Death of a devout Christian

We don’t like talking about death, yet it is a natural process that we must all go through. The stages of dying are described factually in The Natural Death Handbook [1] and anyone fearing the event will hopefully be comforted by the account given in the book. That also applies to those around the dying patient, as it is as hard for the watchers as it is for the dying: shown clearly in Edvard Munch’s painting By The Death Bed (1896):

Of course, death can also be sudden and dramatic and the act of dying may not follow the sequence described in the book. There is also the emotional involvement in the process that religious belief has conditioned into us. In Christianity, death is the end of our time on Earth before our soul passes to an afterlife and, hopefully, entry to Heaven. The “fire and brimstone” school of Protestant preaching is designed to make us scared of the alternative: something that might happen if we move away from a particular set of religious beliefs and practices that some preachers espouse.

Although I am not a Christian, I would have thought that belief in Heaven and the death of Jesus to save our souls would bring comfort, but I wonder if it does? To try and find an answer, I wanted to see what happened to Philip Henry Gosse as he was among the most devout Christians that I have read about.

Gosse was an outstanding naturalist and achieved both popular, and scientific, fame from his books, papers and lectures. It can be argued that the most important events of Henry Gosse’s life were the death of his first wife Emily; his young son Edmund being “saved”; and the challenge to Creation (as described in Genesis) provided by ideas on evolution and the concept of geological time. He was a member of the Brethren (leading his own group) and had a profound belief in the imminence of the Second Coming, when believers would be carried up to Heaven in rapture.

Emily died of breast cancer [2] after being subjected to an “alternative” treatment that was more like quack medicine. During her final days, Henry was busy on writing and natural history projects, so Edmund and Emily spent much time together. Later, Henry wrote an account of Emily’s last days and I have not read it, nor am I likely to, as there are few copies still in existence [3]. She had a deep Christian faith and, while suffering a great deal of pain, I imagine that, at the end, she was happy to make the transition to Heaven, her main anxiety being that Edmund would be “saved” after the adult baptism that the Brethren practised.

As it turned out, Henry arranged that Edmund would be baptised as an “adult believer” three weeks after his 10th birthday, an act so unusual that people came to Torquay from miles around to witness the act. In his autobiography, Edmund, too, recognised that this was a very significant event in his life [4], but he went on to reject the rigid beliefs that Henry followed and this caused much tension between the two men. Edmund was also very involved in the Arts World of the time and Henry could not identify with this, or with Darwin’s important work in promoting ideas on evolution. In the year that Emily died, Henry had published Omphalos [5], that contained his theory that everything was created in six days; even rock strata that appeared to be millions of years old and which contained the fossilised remains of plant and animals. Unsurprisingly, Omphalos was rejected by both the scientific, and religious, communities and this further isolated Henry, making him even less able to shift from his strict literalist stance. I’m not sure how happy he was after becoming estranged from Edmund; being ridiculed by some readers of Omphalos; and generally worrying about being on the straight and narrow, although he was so dogmatic on that front that his passport to Heaven must have been assured in his own mind. 

He did enjoy the company of his grandchildren (the photograph above shows him in old age) and Edmund describes a happy time when the family spent 19th September 1887 at Goodrington, collecting along the shore [6]. It was shortly after this that Henry became ill with congestive heart disease and he died at “Sandhurst”, his home in Torquay, a little before 1 a.m. on 23rd August 1888; his nurse recording his last words as “It is all over. The Lord is near! I am going to my reward!” [7]. It was a peaceful end, as one would expect of someone with such a strong religious faith. Yet we know that, in the days before, Henry was angry with God, as his belief in the Second Coming was so strong that he hadn’t contemplated the act of dying that he had seen Emily pass through. How odd that such a devout Christian felt let down by God because he had to die, even though this is the fate of all humans.

Henry’s final days are described by Eliza [7]:

Even within the last fortnight, seeing me distressed, he said, “Oh, darling, don’t trouble. It is not too late; even now the Blessed Lord may come and take us both up together.” I believe he was buoyed up almost to the last with this strong hope.

