I was introduced to Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Christmas Sermon (first published 1888) at an online lecture in December 2020 by Stevenson expert amd fan Robert Louis Abrahamson. If I’m unconsciously replicating any of what RLA (whom I’ve since met) said, apologies and also thanks to him. Thanks too to Debbie Young for inviting me to the Hawkesbury Upton event where I recently gave this ten-minute talk.
Christmas cheer?
A Christmas Sermon isn’t the obvious place to begin with the writing of R. L. Stevenson whom most of you may know as the author of Treasure Island. Kidnapped or or Jekyll and Hyde, but it seemed an obvious choice for a December event. On the other hand, rereading it reminded me it’s not especially festive!
RLS is, thankfully, in favour of Christmas, but only because, “In the midst of winter, when his life runs lowest … it is well [a man] should be condemned to this fashion of the smiling face.”
Oh dear, but I think we all know what he means. Sometimes Christmas, for whatever reason, is the last thing we feel like and we have to force ourselves to take part. Forced jollity? But still jollity after all and with luck we’ll feel better for it. So maybe he’s right, and RLS is just saying what a lot of us feel but don’t own up to.
The unbeliever
I was very surprised to discover Stevenson had written a Christmas sermon because in his student days he renounced all religion and when he told his parents, out of honesty, that he had become an atheist, he was thrown out of the house. The ensuing visit to Suffolk was a turning point in his life and career (watch this space!), but this was hardly the best start to a life of Christian contemplation. Of course that was in 1873 and a lot had happened since then. The most immediately pressing reason for the sermon was the contract he signed in 1887 to contribute a monthly article to Scribners Magazine. Stevenson, still a very recent celebrity and always mindful of supporting his family, would not want to fall short for this final offering of the year. Yes, he had a deadline…
More significantly still, by the age of 38, he had already had several close brushes with death. For the good of his health he was always on the move and spent the winter of 1887 snowbound in a cabin in the Adirondacks (a climate he enjoyed more than the rest of his family!) although he would soon exchange extreme cold for the warmth of the Pacific and later the island of Samoa.
An awareness of life’s fragility clearly forced him to consider its meaning and in this piece and elsewhere he frames his philosophy within the Christian tradition even if he was not a church-goer in any conventional sense.
The faithful failure
So what does the sermon actually say? All in all, it’s not the lightest of his reads, but here are a few passages that I think will resonate today.
He’s true to his more youthful roots in taking issue with public sermonising – what we might call virtue signalling, I suppose. “There is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make their neighbours good. One person I have to make good: myself.”
Then, “But my duty to my neighbour is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy.”
Be good, make others happy; both useful and practical advice. As for goodness he settles on is this. “To be honest, to be kind–to make a family happier for his presence, to keep a few friends — above all, to keep friends with himself—”
That idea of ‘keeping friends with oneself’ jumps out. I’m not a big fan of the The Boy the Mole the Horse and the Fox, but you can see we’re on a similar page. Be kind to yourself: there is always cake!
Throughout there’s a huge emphasison not expecting too much of yourself, because none of it is easy.
“To scramble through this random business with hands reasonably clean, to have played the part of a man or woman with some reasonable fulness, is for the poor human soldier to have done right well.”
Life is messy. Our duty is to be honest and kind but things are weighted against us.
“‘Whatever else we are intended to do, we are not intended to succeed; failure is the fate allotted. It is so in every art and study; it is so above all in the art of living well.”
Ouch! This sounds like a massive downer, but it’s also a reason not to beat ourselves up. Failure isn’t so bad if it’s the natural order and success is an even bigger achievement. Describing himself (tongue in cheek, perhaps?) as “another faithful failure” he suggests this epitaph.
“Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much.”
Not the most ambitious of aims, but if that’s all we can do, we needn’t be ashamed.
Pictured is my wonky Christmas wreath. I’m planning to fail better next year!
Living the life
Stevenson was inherently kind, especially to his wife’s children, whom he regarded as his own, and was a highly popular pater familias to the islanders of Samoa. A story from that time illustrates his kindness and also the characteristic playfulness that’s missing from this sermon.
In Samoa, an American lawyer called Henry Ide told RLS that his daughter Anne was terribly aggrieved to have her birthday on Christmas Day, losing out on a celebration. Robert Louis Stevenson’s birthday was November 13th and he immediately decided to give it up in favour of the young Anne, drawing up a quasi legal document to seal the deal. Anne would have his birthday ‘to have hold exercise and enjoy in customary manner with the sporting of fine raiment, eating of rich meats and receiving of gifs compliments and lines of verse in the manner of our ancestors.’ Anne was delighted and the families became firm friends.
So much for sermons, and so much for modernly mawkish life guides.
Bring on the cake and the music!
So that’s Happy Christmas from Robert Louis Stevenson, Harry Styles, and me!
References
The text of A Christmas Sermon is easily findable online e.g. at Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14535
But a better starting place for the life and works (novels, short stories, essays, travel writing …) is https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/
Robert Louis Abrahamson publishes podcasts on Substack https://eveningunderlamplight.substack.com/
The story of Anne Ide and her photo (from the Illustrated Letters of RLS blog by Mafalda Cipollone)
https://lettersofrobertlouisstevenson.wordpress.com/2021/03/14/considering-that-i-have-no-now-further-use-for-a-birthday-of-any-description/
Ali Bacon / Books and Other Things 