The Death of Christian Britain

— Women in Discourse and Narrative 1800–1950 —
Children in the first sixty years of the nineteenth century were subjected
to shock treatment in the evangelical press by being bombarded with the
issue of death. Obituaries made up as much as half of the pages of the early
magazines for children. Typical from 1827 was The Primitive Methodist
Children’s Magazine’s account of Hannah Rorhs who died in Paris two
years before at the age of eight years. Her grandmother had met John
Wesley and she was ‘blest with pious parents’. ‘Little Hannah had the fear
of God before her eyes: she was never known to tell a lie in all her life’.
But on a trip to Paris, she caught a fever which lasted three weeks and
took Hannah to her deathbed.
During this time she frequently requested her brother John to read
the Bible to her . . . In general she was perfectly sensible, and especially
so towards the close of her earthly career. She lifted herself up
in bed twice, as if she saw some object, and said, ‘Let me come to
your lap.’ She often raised her hands as if in prayer, and seemed lost
to those around her. When Death struck the last blow, and her spirit
was about to take its flight, Hannah, with an audible voice, repeated
the following lines:– ‘How kind is that inviting voice/Which bids me
seek immortal joys;/ . . .’ Her voice was lost, and she expired as she
uttered the last word, not being able to finish the verse. 41
The obituary was not a passive recording of a holy little life, but was a
didactic challenge to the very young reader. One obituary of 1843 in the
same children’s magazine ended:
Little reader, do not put off repentance in hope of being saved on
your death-bed; for you do not know that you will die on a bed.
You may be taken ill suddenly, and die at school, or when you are
playing. If this were to be the case, whither would your souls go?
Would they not go to the place of darkness and fire, such as you
never felt? Many children die unexpectedly. ... Lay aside your
Magazine, and fall on your knees before the lord, and cry to him for
mercy; then he will save you, and make you happy. 42
This was powerful, intense material with which the generations born before
1850 were raised. At the same time, young girls were made aware of their
transformative power over men’s natural weakness. One story
of the early 1870s told of the heroism of an eight-year-old girl sent by
her mother (‘we hope, truly converted to God’) on an errand to ‘a family
notorious for wickedness, and especially swearing’. In their house, she
was trapped by an older lad who pointed a shotgun at her, who demanded:
‘You must swear or die.’ She replied: ‘Fire, then, for I’ll rather die
than swear!’ 43 Such ‘martyr-courage’ gave female piety an heroic edge
that remained a key element of the construction of the adult woman’s
piety.
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