Thomas Wingfold Chapters 11 - 28
Note: We are off to a fine start. My heartfelt thanks to each of you who commented after the entry on Chapters 1 - 10. I personally found the comments very helpful and I’m sure all who read them have. We hope to see more participation. Please feel free to express whatever reactions–positive or negative–you may have, as you react honestly to the text.
MacDonald is concerned in this novel, as in many others, with carefully delineating the experience of various individuals and personality types as they become aware of their need for God, and who then by steps move into a happy and productive relationship with him. Our reading in this week’s chapters concerns the initial process of awakening as it is taking place in Thomas Wingfold and in Helen.
After a restless night, Wingfold awakes “consciously uncomfortable,” with the terrible realization that “his very life was a lie.” He had been reading each Sunday morning a sermon composed and left to him by his old clergyman uncle: he had given no thought as to whether he really did believe what he had been preaching. His daily devotions consisted simply of reading portions of the prayer book. He had never been born again; now the process is now just beginning within him. Kneeling to pray, he is overcome with doubt : does God really exist?
WHAT DOES BELIEVING, AND THE PROCESS OF BEING BORN AGAIN, REALLY ENTAIL? CAN IT BE FORMULATED, OR IS IT UNIQUE WITHIN EACH INDIVIDUAL? WHAT CAN BE SAID ABOUT IT?
Wingfold’s awareness is prompted by his having received a letter from the dwarf Polwarth questioning the legitimacy of his using a sermon of Jeremy Taylor, implying it to be his own. Suddenly he sees that his uncle was plagiarizing, and, alas, so was he. Chagrined, he visits Polwarth, and in their friendly conversation Polwarth defines the purpose of preaching as, “first of all, to wake them up lest their sleep turn to death; next, to make them hungry, and lastly to supply that hunger.” The statement describes as well an individual’s personal experience with God.
MacDonald is aware of the current assault on the authority of Scripture by the so called “historical critics” and the attempt to reduce the life of Christ to that of a quite ordinary individual, discounting the miracles the Gospels relate, as well as the thrust of Darwinian evolution, and in Polwarth, as well as else where, he gives his responses. Note how Polwarth first had come into a full awareness of his own need together with a deep dissatisfaction with himself, then his delight in his hearing that Christ had come to save people from their sins. But he is then seized by strong doubts: Does God really exist? Did Christ really live on earth? Polwarth’s responses summarize MacDonald’s attitudes:
I could answer neither. But in the meantime I was reading the story–was drawn to the Man there presented, and was trying to understand his being, and character, and principles of life and action. And to sum all in a word, many months had not passed ere I had forgotten to seek an answer to either question: they were in fact questions no longer: I had seen the man Jesus Christ, and in him had known the Father of him and of me.
It is in the imaginative experience of giving oneself by faith and obedience to God and Christ, rather than any rational pondering of unanswerable questions, that true satisfaction lies.
Polwarth’s tells how his ancestors, who formerly owned the very property upon which he is now but the gatekeeper, lost it through riotous living. But, addressing Rachael, he asks: “. . . am I not right when I say that you thank God with me for having thus visited the iniquities of the fathers upon the children?”
WHAT DOES POLWARTH MEAN? HOW DOES HE SEE THIS OLD TESTAMENT PRINCIPLE OPERATING?
On Sunday Wingfold mounts his pulpit with much misgiving, but courage is given him to do the right thing, and he confesses his wrong-doing to his congregation. The various reactions of Mrs Ramshorn, Helen, and Bascombe reveal much as to their true characters.
The process of spiritual awakening takes place in different personalities, shaped by the events that occur to them. Helen’s begins with a “thunderbolt,” as the chapter heading tells us. Alone in her room one evening, she is startled by her brother Leopold’s abruptly entering, confessing that he is a murderer, and pleading with Helen to hide him. This she proceeds to do, concealing him in an old abandoned house on the estate.
The account of Leopold’s actions is then given: he was in love with a girl who was simply playing with his emotions, and when he discovered her duplicity–she was engaged to marry another–his rage and disappointment on the spur of the moment prompted his stabbing her to death. He fled to Helen a terrified and broken young man.
