(One’s level of piety, whether devotional or practical,
depends much on knowledge being either learned or misconceived. In these
analyses we have made mention, occasionally, of books that either help or
hinder the grand object of piety. It seems natural, consequently, to supplement
the analyses, now and again, with correlating book reports.)
GABOURY'S CRITICAL BOOK REPORT
Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die
(Old Tappan, New Jersey: Revell, 1987), 382 pp.
Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) was a
little Christian dynamo who emerged from Ireland
to make a huge mark in India
through the gospel and fruitful living. Before going to India , she went out from her happy but
disciplined childhood to evangelize in the slums of Belfast
and Manchester .
Although this biography plods rather than moves, Miss Carmichael’s life and
success as a missionary to India
becomes, before long, the biographer’s main focus. By the time Amy Carmichael
died, nearly nine hundred persons (p. 372) had been gathered under her
spiritual wing in the safety and service of Christ.
Her missionary service occurred
during the fallout from Britain ’s
influence over India
through the East India Company (pp. 111, 132.) The political, financial, and
social elements of this tense, and sometimes violent, engagement between East
and West produced a compound of confusion and trouble for missionary
enterprise. The missionary inevitably but unexpectedly entered an ancient
heathen culture that was being further tainted by Western materialism and
nominal Christianity, the latter of which, as in our day, was perpetuated by
‘Christian’ officials participating in pagan ceremonies, amounting, unbeknownst
to them, to the propitiating of foreign deities (p. 128.) On the one hand,
British rule was against evangelism because profit was being made through
markets aimed at Hindooism. On the other hand, Westerners without vested
interests were pressing for moral reformation (p. 112.) The missionary had to
discourage the love of mammon and disprove hypocrisy, thus setting herself
against marketers and hypocrites. And she had to show that Christianity is not
moral reform, but the force and life that produce it, which truth could not but
bewilder moralists for whom conduct alone was regarded as true religion (p.
291.) Beauty flourished in India
due to the English presence there (p. 208.) Such exterior beautification (to
throw in a thought of my own) is like that skin-deep morality that some think
sufficient. “To share…what the Lord Jesus has done and can do” is the important
thing that must not be sacrificed in the interest of good works (p. 291.)
The situation was mostly
resistant to evangelism because of Indian culture. This was the formidable,
complex barrier. A lower caste Indian might be tempted to make a false
profession of Christ because association with that Faith would dignify him
before other Indians and even the British (p. 117), while an upper caste
Indian, like the Brahman, was a fortress against the ‘unclean’ from outside (p.
141.) According to the Hindu, caste and piety are one and the same (p. 156.) To
convert to any other religion is to defile one’s caste. Ruthless relatives
might kill such a ‘defiling’ Indian by any means possible. Accounts of this
happening are recorded in this book, including some of the means involved. Much
more was known of such horrors than Amy Carmichael felt free to share (p. 155.)
While certain facts were too
horrid for her to speak of or write about, she was determined to convey a
transparent account of missionary experience in India , Things as They Are (p. 161.) The chapters were too terrible, not
thrilling enough for those who wanted crowded missionary meetings. Her honest
reporting caused a movement calling for her return home, which campaign failed.
Her position was, “Do not come unless you can say to your Lord and to us, The Cross is the attraction” (p. 265.) A
missionary who put first things first and tried to walk and guide by the Book
had to discourage nominal followers (p. 198.) In addition to the dangerous
intrigues connected with trying to win souls from various castes, there came
the compassionate impulse to rescue girls from temple prostitution and from
child marriage (pp. 167, 181.) “So we have tried to tell you the truth—the uninteresting,
unromantic truth,” she wrote (p. 162.)
What sort of woman could manage
to accomplish so much good in spite of so many whirling conflicts and confusing
circumstances all around? She was extremely modest, even to the point of
showing no ankle (p. 297.) She was very innocent concerning evil, but at the
same time very scrupulous to avoid stirring up sexual desire by her manner of
dress (p. 298.) She was humble to the point of being ashamed at the blurb that
was put on her book’s dust jacket (p. 235), and could take no pleasure in her
accomplishment because of that blurb. She refused to use gimmicks to attract
souls to the gospel (pp. 84, 126.) She did not make appeals for money (p. 189)
and refused to accept funds from the government to fuel her ministry (p. 252.)
Even money sent during a financial crunch, because it was sent under
misapprehension, was sent back, not once but twice (p. 258.) What ministry is
that conscientious today? She even refused an inheritance offered to the
Fellowship (p. 306.) How different from ‘the Bible Answer Man’ who regularly
asks for inheritances over the radio! She had scruples over killing bugs
unnecessarily (p. 206, 214.) She ‘shrank in dread’ from the practice of ‘using
pictures of Christ,’ a valid scruple if ever there was one, for depicting the
Lord is to defile ‘holy ground’ (p. 93.) She endeavored to be ‘dead to the
world’ (p. 37), hence the title for this book, or ‘dead to self, alive to God,’
which meant that natural hopes and plans were stifled in order for the voice of
God to be heard (p. 57.) She was determined, if she could not find it, to
develop that Christian love she read about in 1 Peter 1.22 (p. 69.) She was
deeply convinced of what she believed to be true. A leader convinced of what
needs to be done will not be dissuaded from following the ‘Pattern Shewn in the
Mount’ (pp. 189, 253.)
