EZEKIEL OILMAN ROBINSON. 573 



with fellow students, and devoting his evenings to philosophy and 

 literature." 



After graduating from Newton in 1842, Mr. Robinson was ordained 

 and settled as pastor of a Baptist church in Norfolk, Virginia. Dur- 

 ing this pastorate he received leave of absence from his church, in 

 order to serve for the eight months of an academic year as chaplain 

 of the University of Virginia. 



After pastoral service of three years at Norfolk and one year at 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts, the call came to leave the pastorate and to 

 devote himself to the instruction of students for the ministry, and he 

 became Professor of Biblical Interpretation in the Western Baptist 

 Theological Institute at Covington, Kentucky. This connection was 

 terminated after two or three years of service, and Mr. Robinson 

 again entered the pastorate in 1850, in the service of the Ninth Street 

 Baptist Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. Here his reputation as a great 

 pulpit orator was firmly established. He became the foremost preacher 

 of the city, and his reputation was rapidly extending throughout the 

 country. But the man was coveted for other positions, and having 

 received an invitation to accept the chair of theology in the recently 

 established Seminary at Rochester, New York, he, after three years of 

 ministerial service, again left the pastorate for the Professor's chair. 



Although after leaving Cincinnati Dr. Robinson never re-entered 

 the pastorate, he continued to preach up to the time of his death. He 

 loved the work of the preacher ; he honored the preacher's office, and 

 in that office he was cons{)icuously successful. His sermons in Cincin- 

 nati and Rochester on Modern Skepticism, made deep and lasting 

 impression on the intelligent citizens who came in large numbers to 

 hear them ; and throughout his life he was an attractive, instructive, and 

 inspiring preacher. His pulpit presence was striking and effective ; 

 his conduct of worship was impressive and memorable ; but it was in 

 the sermon that his powerful personality came into fullest manifes- 

 tation. He was pre-eminently an instructive preacher. Not infre- 

 quently were his sermons packed with the results of the thinking of 

 months and years. On special occasions he appeared a veritable giant 

 in intellectual power. He chose the extemporaneous method of de- 

 livery ; but the extemporaneous method did not exempt him from 

 careful preparation. It was only through the most exacting mental 

 discipline and the most patient literary cultivation that he became the 

 consummate master of unwritten discourse that he was. As he said 

 liimself, " It is not the naturally fluent man who makes in the end the 

 best extemporaneous speaker." 