DO YOU FIND THE ACCOUNT OF LEOPOLD’S MURDER AND HELEN’S EMOTIONAL REACTIONS PLAUSIBLE AND REALISTIC, OR IS THE STYLE OF ITS TELLING TOO LADEN WITH VICTORIAN SENTIMENTALITY AND MELODRAMA? DOES IT MATTER THAT HELEN’S HIDING OF HIS BROTHER FROM THE AUTHORITIES IS REALLY ILLEGAL? WHAT, AFTER ALL, IS MACDONALD’S POINT?
MacDonald is concerned in this novel, as in many others, with carefully delineating the experience of various individuals and personality types as they become aware of their need for God, and who then by steps move into a happy and productive relationship with him. Our reading in this week’s chapters concerns the initial process of awakening as it is taking place in Thomas Wingfold and in Helen.
After a restless night, Wingfold awakes “consciously uncomfortable,” with the terrible realization that “his very life was a lie.” He had been reading each Sunday morning a sermon composed and left to him by his old clergyman uncle: he had given no thought as to whether he really did believe what he had been preaching. His daily devotions consisted simply of reading portions of the prayer book. He had never been born again; now the process is now just beginning within him. Kneeling to pray, he is overcome with doubt : does God really exist?
WHAT DOES BELIEVING, AND THE PROCESS OF BEING BORN AGAIN, REALLY ENTAIL? CAN IT BE FORMULATED, OR IS IT UNIQUE WITHIN EACH INDIVIDUAL? WHAT CAN BE SAID ABOUT IT?
Wingfold’s awareness is prompted by his having received a letter from the dwarf Polwarth questioning the legitimacy of his using a sermon of Jeremy Taylor, implying it to be his own. Suddenly he sees that his uncle was plagiarizing, and, alas, so was he. Chagrined, he visits Polwarth, and in their friendly conversation Polwarth defines the purpose of preaching as, “first of all, to wake them up lest their sleep turn to death; next, to make them hungry, and lastly to supply that hunger.” The statement describes as well an individual’s personal experience with God.
MacDonald is aware of the current assault on the authority of Scripture by the so called “historical critics” and the attempt to reduce the life of Christ to that of a quite ordinary individual, discounting the miracles the Gospels relate, as well as the thrust of Darwinian evolution, and in Polwarth, as well as else where, he gives his responses. Note how Polwarth first had come into a full awareness of his own need together with a deep dissatisfaction with himself, then his delight in his hearing that Christ had come to save people from their sins. But he is then seized by strong doubts: Does God really exist? Did Christ really live on earth? Polwarth’s responses summarize MacDonald’s attitudes:
I could answer neither. But in the meantime I was reading the story–was drawn to the Man there presented, and was trying to understand his being, and character, and principles of life and action. And to sum all in a word, many months had not passed ere I had forgotten to seek an answer to either question: they were in fact questions no longer: I had seen the man Jesus Christ, and in him had known the Father of him and of me.
It is in the imaginative experience of giving oneself by faith and obedience to God and Christ, rather than any rational pondering of unanswerable questions, that true satisfaction lies.
Polwarth’s tells how his ancestors, who formerly owned the very property upon which he is now but the gatekeeper, lost it through riotous living. But, addressing Rachael, he asks: “. . . am I not right when I say that you thank God with me for having thus visited the iniquities of the fathers upon the children?”
WHAT DOES POLWARTH MEAN? HOW DOES HE SEE THIS OLD TESTAMENT PRINCIPLE OPERATING?
On Sunday Wingfold mounts his pulpit with much misgiving, but courage is given him to do the right thing, and he confesses his wrong-doing to his congregation. The various reactions of Mrs Ramshorn, Helen, and Bascombe reveal much as to their true characters.
The process of spiritual awakening takes place in different personalities, shaped by the events that occur to them. Helen’s begins with a “thunderbolt,” as the chapter heading tells us. Alone in her room one evening, she is startled by her brother Leopold’s abruptly entering, confessing that he is a murderer, and pleading with Helen to hide him. This she proceeds to do, concealing him in an old abandoned house on the estate.
The account of Leopold’s actions is then given: he was in love with a girl who was simply playing with his emotions, and when he discovered her duplicity–she was engaged to marry another–his rage and disappointment on the spur of the moment prompted his stabbing her to death. He fled to Helen a terrified and broken young man.