Although Eliza describes being supported by Henry, Ann Thwaite [8], in her brilliant biography, details Henry’s own distress:

Eliza said that, though Henry Gosse had never had a revelation that he would himself be “one of the favoured saints who shall never taste of death”, he had waited and hoped and prayed. “This hope of being caught up before death continued to the last and its non-fulfilment was an acute disappointment to him. It undoubtedly was connected to the deep dejection of his latest hours on earth.”

So, does a religious faith help us when dying? I guess it all depends on the nature of one’s beliefs, whether one feels bad about past misdemeanours, and whether there are terrible threats of what might happen if one is on the wrong side in the afterlife. Of course, I don’t know whether I will make a deathbed religious conversion and I have no idea when, or how, I will die. However, I’m grateful to have been able to be broad and imaginative in my thinking and not constrained to what seems like the straitjacket of religious belief. Fancy going through all that for nothing.

  

[1] Stephanie Wienrich and Josefine Speyer (eds.) (2003) The Natural Death Handbook. London, Rider.

[2] Robert Boyd (2004) Emily Gosse. Bath, Olivet Books.

[3] R.B.Freeman and Douglas Wertheimer (1980) Philip Henry Gosse – A Bibliography. Folkestone, Dawson.

[4] Edmund Gosse (1907) Father and Son: a study of two temperaments. London, William Heinemann.

[5] Philip Henry Gosse (1857) Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot. London, John Van Voorst.

[6] Edmund Gosse (1896) The Naturalist of the Sea-shore: the life of Philip Henry Gosse. London, William Heinemann.

[7] Eliza Gosse (1896) Appendix I in Edmund Gosse (1896) The Naturalist of the Sea-shore: the life of Philip Henry Gosse. London, William Heinemann.

[8] Ann Thwaite (2002) Glimpses of the Wonderful: the life of Philip Henry Gosse 1810-1888. London, Faber and Faber.

Emily Gosse - a notable evangelical Christian and writer of tracts

Emily Bowes, later Emily Gosse, came from a family that had suffered financial misfortune and, as a result, she needed to work as a governess, spending several years looking after the education of the young children of a clergyman in Berkshire and then a family of orphaned children in Sussex. It was a vocation for which she was well suited, as she had a kind and thoughtful nature.

From an early age, Emily had been a Christian and she developed a commitment to evangelism. She was never strident, and her interest in others was genuine and human, but she was driven to speak about her faith and how important it was for individuals to accept that Christ died for their sins. Having been moved by the writings by evangelists, and having listened to many preachers of that type, it was natural to her to use her own writing skills to produce religious poetry and prose. She handed copies of tracts that she had written to anyone she met, to reinforce the message put across in conversation. On the dust cover of Robert Boyd’s affectionate and well-researched book Emily Gosse: A life of faith and works, ¹ Dr Stephen S. Short praises Emily’s poetry (her published poems are included in the book) and writes “I cannot doubt that all who read the work will be spiritually enriched”. She was clearly talented and became one of the most prolific writers of religious tracts in the Nineteenth Century.

When Emily moved to London in 1841 to look after her infirm mother, she joined a group of Brethren in Hackney, that had been formed by two brothers who had left the Quakers. ¹ This small group, numbering less than twenty were:

a collection of Christians who met as such out of all different sects,... endeavouring to revive the brotherly love of the early Christians by persuading all who love the Lord Jesus Christ to meet together without quarrelling about their little differences, taking the Bible only as their rule of life, the Holy Spirit as their teacher, and God as their only head and master ²

Odd, then, that such an inclusive group was formed after a split from a more established sect and their beliefs were rather less inclusive than this quote suggests. It was at the Brethren meetings that Emily met Philip Henry Gosse, the great Natural Historian, and we know from his writings that Roman Catholics, for example, were to be looked down upon and their creed rejected. This is puzzling to me, as all Christians have the Bible as the written basis for their beliefs and all accept the existence of the Trinity and the death of Christ on the cross. However, I will not dwell on that here.

Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes were married on 22nd November 1848 and they shared views on living by faith. It was a warm and happy relationship and Emily, with her outgoing nature, helped to overcome Henry’s sometimes acute shyness in public. She also encouraged him in his writing and research and was happy to work quietly for hours when Henry was occupied with reading, or in investigating some organism. Their son, Edmund, was born on 21st September 1849, when Emily was nearly forty-three years old. It was a time when child mortality was high and the parents of an only child, as Edmund was likely to be, had particular fears. As Emily wrote:

We have given him to the Lord, and we trust He will early manifest him to be His own, if he grow up. And if the Lord take him early we will not doubt that he is taken to Himself. Only if it please the Lord to take him, I do trust we will be spared seeing him suffer in lingering illness and much pain. But in this, as in all things, His will is better than we can choose. ²

It wasn't Edmund who became very ill and who had to suffer, but Emily. When Edmund was not yet seven-years old, she discovered a lump in her breast and this was diagnosed as cancer. Having taken advice from medical practitioners, Henry and Emily decided to follow a treatment by Dr Jesse Weldon Fell that was based on a plant-derived ointment used by native Americans. Part of the attraction was that Dr Fell assured them that there was little pain associated with this approach. Unfortunately, this was not true and neither was the ointment effective, so the tumour, with its associated pain, became worse and Emily had eventually to go through several surgical procedures for piece by piece removal of the growth, by which time she had secondary tumours in her lungs and lymphatic system. At the end, she tried homeopathic treatments that led to "a manifest improvement”, ³ giving both Emily and Henry some relief from their suffering. The use of homeopathy, dependent as it is on faith rather than science, was appropriate in the Gosse household. Emily died on 10th February 1857 and, to the end, she did not appear to fear death, viewing it as God's will and a chance for her to be with Jesus in Heaven. Even when dying, she had tracts sent out in the hope that more people could share her vision.

Apart from books such as Emily Gosse: A life of faith and works, ¹ Tell Jesus: Recollections of Emily Gosse  ³ and Henry’s own A memorial of the last days on earth of Emily Gosse,⁴ most of us have learned of the Gosse family from Edmund’s Father and Son, ⁵ subtitled A study of two temperaments. Written, anonymously, fifty years after Emily’s death, it conveys a different impression of the value of Henry’s and Emily’s particular religious beliefs, although I am well aware of problems with the reliability of Edmund’s account, as he had a casual approach to accuracy. ⁶ When father and son moved to Torquay in 1857, all was well between them, as they grieved and supported each other. The high spot came days after Edmund’s tenth birthday when he was baptised as an adult believer in the same brand of Christianity followed by his father and mother, fulfilling Emily’s wishes. Their closeness was maintained when Henry married Eliza Brightwen in 1860, a lady who admired Henry and shared his beliefs.

Although he was developing independent views as an adolescent, Edmund’s permanent move to London when aged seventeen brought a much wider range of perspectives and influences. Henry became very worried about these changes, especially the new friends that Edmund made from the liberal thinking world of the Arts. ⁶ In writing about the descriptions in Father and Son, Boyd comments: “It would seem that in the circle of Edmund’s friends in London, he felt embarrassed by his mother’s [and father’s] faith and so is somewhat dismissive of it.” ¹ [my parenthesis].

It was impossible for evangelical Christians like Emily and Henry Gosse to accept that there are other views and, indeed, much of their life was spent convincing themselves and others that they were right in having their beliefs. Questioning would be something sent by Satan and must be dismissed, locking them into their narrowness. One can sense that this single-mindedness, while being a marvellous support for evangelical Christians like Emily and Henry, is oppressive to anyone that does not accept these views, and especially for those that are brought up with them. It is easy to see why Edmund Gosse felt the way he did, despite having such lovely parents, and he eventually gave up talking to his father about their differences. I empathise with Edmund, yet I admire both Henry and Emily very much - although I suspect I would not always feel comfortable in their company.

¹ Robert Boyd (2004) Emily Gosse: A life of faith and works. Bath, Olivet Books.

