- Home
- Speakers
- Robert Hawker
- Strength At The End Of Life
Robert Hawker
Robert Hawker (1753–1827) was an English preacher and Anglican priest whose powerful evangelical ministry earned him the nickname "Star of the West" in 18th- and early 19th-century Devon. Born in 1753 in Exeter, England, he was the son of Jacob Hawker, a surgeon. Initially trained in medicine under Samuel White in Plymouth and serving briefly as an assistant surgeon in the Royal Marines, Hawker shifted his path to theology. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1778, and was ordained in 1779. Appointed assistant curate at Charles Church, Plymouth, under John Bedford in 1778, he succeeded Bedford as vicar in 1784, a position he held until his death. In 1772, at age 19, he married Anna Rains, with whom he had eight children. Hawker’s preaching career was marked by his extemporaneous, high-Calvinist sermons, which drew thousands with their passion, biblical depth, and accessibility, often lasting 70 to 80 minutes and necessitating gallery expansions at Charles Church. Known for beginning services with spontaneous prayers—sometimes against clerical norms—he preached annually in London to packed congregations, reportedly impressing King George III, who handed him sermon texts moments before preaching. Beyond the pulpit, he launched one of the earliest Sunday School hymn books around 1787 and, in 1813, founded the Corpus Christi Society to aid distressed Christians across denominational lines. A prolific writer, his works like The Poor Man’s Morning Portion (1809) and Poor Man’s Commentary on the New Testament (1816) were priced affordably for the working class, reflecting his pastoral heart. During the 1809 fever outbreak in Plymouth, he and Anna tirelessly tended to sick soldiers, risking their own health.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
Robert Hawker preaches on the profound moment in Jacob's life as he nears death, sitting up in bed and recounting the merciful works of the Lord. He challenges believers to reflect on their own journey with God and the testimony they will leave behind when facing death. Hawker urges souls to fully commit themselves to Jesus, acknowledging His power to save and surrendering wholly to His plan for salvation. He emphasizes the importance of testifying to God's faithfulness and encouraging others to seek Jesus, ensuring a life of faith transitions into a life of glory.
Strength at the End of Life
March 18 Morning Gen 48:2 "Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed." (NKJV) This was an interesting moment in the life, or rather the death, of this great man of God. May it help my soul to show what ought to be the conduct of the believer he nears death. The imagination can hardly conceive any situation equally momentous, in every point of view, both as it concerns a faithful God, a man's own heart, and the church the dying saint is going to leave behind. What can form a more pleasing sight than a dying saint, sitting up in the bed, (if the Lord permits the opportunity) and telling, as Jacob, did, the merciful works of the Lord in his life. All the way along the path of pilgrimage- "The God who has fed me," said Jacob, "all my life long until this day: the Angel (and who was this but Jesus?) which redeemed me from all evil." Pause, my soul. Prepare yourself now for that day when it comes. Imagine to yourself your friends around you, and you yourself strengthened, just to sit up in the bed, to take an everlasting farewell. What will you have to tell? What have you treasured up of God's dealings with you, to sweeten death in the narrative, to bless God in the just acknowledgement, and to leave behind you a testimony to others of the truth, as it is in Jesus? My soul, what can you speak of? What can you tell of your God, your Jesus? Have you known enough of him to commit yourself into his Almighty hands, with an assurance of salvation? Pause! Did you not in the act of faith, long ago, stake yourself upon Jesus for the whole of your everlasting welfare? Did you not from a perfect conviction of your need of Jesus, and from as perfect a conviction of the power and grace of Jesus to save you-did you not make a full and complete surrender of yourself? Did you not affirm and praise this blessed plan of God's mercy in Christ, to be saved wholly by him, and wholly in his own way, and wholly to his own glory? And as such, are you now afraid, or are you now shrinking back, when you are come almost within sight of Jesus' arms to receive you? Oh, no! blessed be God, this last act of committing your soul is not as great an act of faith as the first was; for since that time you have had thousands of evidences, and thousands of signs of love and faithfulness, that your God is true. Sit up then, my soul, and do as the dying patriarch did; recount to all around you your confidence in the Son of God, who "has loved you, and given himself for you." Cry out, as he did, "I have waited for your salvation, O Lord." And as this will be the last opportunity of speaking a word for God, testify of his faithfulness, and encourage all that behold you to be seeking after an interest in Jesus, from seeing how sweetly you finish a life of faith before you begin a life of glory, in blessing God, though with dying lips, that the last notes which you utter here below, may be only the momentary interruption to the same subject in the first of your everlasting song-" To him that hath loved you, and washed you, from your sins in his blood."
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
Robert Hawker (1753–1827) was an English preacher and Anglican priest whose powerful evangelical ministry earned him the nickname "Star of the West" in 18th- and early 19th-century Devon. Born in 1753 in Exeter, England, he was the son of Jacob Hawker, a surgeon. Initially trained in medicine under Samuel White in Plymouth and serving briefly as an assistant surgeon in the Royal Marines, Hawker shifted his path to theology. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1778, and was ordained in 1779. Appointed assistant curate at Charles Church, Plymouth, under John Bedford in 1778, he succeeded Bedford as vicar in 1784, a position he held until his death. In 1772, at age 19, he married Anna Rains, with whom he had eight children. Hawker’s preaching career was marked by his extemporaneous, high-Calvinist sermons, which drew thousands with their passion, biblical depth, and accessibility, often lasting 70 to 80 minutes and necessitating gallery expansions at Charles Church. Known for beginning services with spontaneous prayers—sometimes against clerical norms—he preached annually in London to packed congregations, reportedly impressing King George III, who handed him sermon texts moments before preaching. Beyond the pulpit, he launched one of the earliest Sunday School hymn books around 1787 and, in 1813, founded the Corpus Christi Society to aid distressed Christians across denominational lines. A prolific writer, his works like The Poor Man’s Morning Portion (1809) and Poor Man’s Commentary on the New Testament (1816) were priced affordably for the working class, reflecting his pastoral heart. During the 1809 fever outbreak in Plymouth, he and Anna tirelessly tended to sick soldiers, risking their own health.