A person singled out by God to
execute spiritual good will have been shewn a pattern in the mount, as it were.
So, as in the life of Moses, there will be points in that person’s history
where the supernatural intersects. Such points are not lacking in Miss
Carmichael’s life. (Appropriately, the biographer pictures her expostulating
with God in the manner of Moses, p. 268.) The word of God was known to flash in
upon her mind when she was routinely occupied (p. 31.) The Spirit sometimes
favored her with what the Bible calls ‘joy unspeakable’ (p. 78.) Her biographer
believes that she once had ‘what amounted to a vision’ (p. 181.) Occasionally
she was led by dreams (p. 210.) She sometimes possessed ‘the gift of a healing
touch’ (pp. 220, 221.) She performed exorcisms, and was successful at it (pp.
89, 90.) And for her both curse and answered prayer coincided to fulfill the
purposes of God (pp. 311, 312.) So different from all of this is the actual
religion of today’s charismatic that we might dare say that his spirituality is
more akin to that of the stubborn, upper-caste Indian: “You have no medicine
that will cure my body,” she said to Amy, “I want none to cure my soul” (p. 164.)
Another aspect of the
supernatural in the life of this woman and her Fellowship concerns the putting
out of fleece to salutary effect. Or you could call this asking for a sign and
getting one, or asking for a token and receiving one. It’s all the same, or
very nearly so. There are several instances of this to choose from. I’ll cite
just one: “asked for a sign: one hundred pounds as a seal on the new
endeavor…the next mail day it came” (p. 247.) By reviewing two books in a row
showing the ‘token for good’ as a conventional, rather than obsolete, means of
applying to God, some realignment has taken place in my own thinking on prayer.
Amy Carmichael took advantage of whatever biblical means were available to her.
We should too. Like her, we should be bold and tenacious about it.
A person shown a pattern in the
mount will exhibit an unswerving dictatorial aspect. It will be tempered with
humility, as in Moses’ case, but it will be prominent. She would not deviate
from her ‘vision of holy living’ (p. 198.) She might dismiss someone without
explaining herself to the public (p. 266.) She seldom, if ever, gave in to the
points of others (p. 268.) She was virtually an unquestioned authority figure.
“Who dare oppose her” (p. 282.)
It seems plain, even though undeviating
leadership is necessary in one sent by God to establish a spiritual foothold on
foreign soil, that Amy Carmichael was autocratic to a fault, which begs us to
consider her faulty side, as that may be shown by some negative points gathered
in summary form from this account of her life. Maybe it is just due to a lack
of precision that she advises us to be on guard against the foe of spiritual
joy (p. 254.) Can a fruit of the Spirit be our foe? Next, if we should not
explain things to our Father, if we should never press him as though he were
unwilling, if we should never suggest to him what to do, as Miss Carmichael
teaches, then what will be left for prayers to consist of? (p. 365.) The
Psalmist is always explaining and suggesting, is he not? God knows everything,
but the Psalmist explains and suggests anyway, all the time. And Jesus, both by
parable and command, insists that we press in prayer to a God who seems to
suspend answering! That’s where importunate prayer comes in! (I suspect that
her Keswick affiliation might be the source of her strange opinions on prayer.)
Her most noticeable fault, though, concerns the effect (it seems harsh to be
this candid) of her prudish ignorance (pp. 298-300.) She seems to have had the
gift it takes to live unattached (pp. 287, 302.) She understood that to push
for the same in the lives of others is wrong (p. 287.) But celibacy was imposed
upon others by her. She discouraged marriage in her favorite recruits (p. 286),
who usually happened to be fair-skinned girls, by the way (p. 214.) She even
arranged for married couples to separate (p. 299.) Her comments on portions of
Scripture pertaining to the role of women all but prove that Victorian
restraint was all that held her back from breaking right into the role of man (p.
347.) The seed of feminism must be alive in, and eager to pounce from, that
woman, Christian or not, who is bold enough to hold that “men’s work was
spiritually at a lower level than the women’s” (p. 300.) That doctors have
something to answer for in refusing to give suffering patients a gentle push
into the other world is an ugly piece of feminist belief as well (p. 338), for
what feminist is against the ‘right to die?’ To delight in startling
pedestrians by suddenly dashing near them on a horse (p. 119), or to imitate an
uneducated dialect (p. 304), these are the kinds of peculiar faults that might
be found in anyone at all. But some of these other faults are too serious to
take lightly. They leave a disreputable mark on the life and legacy of Amy Carmichael.
