Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

• Romans 12:14-21

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

• Micah 6:8

But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!

• Amos 5:24

Defend the weak and the fatherless;
    uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

• Psalm 82:3

SPOILER ALERT WARNING

If you intend to read this book, the following may give away the mystery

““It’s like this,” said Wimsey. “Hypothetical case, you see, and so on. S’posin’ one knows somebody who’s very, very ill and can’t last long anyhow. And they’re in awful pain and all that, and kept under morphia – practically dead to the world, you know. And suppose that by dyin’ straight away they could make some-thing happen which they really wanted to happen and which couldn’t happen if they lived on a little longer (I can’t explain exactly how, because I don’t want to give personal details and so on)-you get the idea? Well, supposin’ somebody who knew all that was just to give ’em a little push off so to speak- hurry matters on -why should that be a very dreadful crime?”
“The law-” began Mr. Tredgold.
“Oh, the law says it’s a crime, fast enough,” said Wimsey. “But do you honestly think it’s very bad? I know you’d call it a sin, of course, but why is it so very dreadful? It doesn’t do the person any harm, does it?”
“We can’t answer that,” said Mr. Tredgold, “without knowing the ways of God with the soul. In those last weeks or hours of pain and unconsciousness, the soul may be undergoing some necessary part of its pilgrimage on earth. It isn’t our business to cut it short. Who are we to take life and death into our hands?” “Well, we do it all day, one way and another. Juries – soldiers – doctors – all that. And yet I do feel, somehow, that it isn’t a right thing in this case. And yet, by interfering- finding things out and so on – one may do far worse harm. Start all kinds of things.” “I think,” said Mr. Tredgold, “that the sin – I won’t use that word- the damage to Society, the wrongness of the thing lies much more in the harm it does the killer than in anything it can do to the person who is killed. Especially, of course, if the killing is to the killer’s own advantage. The consequence you mention – this thing which the sick person wants done – does the other person stand to benefit by it, may I ask?”
“Yes. That’s just it. He – she- they do.”
“That puts it at once on a different plane from just hastening a person’s death out of pity. Sin is in the intention, not the deed. That is the difference between divine law and human law. It is bad for a human being to get to feel that he has any right what-ever to dispose of another person’s life to his own advantage. It leads him on to think himself above all laws – Society is never safe from the man who has deliberately committed murder with impunity. That is why- or one reason why- God forbids private vengeance.”
“You mean that one murder leads to another.”
“Very often. In any case it leads to a readiness to commit others.”
“It has. That’s the trouble. But it wouldn’t have if I hadn’t started trying to find things out. Ought I to have left it alone?”
“I see. That is very difficult. Terrible, too, for you. You feel responsible.”
“Yes.”
“You yourself are not serving a private vengeance?”
“Oh, no. Nothing really to do with me. Started in like a fool to help somebody who’d got into trouble about the thing through having suspicions himself. And my beastly interference started the crimes all over again.”
“I shouldn’t be too troubled. Probably the murderer’s own guilty fears would have led him into fresh crimes even without your interference.”
“That’s true,” said Wimsey, remembering Mr. Trigg.
“My advice to you is to do what you think is right, according to the laws which we have been brought up to respect. Leave the consequences to God.”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Whose Body?

Boilerplate

In this mini-series, I will fulfill a promise.  Some time ago, published 14 January 2025, I wrote a brief synopsis of the book, Subversive by Crystal Downing.  The post is called A Subversive Christian.  In that book, I talked about the three books in the photo above.  And I especially wanted to do a mini-series on the book on the right, The Gospel in Dorothey L. Sayers. 

Note that the title uses the preposition “in.”  Dorothy L. Sayers did not write a fifth gospel.  She did not write as if inspired directly by God.  The canon of Scripture is complete.

But in stating what this is not, then what is it?  All Christians have the Holy Spirit within them, guiding them.  When being a Christian is something you have inside you and through you, then your life will reflect that.  This book is how you can see various aspects of the Christian life in the works of Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery novels, plays, letters, and essays.

After the Introduction, it starts with Whose Body?  The editor’s attribute of a Christian that she focuses on is “Conscience.” Whose Body? is her first detective fiction novel featuring her main character, Lord Peter Wimsey.  Then in Death Must Advertise, we find Lord Peter has a couple of middle names.  His full name is Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey.

But we will stay in the Introduction for more than a  week.  There are at least a half dozen quotes just in the introduction that look interesting.  I am not in a hurry to speed through this book.  I was not in a hurry to start it with me being over a year since I promised to make it into a mini-series.

But I would hope people could read my short stories and see the gospel being acted out in the characters in my fictional stories.  Deviled Yeggs grew up in a family of safe crackers, robbing from others.  He set out as a policeman, and then homicide detective, to redeem the family name but learning each person must have Christ redeem them individually.  Deviled’s wife, Trinity Naomi Tesla (TNT) Yeggs, was nicknamed “Nitroglycerin” (Glyce for short) by her parents because she was explosive when shaken.  But she found calm and peace in her husband’s arms, and eventually she found the same comfort and peace in the arms of Jesus as she faced “shaky” experiences.

