A Tale of Survival Worth Reading

My initial thought in beginning this post (before my focus was changed) was to highlight a few historic events that had occurred on this date. For example, the start of the Mexican-American War and the Spanish-American War. Or the first submerged circumnavigation of the earth by the submarine USS Trident. Or the heroic rescue of the American flag from flag-burning fans by Chicago Cubs outfielder Rick Monday (watch the video at https://www.facebook.com/reel/1410946423004165 ). Or the first appearance of the Phillie Phanatic.

But one other significant event preempted those plans: the realization that on this date in 1719 was published the book that has been translated into more languages than any other book, except the Bible.

That book came into my hands as a Christmas gift from my paternal grandparents about the time I began my transformation from a mere common worm into a bookworm. Once begun, I devoured it. Or should I say it devoured me?

The author of the book was Daniel Defoe, an Englishman who was born in London in 1660. Following an education in a private academy, he gave up an initial dream of becoming a preacher to establish himself as a merchant. His fortunes in that trade revealed wild swings from prosperity to bankruptcy. At least one of his financial failures came from his insuring of ships during war. He summarized his business career with these lines:

"No man has tasted differing fortunes more,

And thirteen times I have been rich and poor."

He gained fame, however, as a political pamphleteer for William of Orange. His writings also had more negative consequences than popular acclaim, including his being sentenced to stand in the pillory for "political offenses" and his being imprisoned for "seditious libel."

From 1703 to 1713, Defoe published almost singlehandedly a weekly (later tri-weekly) newspaper called the Review. His later writings, the style of which was strongly influenced by the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress, were said to have helped mold Richard Steele's and Joseph Addison's more famous papers, The Tattler and The Spectator.

But Defoe published his most famous work, acclaimed as the first English novel, on this date in 1719. It was titled Robinson Crusoe and gained him the sobriquet "the Father of the English novel."

The main character, Robinson Crusoe, is the lone survivor of a shipwreck. He managed to return to the wreck and salvage such things that enabled his survival. What he didn't have, he would manage to make himself, illustrating the saying that necessity is the mother of invention.

One day while sick and searching for some tobacco in a chest he had salvaged, Crusoe discovered a Bible. He opened it casually without any real intention of reading it, and his eyes fell on this verse: "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Psa. 50:15).

He immediately saw how those words applied to his own circumstances and need for being rescued from his solitary prison. He later confessed in his diary, "Before I lay down I did what I had never done in all my life: I kneeled down and prayed to God to fulfill the promise to me."

That Bible verse continued to intrigue him, and he began to read more of the Bible, beginning with the New Testament. As he read, he became convicted of the wickedness of his past life and saw himself as he really was. That's when he realized the full import and application of Psalm 50:15.

"Now I looked back upon my past life with such horror," he confided in his diary, "and my sins appeared so dreadful that my soul sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort...."

When Crusoe later found the savage, whom he named Friday because he discovered his presence on that day, he realized how God was providentially meeting his need for social relationship and indeed one to help effectuate his survival. As Crusoe had rescued Friday from cannibals, so Friday was a God-ordained instrument to help him survive.

Since its publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has become the most translated book in history, second only to the Bible. It used to be required reading in public schools; I would be greatly surprised if it is still such today--or if any teacher recommends it for even outside reading.

When the Supreme Court cases Engel v. Vitale (1962), Abington School District v. Schemp (1963), and Murray v. Curlett (1963) banned prayer and Bible reading in public schools, the floodgates were opened for increasingly more antibiblical works to enter. Is it any wonder that schools became what they are today? How much better influence Robinson Crusoe would have upon young minds than the "woke" trash that so many schools and libraries are promoting today!

As LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow fame so often said, "But you don't have to take my word for it." Why not read Robinson Crusoe for yourself? Although written on the reading level of 9-13 year-olds, it contains valuable concepts for adults, too.