DO YOU FIND THE ACCOUNT OF LEOPOLD’S MURDER AND HELEN’S EMOTIONAL REACTIONS PLAUSIBLE AND REALISTIC, OR IS THE STYLE OF ITS TELLING TOO LADEN WITH VICTORIAN SENTIMENTALITY AND MELODRAMA? DOES IT MATTER THAT HELEN’S HIDING OF HIS BROTHER FROM THE AUTHORITIES IS REALLY ILLEGAL? WHAT, AFTER ALL, IS MACDONALD’S POINT?
Comments
And I agree with you Debbie about Helen's reaction to Leopold's confession of murder. Do we have compassion? In what circumstances? Each of us would find it hard put to make the choice.
I know GMD would be pleased with each of your comments, and would very much agree. Isn't it amazing that of the untold millions of individuals that God has and continues to create, there are no two exactly alike? He prizes individuality and works with each individual in a manner uniquely appropriate to that one. But the core of each experience is to get to know the man Christ Jesus as he is presented in Scripture, and to earnestly obey him.
I was struck by the question about the Polwarth's thanking God for visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children. I have seen this line of thought in MacDonald's writings a number of times, and when I read it carefully I get it and it opens my eyes but it is one of those elusive ideas, so foreign, that I haven't yet gotten to the point of owning it - of being able to apply it. But I think the idea is this:
Polwarth's family was wealthy. They used their wealth destructively instead of constructively. The result of this was that they destroyed their wealth. Because the wealth was gone, they had effectively destroyed the possibility that their children would be able to be destroyers in the same manner that they had been. Rachel and her uncle are grateful to have been spared growing into yet another (and another) generation of destroyers in this particular way. The "soil" of the family was no longer suitable for this particular type of crop, and so they were forced to grow in another way; obviously the possibility of still yielding a wicked crop was still there but it would have to be of a new sort: the family pathology would no longer naturally draw them along. Something like that.
In reference to a formulated approach to becoming a Christian, I'd say no there isn't. The process of becoming a Christian is God's calling us thru the work of the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that the idea of formulating that process would be akin to thinking we could put the Holy Spirit in a box and get Him to dance at our command. I'd agree with the others that it is a very individual process and God calls us all in our own way.
"Visiting the sins . . ." I'm not sure where MacDonald is leading with this but I lean toward Sarah's ideas. I think people often think of this concept as the heirs being as guilty as those that committed the sin initially, but I don't think that is accurate. So, for Rachel and her uncle to see the "silver lining" of previous generations' faults makes sense. And for that to be a catalyst to lead them to God would be positive.
As far as Helen's protection of her brother, I think it sounds quite legit. I was a little confused as to whether or not she would have responded differently if she knew the whole story earlier. It sounded like the hiding took place before the story was told. But I think that is a pretty normal response in any case. And the impact on her life and conscience was also very normal . . . the innocent protector feels the full weight of the sin vicariously. And yet, I think the priority to her family and loved ones is rightly placed and does not make her guilty . . . at least as far as it can go. It gets pretty thorny from here on, I'm sure.
Many do think there is a formulated approach, but it seems to me at this point in life, I have heard so many stories that so vary, that the bottom line in becoming a Christian is our response to God of surrender and obedience in the endlessly various ways he reveals himself. It may be an abrupt decision like the apostle Paul's experience, or it may be a long drawn out process. Individually unique.
Polwarth's Being thankful for visiting the sins - it seems to me in line with the way we are thankful for the different hardships we experience that draw us nearer to God and shape Christ in us that we would never ask for but afterwards we know we would not ask to be without the hardship because of how it has shaped our souls. GMD shows this principle operative in the Polwarth's lives.
The account of Helen protecting her brother is interesting to me on many levels. That Leopold is the only one she really loves accounts for her initial protective reaction. As the story unfolds, though, her spiritual awakening is underway. She has been living life half asleep as she realizes her loving L. has been half forgetful, drowsy as GMD puts it, and has possibly contributed to what has occurred. She begins to see herself as she is, selfish in her own right and not awake to real life around her. She has been going along with Bascomb's ideas only mentally half there, as she realizes that his ideas prevent her from going to him for the help she desperately needs.
I'm looking forward to both Helen and Wingfold "waking up" to true and real life!