In Front | Charles Dickens’ The Life of Our Lord

The British author Charles Dickens wrote some of the most well-known and critically acclaimed works in the history of English literature. These included works like A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. But another project that was close to his heart was written for his children alone. It remained—on his strict orders—unpublished for more than sixty years after his death. It begins:

My Dear Children, 

I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about him. No one ever lived who was so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any way ill or miserable, as He was. 

This work, titled The Life of Our Lord, became an immediate bestseller and recounted scenes and teachings from Jesus’ life in the Gospels. In it, Dickens explains to his children why he believes sharing the life of Jesus with them is so important: 

And as He is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven is, without knowing who He was and what He did.  

Source of Dickens quotes: Charles Dickens, The Life of Our Lord: Written for His Children During the Years 1846 to 1849, 1999, p. 17