² Emily Gosse, quoted by Boyd (see ¹, above)

³ Anna Shipton (1868) Tell Jesus: Recollections of Emily Gosse. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company.

⁴ Philip Henry Gosse (1857) A memorial of the last days on earth of Emily Gosse. London, James Nisbet & Co.

⁵ Edmund Gosse (1907) Father and Son: A study of two temperaments. London, William Heinemann Ltd.

⁶ Roger S. Wotton (2012) Walking with Gosse: Natural History, Creation and Religious Conflicts. Southmapton, Clio Publishing.

Two wives in Heaven

It is difficult to imagine a more devout Christian than Philip Henry Gosse, the great Victorian Natural Historian, writer, illustrator and lecturer. His faith seems to have been absolute and it was kept so by his belief that the Second Coming was imminent and that this required a constant state of preparedness.

Gosse needed his faith at the time of the illness, and subsequent death from breast cancer, of his wife Emily in 1857 when he was 46 years old. He was certain in the knowledge that they would be re-united in Heaven and he promised Emily that their only son Edmund (later Sir Edmund) would also be with them. Gosse’s need to ensure this led to a break down in the relationship with Edmund, who did not share his father’s beliefs and wilted under the constant pressure put on him to “walk closely with God”. It wasn’t like that when Edmund was young, as they were very close and supported each other through their bereavement, rejoicing when Edmund was baptised as a boy to be a full member of the Brethren. The closeness, and subsequent conflict, between the two are recorded in Father and Son.¹

After Emily died, Gosse moved to Torquay and immersed himself in collecting marine organisms, building aquaria to observe them and continuing with his writing and painting.² After a few years, he met Eliza Brightwen and they married in 1860, being devoted to each other for the rest of Gosse’s life. Edmund liked Eliza and they, too, enjoyed a harmonious relationship, even after Edmund and his father had fallen out.

You will notice that I have only mentioned Gosse’s first names once in this blog post. 

To Emily he was Henry, as we see in the opening of A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast: ³

 “You are seriously ill, Henry” said my wife; “you have been in the study a great deal too much lately; you must throw it all up, and take a trip into the country.”

Yet to Eliza, he was Philip. In an Appendix to Edmund’s The Naturalist of the Sea-Shore: the Life of Philip Henry Gosse ⁴ (in which he always refers to his father by the first of his two Christian names), Eliza writes:

“All these recreations [describing collecting marine creatures] were a great rest to Philip Gosse’s active brain, as the exercises and air were healthful to his body, and to me they were a source of very great enjoyment”

It seems probable that Edmund used Philip rather than Henry to please his step-mother, who was clearly involved in the production of the biography. However, he also refers to his father as Philip Gosse in Father and Son. ¹ Why the change? Was Philip just for formal usage, or could it be that Henry (for consistency and a sense of closeness, I always refer to him as Henry ²) had to reconcile that there would be the souls of two wives with him in Heaven and that this differing use of first names was a means of overcoming a possible conflict? No-one knows and it is a difficulty that must be faced by many Christians who have a second marriage, a step that seems very sensible after the trauma and loneliness of bereavement has passed a little. Is it possible for there to be jealousies in Heaven, or are souls above such things? This is a genuine question based on my lack of theological knowledge and I have no intention of being flippant here. Rather, I am intrigued by the usage of the two first names. Was it to indentify his second marriage as a new start, or was there another reason? Was it Eliza’s choice, also adopted by Edmund? Did Henry still refer to himself by his second name, the familar one used only by members of the family? He usually signed Philp Henry Gosse or P.H.Gosse, so there are no clues there.

¹ Edmund Gosse (1907) Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments. London, Heinemann.

² Roger S. Wotton (2020) Walking with Gosse: Natural History, Creation and Religious Conflicts. e-book available from all good e-booksellers.

³ Philip Henry Gosse (1853) A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast. London, John van Voorst.

⁴ Edmund Gosse (1896) The Naturalist of the Sea-Shore: The Life of Philip Henry Gosse. London, Heinemann.