Even when not writing about Jesus directly, the Good News (Gospel) appears in many ways in what a Christian writes.  Let’s enjoy this journey with possibly my favorite author (outside the Bible with C.S. Lewis in a tie with her), Dorothy L. Sayers.

Discussion

The quote from Unnatural Death that is made when Lord Peter is looking for the female private eye, Miss Climpson.  He is unaware of the trouble she has gotten into by investigating this murder.  Lord Peter finds himself at the church at he asks the vicar, Mr. Tredgold, for some advice.

The quoted portion of the book lays out only part of the case.

Agatha Dawson was dying of cancer.  Her great-niece, Mary Whitaker, was taking care of her after the two maids, Bertha and Evelyn Gotobed had been suddenly dismissed.  Miss Whitaker is presumed to be the only next of kin and Miss Dawson had no will.

When Agatha Dawson is found dead, there is no evidence of foul play, so the police claimed that the death was by natural causes.

Detective Parker and Lord Peter reviewed the case, and Wimsey thought things seemed strange.  There was a bank note signed to Mrs. Muriel Forrest found at the scene.  There was a hypodermic needle nearby.  But the odd thing was that the death occurred on the last night before a new law went into effect.  The new law stated that people who died without a will and there was no immediate next of kin, the crown would inherit all properties.  Miss Whitaker would have been left with no inheritance if the death occurred the next day.

It seemed too convenient.  Lord Peter was torn.  Miss Dawson was going to die anyway.  And the penalty for murder in 1925 England was death by hanging.  Capital punishment ended in England in 1969.  The last two men that were hung was in 1964.  The last woman hung was in 1955.  This fictional murder occurred in 1925 and the book was published in 1927.  If Lord Peter pursued the truth, a woman would go to the gallows for killing someone who was going to die soon anyway.  And does the crown really need any more wealth?

He discovered that Miss Dawson had been murdered by injecting air into the bloodstream.  Miss Whitaker was long gone.  His only lead was Muriel Forrest.  He hired Katherine Climpson to follow that lead.  This part of the investigation would need a woman’s touch.

By this point, Mrs. Forrest had tried to drug Lord Peter and a couple of people had been murdered before Lord Peter was able to get the truth out of them.  What he did not know was that Miss Climpson was nearly murdered herself.

But as he thought the facts through, he realized that Miss Whitaker and Mrs. Forrest were one and the same.  This was confirmed by Miss Climpson once she was rescued.

Lord Peter had asked the vicar his “hypothetical” question due to personal guilt that others had been murdered after he started his investigation, but his real issue was whether death by hanging was appropriate for the murder of a dying woman.  He wanted to show Grace.

The vicar convinced him to come forward with his evidence and let the court decide.  The court may have been lenient if the only death was Miss Dawson, but the murders to cover up the initial crime would change things.

It is true that one murder makes it much easier to do the next one.  The barrier in our soul is strong with regard to taking someone’s life, but once that barrier has been breached it becomes easier.

But in a way, this story speaks to the legalization of euthanasia.  The countries that have enacted such laws have found it easier to kill older citizens due to inconvenience instead of strictly killing them to save them the suffering of a long illness.  The classification of euthanasia as a medical procedure is absurd.  The person is administering poisons that will kill the older or dying person.  And once you have killed a few, it becomes much easier to kill more.

In an odd and humorous note, Dorothy L Sayers was sloppy in the very “unnatural” cause of death.  The hypodermic needle needed to be larger.  And Miss Whitaker had injected the air into an artery instead of a vein.  Once she realized her error, D.L. Sayers apologized for her sloppiness.  She felt compelled to apologize after she wrote the oath for the Detection Club (a club of British authors of detective novels and short stories).  The oath states: “Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence or Act of God?”  There were other stipulations in minimizing or eliminating things that made the detection clunky, like death-rays, ghosts, hypnotism.  Oddly, she mentioned China-men and gangs in her list of things to avoid.  She was the third president of the Detection Club, and she organized the novels that these noted authors collaborated to write, authors like Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, and Baroness Orczy (the Scarlett Pimpernel).  Upon Sayers’ death in 1957, Agatha Christie became the president of the Detection Club as long as someone else was the emcee at club meetings.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  We should show grace and mercy when it is appropriate to do so.  You have shown Grace and Mercy toward us.  It is only right.  But when the evildoer is a threat to the lives of others, we need to see that justice is served.  And not getting involved can be an act of us playing god.  We should leave justice in the hands of the police and the court system instead of becoming the law unto ourselves.  Please, Lord, give us the strength and courage to do the right thing.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.