Novelists’ False Pictures of Christians
FASHIONABLE novelists are fond of going to the haunts of crime and describing what they see there; but why do they not take the trouble to examine the heights of Christian life that they may give true pictures of what they see there? A company of would-be naturalists in the olden time, who were writing a dictionary, once said to Baron Cuvier, “Here is a good definition of a crab.” “What is it?” asked Cuvier. “A little red fish that moves backwards.” “Very good,” said he, “only there are three mistakes; it is not a fish, it is not red, and it does not move backwards.” That is very much the style of definition that novelists give to Christian people. In denouncing hypocritical professors of religion—who cannot be too severely denounced—novelists often convey the false impression, that such men are types of Christian character, and they neglect to delineate sincere Christian men and women, who are illustrations of the life that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.