The Henson Journals

[101]

15th Sunday after Trinity, September 7th, 1902.

For the first time in my life I failed at Holy Communion thro' sheer not being up in time. I had assumed that 8.30 a.m. was the hour of service, & ordered my uprising on that hypothesis. However, Perkins was at the Church & did not wait for me.

I propose to preach on a very hard text

"Ye cannot serve God & Mammon" - the truth is as obvious, as its application difficult. The normal contradiction between the Christian's principle & practice becomes in the Christian Minister an openly aggressive thing, hurting men's consciences. It is a tough problem. We are not exempt from the normal anxieties. The Law resolutely ignores the ministerial character, & 'Society' is not slow to follow in the wake of law. We live, must live, in the main order & habit of our lives with our class. So far the exalted language we hold in the pulpits seems a trifle absurd. But there is not one law for the Minister, another for the laity: he must be normal if he is to set them an example. Clearly then he is to live on the highest level of the general morality, not on a higher morality - be exemplary in fact, not extraordinary.

[102]

There was an unusually large, & very attentive congregation, and 100 communicants at the celebration. At Evensong, I preached a sermon written as long ago as 1891, for the 'Friendly Societies' of Barking. It seemed to me more pretentious & rhetorical than my more modern compositions. It was listened to with close attention.

[103]

On Monday October 6th 1902, I journeyed to Northampton for the Church Congress. Mine host was Mr Cooper of Delapré Abbey, and in him I found much to interest me. He was (so I was incidentally informed) a wealthy boot-maker: he evidently had been a poor working cobbler. He retained the language &, in some degree, the habits of his primitive state. I liked both him & his wife: their real goodness attracted, their aggressive vulgarity amused me. Their sons were public School & University men.

The Bishop of Rochester's sermon in All Saints Church was a really fine effort; it took 50 minutes to deliver. The acting-President, Bishop Thicknesse, struck me as pompous & shallow. He was also indistinct in his utterance. "Home Reunion" came on immediately after the Presidential address. The Bp. of Ripon, who came first, was windy & futile: the audience was not greatly impressed by him. Collins followed with a common-place paper of the confident High Church variety, which greatly pleased a large section of the Congress. Then I came, & was well listened to, even applauded, but clearly did not have the general sense of the Assembly on my side.

[104]

Bishop Montgomery & his wife, the Dean of Peterboro, & his son were guests of Mr Cooper: also my old friend Anderson.

On Wednesday, the 8th, I returned to Westminster, &, later in the day, left for Oxford, where the Bodleian Tercentenary was in progress. I arranged for the removal of my furniture from my college rooms and (on Thursday, the 9th) again returned to Westminster.

[105]

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As I was reading over my sermon before Evensong on Sunday, the 12th October 1902, a note was brought to me from Armitage Robinson. It was an intimation that on the preceding day, he had received the offer of the Deanery & had accepted it. On the whole it is a good appointment: & we have escaped many things.

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Issues and controversies: church congress; recognition of/reunion with non-episcopal churches