THE APOSTASY OF ROBERT
LEWIS STEVENSON
February 19, 2019
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, [email protected]
Robert Lewis Stevenson (1850-1894) was author of Treasure
Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Child’s
Garden of Verses. He ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world.
The following is excerpted from Iain H. Murray, The Undercover
Revolution: How Fiction Changed Britain (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009):
In 1870 the largest group of new books to be published was religious.
Works of fiction came fifth on the list. With reference to that era, the
historian G.M. Trevelyan wrote: ‘The popular heroes of that period--and
they were true heroes--were religious men first and foremost (Livingstone,
Gordon, Lord Shaftesbury, Gladstone).’ ... however in 1886, a further
census on popular literature put works of fiction at the head of the list. The
following year Robert Louis Stevenson felt able to assert, ‘The most
influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction.’ The
reading habits of the nation were entering a new era and the type of
literature that was to have the most pervasive influence upon the twentieth
century was the work of novelists and dramatists.
A most potent attack on Christianity in modern times has been little
recognized. Most of the writers to whom I will refer used fiction to present
something they believed to be better than the Christian life. Their
presentations were to become the accepted wisdom of succeeding
generations and they have powerfully affected society down to the present
day. ... I will argue that their claim to have arrived at a better knowledge,
when tested by the evidence of their lives (now fully documented by many
biographers), will be found to be fraudulent. The truth is that it is unbelief
rather than Christianity that depends upon the irrational for its survival. ...
As a nurse for Louis, the Stevensons appointed Alison Cunningham, a young
woman of definite belief and Christian commitment. ... ‘Cummy’, as Alison
was called, came to be the boy’s governess and virtually a second mother. ...
At the head of Cummy’s subjects for her pupil were the Bible, the Shorter
Catechism, hymns, and, sometimes, the writings of Robert Murray
M’Cheyne. ...
In 1867 ... Robert Lewis Stevenson entered Edinburgh University. ... before
long he found a new world, different from his affluent home and the
respectable Presbyterian standards which characterized much of
Edinburgh. There were easy-going companions to enjoy among his fellow-
students, public houses to visit--‘frequented’, he later wrote, ‘by the lowest
order of prostitutes’, and books to read that he could never have seen in his
father’s study. At times he hung around Greyfriars churchyard for hours at
a time, reading Baudelaire, an author who ‘would have corrupted St. Paul’.
Of all this his parents knew nothing, and the young Stevenson became a
man of two lives. With like-minded friends at the university, he formed a
frivolous club that had for one of its rules, ‘Ignore everything that our
parents taught us.’ When his father happened on a piece of paper recording
these words, and questioned Louis, he was shocked to discover his son no
longer believed in the Christian religion. The date was January 31, 1871,
and the father’s verdict, ‘You have rendered my whole life a failure.’ A
sorrow came into the life of Thomas Stevenson that was to remain until his
death. ...
Sidney Colvin ... an editor and literary critic in London, was well placed to
open the door for RLS into the capital’s literary world. He proposed him for
the Savile Club where the Scot met men who played a large part in his
future. One of them was Leslie Stephen, earlier ordained in the Church of
England but now set on a different career as editor of the monthly Cornhill
Magazine which had no religious content. Stephen’s extensive writings
would include An Agnostic’s Apology and Other Essays. ... Another young
author writing for Leslie Stephen was W.E. Henley, whom Stephen
introduced to RLS in 1875. That same year Henley wrote his best-known
poem, ‘Invictus’, and RLS was quick to quote. ... ‘It matters not how strait
the gate,/ How charged with punishments the scroll,/ I am the master of my
fate:/ I am the captain of my soul.’ Henley became RLS’s close friend and
literary agent.
Of similar significance for RLS’s future life was Edmund Gosse, whom he
met at the Savile Club ... Gosse’s break with his father was to be explained
to the world in his much-acclaimed book, Father and Son. Although focused
on his family estrangement, this book was in fact an apologia for the whole
movement to unbelief. ... [Gosse’s claimed that evangelical Christianity]
invents sins which are no sins at all, but which darken the heaven of
innocent joy with futile clouds of remorse.’ ...
In 1876, while travelling purportedly in the interest of his poor health, he
transferred his affection to another woman, Fanny Osbourne, whom he met
in France. The fact that she was already married did not hinder their
intimacy, and after she returned to California and to her husband, he
followed her. When she divorced, he married her in 1880. ... With Fanny,
and her son, he moved from place to place, his health and his recurring
depressions unhelped by alcohol ... [In 1888] RLS and Fanny sailed for the
South Seas, where they made a home on Vailima in the Samoan Islands.
There he died suddenly, aged 44, of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1894. ...
[H]e wrote to a friend in 1886, ‘If I could believe in the immortality
business, the world would indeed be too good to be true; but ... the sods
cover us, and the worm that never dies, the conscience sleeps well at last.’
Life was only a ‘pilgrimage from nothing to nowhere’.
- Receive these reports by email
- www.wayoflife.org
______________________
Sharing Policy: Much of our material is available for free, such as the hundreds of
articles at the Way of Life web site. Other items we sell to help fund our expensive
literature and foreign church planting ministries. Way of Life's content falls into two
categories: sharable and non-sharable. Things that we encourage you to share include
the audio sermons, O Timothy magazine, FBIS articles, and the free eVideos and free
eBooks. You are welcome to make copies of these at your own expense and share them
with friends and family. You may also post parts of reports and/or entire reports to
websites, blogs, etc as long as you give proper credit (citation). A link to the original
report is very much appreciated as the reports are frequently updated and/or
expanded. Things we do not want copied and distributed are "Store" items like the
Fundamental Baptist Digital Library, print editions of our books, electronic editions of
the books that we sell, the videos that we sell, etc. The items have taken years to
produce at enormous expense in time and money, and we use the income from sales to
help fund the ministry. We trust that your Christian honesty will preserve the integrity
of this policy. "For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out
the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward" (1 Timothy 5:18). Questions?
[email protected]
Goal:Distributed by Way of Life Literature Inc., the Fundamental Baptist Information
Service is an e-mail posting for Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of
Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in
Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding
Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting
missionary since 1979. Our primary goal with the FBIS is to provide material to assist
preachers in the edification and protection of the churches.
Offering: Offerings are welcome if you care to make one. If you have been helped
and/or blessed by our material offerings can be mailed or made online with with Visa,
Mastercard, Discover, or Paypal. For information
see: www.wayoflife.org/about/makeanoffering.html.