There are many unusual but
touching anecdotes in this Christian biography. Imagine having to console a
girl who just had her ‘eye pecked out by a heron,’ or a selfless girl picking
flowers for her friends, only to slip, fall, and die in the act (p. 333), or
little Chellalu whose heart said ‘pickapickapick!’ when a voice inside pressed
her to ‘tell those men about God’ (p. 229.) Imagine a sick tiny boy strapped to
a cot, anxiously waiting for the lyric to be given out so he can participate by
waving his own flag (p. 294.) Or what about the ‘poor simple Lascar’ who clung
to Jesus as his ‘own one’? (p. 66.)
Such tenderizing anecdotes are enough to make a hard man cry! On a lighter
note, this biography is frequently fun. Consider growling behind a tree to give
some kids a shivering good time (p. 234.) Or take the fact that “Amy whizzed
from one [room] to the other on a large tricycle” (p. 216.) And then, life in
this Fellowship was also peaceful: “A set of more loving, unselfish women and
girls and children could not easily be found” (p. 183.) But things were not so
spiritual as to be without normal moments: “Amma [what the workers called
Amy]…chided me. I threw the hot-water bottle at her and ran” (p. 356.) The
compound was no doubt a fine place to live. Hard work, religious love, and
tailor-made traditions made it so (pp. 187, 215.) This summary of fellowship
life might make A Chance to Die seem
like a riveting read.
Although Amy Carmichael is not a
notable, nor very quotable, poet, some godly, stylish couplets may be found in
her stanzas. And Elisabeth Elliot is not without her own sense of dash. She
draws an eloquent, contrasting parallel between ‘dockside partings’ and
travelers who simply disappear ‘into the jetway’ (p. 64.) She can shoot out the
lyrical line: “Ceylon ,
a wonderland of rest to their sea-weary eyes” (p. 67.) Take one more: “Dohnavur
bungalows in a bullock bandy with bells jingling” (p. 265.) I don’t know the
meaning, but there’s a pretty sound there. Again, this time because of
stylistic encounters, A Chance to Die seems
like a page-turner.
But if A Chance to Die be read one page at a time and all the way through,
the volume will be found as dry as desert dust. That Amy Carmichael was a
realist (p. 76) intent on holy living (p. 32) explains the odd meld of military
history (p. 239) and mystical authors (p. 315) on her bookshelves. These books
were to her a ‘great luxury, my mental change of air’ (p. 313.) Her heavy
consumption of mystical literature probably explains the absence of doctrine in
this biography. Mystic writers are anti-intellectual; their readers tend to be
likewise; and so there is probably very little doctrine for a biographer to
glean from this woman’s literary remains. The absence of doctrine is why, I
think, the story here told of Amy’s life, as well written as it is, is so
painfully dry. The biography is full of excellent practice, but even
extraordinary facts of life will end up seeming mundane unless theory,
doctrine, or even psychological guesswork comes in to relieve us of practical
information. A Christian life is founded on doctrine. Therefore the biography
of one should contain some. No matter how void of this element the writings of
Amy Carmichael must be, this omission is partly the fault of Elisabeth Elliot.
For instance, her Subject was of the Keswick persuasion (p. 50), certain
beliefs of which Amy rightly doubted the veracity of (p. 190.) Yet nothing even
remotely substantial is told us about this Christian sect! More importantly,
the gospel of Jesus Christ is nowhere woven into the story Elisabeth Elliot
tells us about. If it is, the job is so uninterestingly done that I failed to
notice it. Omission of that sort is a kind of Christian malpractice, to say the
least. There were fair opportunities to bring the gospel in. “Then she beat her
own arm instead of mine and explained salvation to me” (p. 213.) The gospel
screams to be disclosed by the biographer in this place. But her mind is
obviously elsewhere.
A Chance
to Die is about a life filled with meaning, purpose, pain, and conquest.
Needless to say, such a life has no need of novels, fiction, or fairy tales
(pp. 116, 205, 303.) And reading about a life like that should be more exciting
than reading a good novel or fiction of whatever sort. But this one isn’t. I’ve
heard it from translators that after they’ve gotten the book they are
translating all correctly penned into another language, they have yet to do
this further draft into which some spirit will be blown. That is what Elisabeth
Elliot forgot or failed to do. She collected the data, but blew very little
spirit into her findings. I am very surprised that I managed to finish reading A Chance to Die. This biography lacks
thought, and therefore spirit. Nothing contained in the book can make up for
this fault, for because of it the book is unreadable. This is not the
definitive history of Amy Carmichael’s remarkable life. However, because it
shows the ways around so many obstacles that romantic missionaries are bound to
stumble at, I would certainly reread it before entering upon missionary work;
and once on the mission field, I would keep this book close by for frequent
inquiry.
