Robert Falconer: Chapters 51 - end
The text shows us Falconer’s activities among the poor and care worn in the slum districts of London. MacDonald himself had a large concern for the poor, and as Robert explains his philosophy to a would-be helper, we have a good paragraph summarizing MacDonald’s own:
"I avoid all attempt at organization. What I want is simply to be a friend of the poor. . . . I do not preach or set about to institute a program . . . I go where I am led. . . . The worst thing you can do is to attempt to save the needy to whom you are sent from the natural consequences of wrong, although you may sometimes help them out of them. But it is right to do many things for them when you know them, which would not help if you did not. . . . In my labour I am content to do the thing that lies next to me. I await events."
The activities that follow illustrate how these principles work as they are practiced among the lower-class areas of London. Falconer and Gordon rescue a young woman from drowning herself in the Thames; then Gordon on his own encounters a group of thugs who injure him. After being rescued by one named Job, in whose quarters with Falconer later encounters his father in an opium coma and patiently works to restore him.
Taking him to his living quarters, he guards and nurses him to a degree of health. When the father tries to escape, Robert finds him in a bar and forces him to go back to Robert’s home. There he is given a letter that his wife had written to him years ago just prior his death. Reading it he breaks down, and Robert reveals that he is his son.
Robert urges his father to repent, and tells him he will have to do so either here or in hell. That hell is a place offering repentance is a basic tenet in MacDonald’s theology. He writes a definitive paragraph:
. . . the fire of God without and within them will compel them to bethink themselves, that the vision of an open door beyond the smoke and flames will ever urge them to call up the ice-bound will, that it may obey, the torturing spirit of God in them will keep their consciences awake, not to remind them of what they ought to have done, but to tell them what the must do now, and hell will no longer fascinate them. Tell them that there is no refuge from the compelling Love of God, except that Love itself–that He is in hell too, and that if they make their bed in hell they shall not escape him, and then, perhaps, they will have some true idea of the worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched.
Robert takes his changed father to visit his dying mother, and they are at her bedside as she passes joyously into eternity. As is the custom in so many 19th century novels, the narrative ends triumphantly for all characters. Robert provides amply for Betty’s future, leaves his possessions to the care of Gordon, and takes his father off to India. Between father and son there is a very close and unbreakable bond that will never be broken.
HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE THIS NOVEL? WAS READING IT AN ENLIGHTENING EXPERIENCE?
Note: We will take a break over the holidays and resume our mutual reading in January. At this point I am inclined for us to read Charles Williams’s The Place of the Lion, and I will post an introduction between Christmas and New Years’ Day.
Comments
I pretty much think I am not qualified to evaluate this novel, and yes it has been and continues to be enlightening. "The unfolding of your word brings light". GMacD's written word generally needs unfolding for me; there is the language-use and cultural barriers to begin with, which are becoming less daunting the more I spend time reading his various generas. But more profound and more rumpled is the impact he has on my theology.
I cannot think about how GMacD has impacted me without crediting the one who pointed me to him, C.S. Lewis, who credits GMacD with baptizing his imagination. If you consider what a baptism is, the symbolic putting to death of one type of life so that a new type of life may emerge, you can understand what he is saying. As he read, his old way of thinking and all the beliefs it was founded on were exposed as dead things, and a new, living way of thinking arose.
I could cite dozens of examples where this novel has had such an effect on my thinking. For example, Robert's love for his Grannie forced me to deal with some prejudices in my heart which had lain unexamined. The first time I read R.F. years ago, I was irritated by the depiction of Calvinism because I was calling myself a Calvinist at that time. But over time I began to see that it is not the doctrine itself, but the spirit with which it is practiced, which brings us nearer or farther to the heart of Christ. Holy Spirit leads to fruitful outworking - Loving, Joyous, Peaceful, Patient. . . while a legalistic spirit leads to judging, measuring, condemning. Robert's continued love and respect for his Grannie despite the bleakness of her view of things helped me to see that our God truly does work "all things together for good" (Romans 8:28), that I can trust Him to be at work in the hearts and minds of my brothers and sisters who call on the name of Jesus. It took time for the "baptism" to happen, for the water of GMacD's words to seep in and begin to trouble my presuppositions; but the more I continue to read him the more I am willing to allow his thoughts to upset my current structures of thinking so that something new might grow. Such a gift!
Thank you, Professor Hein, for continuing your blog. It has been a very helpful framework for getting me to be more attentive to stories which plant good seed, and I so appreciate just knowing other people are out there thinking about these things. Blessings to you this Christmas!