Charles Dickens' Religion the Religion of Wide Humanity.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3401, 15 November 1879, Page 1

Charles Dickens' Religion the Religion of Wide Humanity.

Dickens preached--not in a cburen nor from a.pulpit, but a gospel which the people. understood—the gotpel: of' kindli-P ness, sympathy—in • "word, hnmanityJL His creed may be found in the following beautiful extracts on i the svbjeet : «f death: : ;;: ■ "Even the golden, hair lay in a halo on a pillow, round the worn face of a little boy, he said, with a" radiant smile: 'Bear papa and mamma, I am very sorry to leave you-both and to leave my pretty sister, but I am called, and I must go.' Thus tho rustling of an angel's wings got i blended with the other echoes, and had in them the breath of JEfeayen."—[Tale of Two Cities, book 2, chap. 21. . j " There is no time there, and no trouble ; there. The spare hand does not tremble; 'nothing worse than a sweet, bright con* stancy is in her face. She goes next before him—is gone."—[lbid, book 3, ohap. 15. " The dying boy made answer.' I shall -soon be there/ He spoke of beautiful i gardens stretched out before him,, and were filled with figures of men, and many children, all with light upon their faces ; 'then whispered that * it was Eden,' and so died.' I—[Nicholasl —[Nicholas Kicklebj, chap. 58. " 'It's turned very dark, sir. Is there any light a-coining ? The cart is shaken all to pieces, and the rugged rond is very near its end. I'm a groopin'—a groopin —let me catch hold of you hand. Hallowed be thy name.' " Dead ! my -lords and gentlemen. Dead ! men and woman, born with Heavenly compassion in your heart*. And dying thus around us, every day ! " -—[Bleak House, chap. 47. " He slowly laid his face down upon her bosom, drew his arm closer round her neck, and with one parting sob began the world. Not this world. Oh, not this ! The world that sets this right."— [Ibid, chap. 65. •"If this -is sleep, sit by me while I sleep. Turn me to you, for your face ii going far off, ahd I want it to be near.' And she died like a child that bad gone to sleep."—fDavid Copperfield, chap. 9. " Time, and the world, were slipping from beneath him. He's going out with tho tide. . . . And it being low water he went out with the tide."—[lbid, chap. 30. ■ c • '" Don't cry! Is my chair there P In iis old place?' . . :.. • That face, so full of pity and of grief, that would appeal.-;

to me, that solemn hand, upraised towards hetvon! It is over," —[Ibid. chap. 53. " One new mound was there, which had not been there last night. Time, burrowing like a mole below the ground, had marked his track by throwing up another heap of earth." —[Martin Chuz* zlewitt, chap. 19. " She was dead. No sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from truces of pain, so fair to look upon. She seemed a creature fresh from the hand of God and.waiting Jfpr.tho breath of Yxi'o, not one who had lifed and suffered death. She was past all help or need of it. We .will not wake her." —[Old Curiousity bhop, chap. 71.

" The hand soon stopped in llio midst of them ; the light, that had always been feeble and dim _behind the weak transparency, went out."—Hard Times, chap 9. "For a"moment the closed eyelids trembled, and the faintest shadow of a smile was seen. Thus, clinging to that slight spar within her anne, the mother drifted out upon the dark and unknown tea that rolls round ths world."— [Dombey and Son, chap. 1, vol. 1. " 'It's very near the sea ; I hear the wares ! The light about the head ia shining on me as Igo !' The old, old fashion, that came in with our first garments, and will last unchanged until our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll. Oh ! thank God for that older fashion yet, of immortality I And look upon us, angles of young children, vs.hon the swift river bears us to the ocean."—[lbid, chap. 34.

"In this round world of many circles within circles, do we raak- a weary journey from the high yrade to the low to find at last that they lie close together that the two extremes touch, and that our tourney's end is bat our starting place." —[Ibid, chap. 34 " A cricket sings upon the hearth ; a broken child's toy lies upon the ground; and nothing else remains."—[Cricket on the Hearth, chap. 3. "lam goinjj : to Heaven ! The sunset is very near! and the child who-went to Heaven rose into the golden air and Vanished."—[The Child'^J^fcor-jT--' "~~"