In May, 1956, Mother gave me a classic little book, The Life of Our Lord,
"written for his [eight young] children during the years 1846 to 1849 by Charles Dickens", never to be published. "He set it down in his own hand, for their eyes -- and their eyes alone -- ... at about the time he was completing 'David Copperfield.' " Hours before his death, Dickens wrote a letter ending with this statement: "I have always striven in my writings to express 'veneration for the life and lessons of Our Saviour, because I feel it; and because I rewrote that history for my children -- every one of whom knew it ..."
"written for his [eight young] children during the years 1846 to 1849 by Charles Dickens", never to be published. "He set it down in his own hand, for their eyes -- and their eyes alone -- ... at about the time he was completing 'David Copperfield.' " Hours before his death, Dickens wrote a letter ending with this statement: "I have always striven in my writings to express 'veneration for the life and lessons of Our Saviour, because I feel it; and because I rewrote that history for my children -- every one of whom knew it ..."
"For eighty-five years the resulting manuscript was sacredly guarded as a precious family secret." Just before Christmas of 1933, Dickens' youngest and last living child died. Sir Henry wrote in his will: "I ... bequeath to my wife the original manuscript ... on the following trusts: 'Being his son, I have felt constrained to act upon my father's expressed desire that it should not be published, ... but if they [my wife and children] decide by a majority that it should be published, ...' [They] 'assumed the right to permit its publication, and 'The Life of Our Lord' by Charles Dickens is thus given to the world.
THE PUBLISHERS."
-- foreword (pages 3 - 8); "copyright, 1934, by Simon and Schuster"
As a personal letter, Dickens started the book with "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. And as He is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other ..."
This is one of my favorite examples of Dickens' style of writing in his "letter" to the children:
On the Sabbath, "... when Our Saviour went into one of their [the Pharisees'] churches -- they were called synagogues -- and looked compassionately on a poor man who had his hand all withered and wasted away, these Pharisees said, 'Is it right to cure people on a Sunday?' Our Saviour answered them by saying, 'If any of you had a sheep and it fell into a pit, would you not take it out, even though it happened on a Sunday? And how much better is a man than a sheep!' Then He said to the poor man, 'Stretch out thine hand!' And it was cured immediately, and was smooth and useful like the other. So Jesus Christ told them, 'You may always do good, no matter what the day is.' " (page 38)
