The Henson Journals

[152]

S. Paul's Day, January 25th, 1903.

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My bad fortune in the matter of weather continued to the end. This day was gusty & wet, last Sunday was foggy, the Sunday before wet. I concluded my preaching in the Abbey. Here is the complete list of Subjects.

Dec: 7th	Christ's Mission & Ours
" 14th	Associations in Judgment
" 21st	The Faith that is Blessed
" 28th	The Holy Innocents
Jany 4	Christ, our Peace
" 11	Sincerity in Love
" 18	The Church & Public Opinion
" 25	The Wonderful Conversion

Besides I preached two sermons in the morning Service. On Dec: 7th my subject was "The Value of the Bible", and on Dec: 14th "The Holy Communion".

Mr A. W. Hutton preached in the Abbey this morning. He is an extremely interesting man. He was originally ordained in the English Church, then seceded to the Church of Rome, where he was re-ordained, & served in the priesthood for four years. Then he fell into much unsettlement of [153] mind. Finally he returned to his ancestral Church, married, and fulfilled his ministry. He is a widely-read & thoughtful man, creditably free from the bitterness which marks most returned 'verts' e.g. Arthur Galton. He does not give me a favourable impression of Newman, whom he appears to have known well. He describes his extempore sermons as the dreariest maundering. He assured me that the degrading penitential service of "Flagellation", as described by Blanco White in his Autobiography, actually proceeds in England, that Newman regularly engaged in it, that he himself had done so, that he had seen men whose backs were covered with scars from it, that commonly it was less severe in England than in Spain, that it was never alluded to in conversation by R.Cs.

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Issues and controversies: Westminster Abbey