Story Telling, and The Hidden Hand

One of my favourite books is The Hidden Hand, by J. Sidlow Baxter. I’ll just go ahead and admit it.

If you were to put it in a category, you might say it’s a historic romantic mystery. It centres around a boy named Joseph Kennard, who grows up in a home with an abusive father and a Christian mother. Yes, it is a distinctly Christian novel.

In some ways this novel “has it all” – murder, love, mystery, humour. But it’s made me reflect again – as the author reflects at the beginning of the book – on how storytelling is done. Not just books – movies, the latest Netflix series, whatever it may be.

As we all know, the buzz word that everyone seems to want to hear is “darker”, especially as the movie industry pumps out remakes. Why darker? More realistic, perhaps?

Perhaps. As Christians, we all know that the world is a dark place. But maybe we need some stories that will lift us higher instead of lower. And it’s funny that you don’t really realize just how far story telling has gone to the other extreme until you read something like The Hidden Hand.

What does the Bible do? It certainly tells realistic stories – some horrible and even graphic. And yet, it doesn’t tend to dwell on the graphic the way modern stories do. And there is still room for heroism in the Bible. (Oh yes, I know that the hero of Hebrews 11 is God Himself. But God still commends the faith of His people. Very flawed, sometimes falling into terrible sin – and yet somehow by God’s grace we can still celebrate their great acts and words.)

Well, my purpose wasn’t to give too many of my own thoughts, but to share Baxter’s thoughts. Here are a few words from his forward, responding to the claim that modern stories are “realistic”:

Equally so, drains and sewers are real, but must we live in them? What about the fresh air of the mountains? Is not that real too? Ugliness, alas, is real, but must we be all the time looking only at that? How much beauty there is in the world today – both moral and physical! Is there not far more real thrill in the beautiful than in the ugly? – and far more satisfaction of mind? Some of the most exciting novels ever written are clean throughout; or, if evil characters and doings are incidental to the story, they are presented in suchwise as to make plain that the underlying morality of the author and his story sides with the good and condemns the evil – which is a criterion of all worthy literature.

J. Sidlow Baxter

He goes on to explain that there are indeed evil characters in his book – and there are! Abuse, adultery, kidnapping, murder – which of the Ten Commandments are not broken? And yet, there is also grace, forgiveness, and love – why not once in a while spend more time dwelling on those things, rather than the sin that we already know is all around us?

And after all, remember, when you look up into the eyes of God, you will see that true good and beauty are more real than anything else.

Back of all that foes have plotted

Back of all that saints have planned

Back of schemes by men and demons

Moves a higher Hidden Hand.

J. Sidlow Baxter