December 15, 2010
Column #1,529
Dickens: “The Life
of Our Lord”
By Mike McManus
While he was
completing “David Copperfield” in 1846-9, Charles Dickens wrote “The Life of
Our Lord” for his own children, a simple retelling of the life of Jesus
Christ.. Since he wrote it exclusively for his children, Dickens refused to
allow its publication.
When Dickens died
in 1870, his children honored his request that the small book not be
published. However, as the last of his children, Henry Fielding Dickens,
neared the end of his life, he gave permission to his wife and children to
publish the small book after his death. In 1934, the last work of Charles
Dickens became available to a wider audience, and was a best-seller, 64
years after his death.
His great, great
grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens wrote an Introduction to a new edition,
saying, “I picture the scene in the Dickenes’ nursery vividly. Charley, age
twelve; Mamie, eleven, Katie, ten, and Walter, eight, all listening intently
as their father explains the miracles of Christ.
“I envision
Francis, five, Alfred, four, and Sydney, two; playing happily as their
father reads, changing the narrative now and then to keep their interest:
`You never saw a locust, because they belong to that country near Jerusalem,
which is a great way off. So do camels, but I think you have seen a camel…”
“And then, in the
corner is a baby, not even a year old, Henry Fielding Dickens. My
great-grandfather hearing, but not listening to the voice of Dickens.”
Consider these
tender opening words of the book.
“My dear
children,
“I am very
anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ.
For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived who was so good, so
kind, so gentle and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any
way ill or miserable as he was. ”
Some sentences
make the story jump alive for children:
“Mary laid her
pretty little boy in what is called the manger, which is the place the
horses eat out of. And there he fell asleep.”
When Herod
ordered his soldiers to kill all the children under age two, “The mothers
ran up and down the streets with them in their arms, trying to save them,
and hide them in caves and cellars, but it was of no use. The soldiers
killed all the children they could find. This dreadful murder was called the
Murder of the Innocents, because the little children were so innocent.”
As Jesus began to
heal the sick and give sight to the blind, Dickens told the children “these
wonderful and solemn things…are called Miracles of Christ. I wish you
would remember that word.”
Jesus did them
“that people might know He was not a common man, and might believe what he
taught them, and also believe that God had sent Him.”
Dickens notes
that Jesus chose 12 poor men to be his companions, who are called
Apostles or Disciples in order that “the poor might know – always
after that…that Heaven was made for them as well as for the rich…Never
forget this, when you are grown up. Never be proud or unkind, my dears, to
any poor man, woman or child.”
Dickens describes
Pharisees as very proud men who “believed that no people were good but
themselves, and they were all afraid of Jesus Christ, because He taught the
people better.”
After recounting
the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and of his jealous brother, Dickens tells
his children, “By this, Our Saviour meant to teach that those who have done
wrong and forgotten God, are always welcome to Him, and will always receive
His mercy if they will only return to Him in sorrow for the sin of which
they have been guilty.”
At the end of the
book, Dickens kindly tells his children, “They took the name of Christians
form Our Savior Christ, and carried crosses as their sign, because upo n a
cross He had suffered death.
“Remember! – It
is Christianity TO DO GOOD, always – even to those who do evil to us. It is
Christianity to love our neighbors as ourselves…”
I am buying three
books for my sons to read to their children.
It truly is the
perfect Christmas gift, which communicates perfectly to the new generation
to “remember the life and lessons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to act
up to them” so that “we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our
sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in peace.”
Amen.
_____
Mike McManus is President of
Marriage Savers,
www.MarriageSavers.org.
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