverance was by the word of God spoken home to his soul; but many, many times after that, before the Lord called him to preach his holy gospel, as he was led on in a trying path, the Lord made his promises sweet to his soul; so that he could say, “I go on from strength to strength.”

About the year 1824, he, with myself, was baptized, and joined the General Baptist Church at Stow. The minister at that time thought a good deal of us, and made very much of us. While amongst them, my departed brother told me what a solemn feeling came on his mind while in the chapel one day about preaching. These words came with great power to his soul: “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.”

At first he used to go to villages to read sermons on a Sunday evening, but would sometimes break off and go on without the book, and speak out the feelings of his soul, till at length he took only the Bible, and was compelled to speak, by the help of the Lord, the words which the Lord gave him; and then he spoke before the people at the chapel, who professed to say they heard him well, and wished to encourage him. After this, he was sent out to several places to preach, till at length the Lord gave him clearer light into the truths of the gospel, and a more feeling acquaintance with him in an experimental way; when he was obliged to tell the way God had led him in, and trace out the paths of God’s people. While doing so, he caused a little stir amongst some great professors, and a union feeling amongst some living souls; and as we met for prayer and read- ing the word of God in the chapel, we sometimes found a little refreshing from the presence of the Lord, as we mingled together in speaking of the goodness of God to us, and felt a dissatisfaction in some things of the free-will and duty-faith system brought forward in the pulpit by the minister we sat under; so that we were obliged to speak of his inconsistency; and for so doing the chapel was closed against us, so that we should not meet for prayer; and afterwards six of us were separated. To use my friends own words, which I have just seen written in a little book of his: “Six of us were unanimously excluded from the Baptist church at Stow, in the year 1830, for no other reason but a conscientious adherence to the precious truths of our covenant God and Father, as they signally stand in his written word, as they are revealed in the hearts and minds of his elect, and as they are drawn into act and exercise by the Lord the Holy Ghost. In consequence of which, after laying the matter at the feet of his blessed Majesty, we were constrained to take a house; and in this we continued to meet together for divine worship, the Lord being pleased to fulfil his gracious promise, ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I;’ and he has been with us and blessed us many, many times.” He said also in a letter to me sometime before he died, “These troubles and trials furnish us with messages to the feet of him who saves to the uttermost, and says, ‘Call upon ME in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me;’ and who also said to me many years ago, ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass;’ which truth he has been pleased to verify in my creature, my Christian, and my ministerial career, until this morning, which finds me with no other resting place than the Rock of Ages, no other refuge than that which is for the destitute, and neither hope nor help but in him who is both to the hopeless and helpless, the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof. Here, my dear brother, I cling, I look, I hang, in my decline of life, which I feel much, being in my 66th year; and this brings its train of feelings unknown to the robust, young, and strong, but daily reminds me that ere long, I must (or rather the Lord will) fold up this robe of mortality and lay it in the dusty chamber till the morning of the resurrection, when it shall be reassumed, and mortality be swallowed up of life. O my brother, to have a hope in these things, as thou knowest well, is indeed better than all things without the same. In regard to my bodily health, I have lately been very poorly, in a declining state, accompanied with great nervous prostration, which in its very nature causes both physical and mental weakness, depressing the soul as with a deadening weight, an experience of which has been useful in the Lord’s hand of leading me into the sighs and secrets of many of the Lord’s dear children, in different parts of the vineyard, under the ministrations of his holy gospel, which, in numbers of instances, he has owned and blessed, testimonies of which I am frequently receiving.”

After we met together in the house, we met with great persecution; but, in spite of all our foes could do or say, God appeared. One after another came to hear, and their ears were so far opened that they were obliged to come, until their hearts were so affected as to speak out what God had done for their souls, and there was an adding to the little number.

In 1832, (I think it was,) my dear friend was invited to go to a village about six miles from Stow, to preach in a room, where many heard the word gladly. After this, he was invited to go to another village about eight miles from Stow, and many could speak of the power attending the word; and then to another, about nine miles; and there the Lord owned his truth, so that many can now say he was not sent in vain.

Many years have passed away since he was invited to London, Bath, Birmingham, Trowbridge, Liverpool, and other places, where there were some witnesses of the power of the truth through him to their souls; and ofttimes I have heard him say, “What blessed work to be honoured by the Lord to preach his most holy gospel, and exalt the name of Jesus in proclaiming the truth of God feelingly as the Lord hath opened it to our souls by the Holy Ghost; and I should like to live and die in the work.”

Mr. K. was one whose delight was to honour the Lord Jesus Christ in speaking of him in his Sonship, as being one with the Father in his Divine Person, and in his God-man character as Mediator and Surety for his people, and extolling him very high. One time, about 23 years ago, he was preaching from these words: “For as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil;” and while preaching on the Sonship of Christ, a man in the congregation contradicted him; but he maintained his ground and fought for the Lord’s honour; and at Bath, when the error on the Eternal Sonship sprang up, he opposed it with the might and ability God gave him; and though he and myself were spoken against for going while the error was there, we were compelled to go and preach the truth, opposing the error, believing God would, in his own good time, appear; and as he said to me, “My brother, how can we leave them now? Let us fulfil our engagements, and who can tell what God will not do? And there did he fight, sword in hand, the Lord’s battles, opposing those who denied the Eternal Sonship; and he would ofttimes say, “Why, if he is not the only-begotten Son of God in his Divine Person, then he could only be what they say he is, an Eternal Son by name or covenant, and then not God’s real Son; but,” said he, “he is the only-begotten Son of God in his Divine Person; and I believe it, let the enemies sneer as they may, and try to carnalise it.” This was before the error broke out in London; so that neither of us had our views from Mr. Philpot. No, no. And as to myself, I can say I had this truth upon my knees nearly 30 years ago, and could go to the floor I was kneeling when God appeared and revealed it to my heart.

The last note I received from my friend was about six weeks before he died. He wrote as follows:

“My dear Friend and Brother in the ties of Grace and Graciousness, Love, and Blood, not the blood of bulls and goats, which were only shadows, but of God’s dear Son that cleanseth from all sin, the sacred streams from the gospel set open for sin and uncleanness for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all for you; yes, for you; and I have a gracious hope for me also, poor worm me, who in myself am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing but sin; but who in my Lord, my dear Lord Jesus, am all, have all, and can do all through his strength made perfect in my great weakness, and whose grace has been hitherto sufficient for me; yea, and yourself also; that has so mercifully brought us through all floods and flames, storms and tempests, up till now, to whom I am necessitated to look for the future of my hitherto eventful life. Having no native stock or inward reserve to help me in times of need, my hope, my expectation, my all is in him, where I have long known yours is also. I published you for morning and evening next Sunday, once more to sound the gospel trumpet in our little despised place; and I pray God the Holy Ghost to bring you up in the fulness, freeness, and blessedness of the gospel of the Prince of Peace and peacefulness, God’s Eternal Son, the essential Word made flesh, who dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only and eternally-begotten Son of the eternal and everlasting Father, full of grace and truth, of whose fulness have we in our little measure received, and grace for grace, No small mercy this, my brother, amidst all the errors on this glorious truth, to be settled and established therein, which I bless the Lord I am in my simple measure, not having hitherto been moved by all the natural writing and reasoning thereon from this sweet point of our most holy faith.

“I am still very weak and poorly, but have been helped hitherto, bless his dear name, and hope to be so in my journey once more to Bath. Expecting to see you soon, with love to all friends,

“I am, Yours as ever,

“R. Roff.

“Stow, Oct. 13^th, 1862.”

The last time but one that I saw him, he was speaking how God had honoured him while exalting Jesus in proclaiming him as the only-begotten Son of God in his Divine Person, and he said, “Go on, my friend. The Lord will stand by you.” After this, he said, “God has been so helping me of late, and blessing me in the work since I have been at home, preaching twice on the Lord’s day, that I know I am in my right place. We have three, who have given good testimony of a work of grace upon their souls, coming forward for baptism, besides others who can say, ‘God is amongst us of a truth.'”

He had often said, “If it is the Lord’s will, I should like to preach and honour my Lord to the last;” and he was laid aside only two Sabbaths before he died. The last Lord’s day he was at the chapel was Nov. 9th. Being very weak, he went in the morning and took his seat by the side of his wife, and told the people he should preach to them a silent sermon, and perhaps that would be more profitable to them than a vocal one; arid then called a prayer meeting, closing the same himself by prayer. In the evening he walked to the chapel, when one of the friends read and prayed. After which our friend spoke for about 20 minutes, taking for his text; “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” And it was a time not to be forgotten by many, as some thought it would be the last time; and one told me it appeared as if the Lord was getting him ripe for glory.

On Sunday, Nov. 16th, while sitting at home talking to his sister- in-law of the power of the truth, and of his being near his end, putting his hands together, he said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” His sister-in-law, in answer, said, “I have not fought like you;” but both could join as to the crown in prospect.

Nov. 21st. After he had been speaking to his wife on the sufferings of Christ, he was looking earnestly about the room, when she asked him what he was looking at. He said, “The fire in the garden;” and she thought he meant the fiery sufferings of Christ in the garden; but, being weak, he could not talk much.

Nov. 23rd. He said to a friend who had been a few minutes in the room, “It is of him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” The same evening his son-in-law came to see him, when he took hold of his hand and said, “May the Lord bless you, and give you wisdom, prudence, discretion, and honesty to follow your daily calling, and give you grace.”

He said to his wife sometime before his death, “Satan is not suffered to buffet me in the least. I can die in peace with all men.”

Nov. 24th. His wife asked him if he had any fears. He answered, “No, no. Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Afterwards he was in great pain, when he said, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and correcteth every son whom he receiveth.” After that he had no more pain of body. The same evening a friend said to him, “You are going to heaven;” when he replied, “And you will be there.”

The night before he died, he said to his daughter, 

“‘On the Rock of Ages founded, 

What can shake thy sure repose?

With salvation’s walls surrounded, 

Thou mayst smile at all thy foes.”’

The same night the son said, “Father, is Christ precious?” “Yes, yes.” “Father, give me one more loving look.” He did so, when the child burst into a flood of tears, and said afterwards, “I shall never forget that look.”

Nov. 26th. In the morning, about one o’clock, he whispered to his wife, as well as he could, “I want to sing; I want to sing.” She said you will soon sing, ‘Hallelujah to God and the Lamb.'” He tried to reply, but could not; but afterwards kissed his wife, and said, “Good bye.” He then turned his head on the pillow, and went gently down to the last, agreeably to his many repeated prayers, which were for a gentle decline down into the silent tomb. He breathed his last about six o’clock in the morning.

Truly “the memory of the just is blessed;” and, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”

The church has lost a loving pastor; but their loss is his gain. He laboured for some years amongst them in the house before named; and when that became too small, they built a chapel, where he preached for more than 20 years before his death. The place was well attended, and is now free from debt, agreeably to his wish many years ago that he might leave it free from any incumbrance. But they are now in want of a pastor to go in and out before them as an under-shepherd, to feed them. Their desire is to have one of God’s sending, and with views in accordance with the word of God, like their late pastor; and to preach, as felt and known experimentally for themselves, the living word of God.

His widow felt the stroke keenly, having lost a bosom friend and loving husband; but her Lord has greatly supported her and borne up her poor mind far above what she ever expected; so that she has found him to be faithful who said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

The children have lost a praying father and instructor; one who loved them dearly, wept for them, and took his leave of them in prayer and hope that God might bless them indeed.

And as to myself, I have lost a companion and true yoke-fellow. I feel it keenly; but it is the Lord’s taking hand, and he cannot do but what is right. I should be glad to hear that God had sent the people a man to preach his truth, whom I could take by the hand as another true yoke-fellow, that we might work together in love; but ” there is nothing too hard for the Lord.”

He was buried in the Stow Cemetery on Dec. 2nd. The body was first carried to the chapel, when I spoke from a few verses, 1 Cor. 15, before a number of people, more than could get into the chapel. The body was then carried to the cemetery, where it was deposited, “dust to dust, ashes to ashes,” for it to remain till the resurrection morning. After speaking over the grave to a large number of persons and friends, many having come from a distance to show their respect to their departed friend, I took the last look into the silent tomb, and separated with thoughts and feelings not to be expressed. G. Gorton

Our Pastor is gone, and our spirits are drooping,

As, like lonely widows, we wail o’er the dead;

Our hearts, sorely bruised, like a bulrush are stooping, 

And our eyes are bedimm’d by tears which we shed.

We shall see him no more,

And we deeply deplore

The loss of our teacher, our father, and guide,

From whose ministrations

Flowed rich consolations;

But ah! the sweet stream that refreshed us is dried.

May we turn from the streamlet to drink at the fountain 

Which still, everflowing, appears to our view;

Our Jesus still reigns on the glorious mountain, 

Our poor drooping spirits by grace to renew.

As we bow down before him,

And humbly adore him,

O may he refresh us with draughts of his love.

May we follow our friend,

Who had peace in his end,

Until we rejoin him in regions above.

He is comforted now, he is landed in glory, 

With Jesus secure in the regions of bliss;

He is gone to continue the soul-cheering story 

In yon happy world which he published in this;

For redemption’s sweet story

Is chanted in glory.

Our friend’s happy spirit has joined the bright throng

So prostrate before him,

And ever adore him,

To whom all the praise and the glory belong.

His armour he left on the brink of the river;

His sword and his helmet, he needs them no more; 

He laid down the silver trumpet for ever;

But he strikes th’ golden harp on the heavenly shore.

The song is “Salvation!”

The justified nation

Arrayed in white robes are surrounding the throne.

Hark, how they rejoice!

With one heavenly voice

They re-echo his praise who died to atone.

Ah! Never again shall the tempter molest them, 

For they are now free from sin, sorrow, and pain; 

Nor sickness nor sore tribulation distress them, 

For each tear is dried by the Lamb that was slain.

To the fountain he leads them,

And sweetly he feeds them,

And joy everlasting their portion shall be.

My soul is on fire

To join the blest choir.

O when, blessed Jesus, shall I thy face see?

C. Spire