The Henson Journals

[189]

Ascension Day, May 21st, 1903.

O Saviour of the World, exalted now in Thy power & majesty, give ear to the prayers of Thy Church, and of me the least and unworthiest of Thy Children. Break the yoke of the world from off our minds, set free from the bondage of past transgression our wills, and kindle in our hearts the flame of zeal for Thy service. O reigning & glorious Master make intercession for Thy Children this day, & grant us comfort, courage, and wisdom that we may live in Thy obedience & work in Thy spirit.

Amen.

[190]

Letter to Mr Herbert Cox.

May 21st 1903

My dear Herbert,

Mrs Knowling has very properly forward to me the letters which you have addressed to Harold, & I understand that she has informed you of the rule which prohibits the choirboys of S. Margaret's from making the acquaintance of strangers without my permission. Harold himself reported to me your approaches to him, though I did not know that you were the individual concerned. You will, please, understand that I will not have that rule broken. For reasons, which you will readily imagine, the discipline of the Choir will not permit of the kind of friendship you offer. Nor will the credit of S. Margaret's be served by it. The Choirboys are entrusted to me by their parents, and they are under my protection so long as they remain in the Choir. I have very strong objections to their being petted & treated by anybody who has no natural right to be familiar with them. I do not suspect you of any intentions except kind ones: but there are too many persons, [191] [symbol] who would act as you have done, whose purpose is the worst in the world: and you know we, communicants, must ‘take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men'. I need say no more.

Yours affectly

H. Hensley Henson

Beeching and I attended the reception at the City Temple in connexion with the ‘recognition' of the Revd R. J. Campbell as successor to the well-known Joseph Parker. There was an immense throng, too great for the room underneath the chapel, so it overflowed upstairs; & the proceedings really took place in the Temple itself. Campbell made a few introductory remarks, and then I spoke for about 20 minutes. Then a Baptist minister named Shakspeare followed; & then the notorious windbag Silvester Horne: at the conclusion of his speech, Beeching & I left.

[192]

[symbol] [symbol]

Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury

May 23rd 1903

My dear Lord Archbishop,

I am sure you will not resent, or misunderstand my action in sending you the enclosed account of what took place behind the closed doors of the Lower Convocation House, & more especially, of the Speech which I myself addressed to the House. From more than one source I learn that very odd versions of what I said have been put into circulation & have even reached some of the Bishops. I am the better able to give a trustworthy account of that speech, because, being impressed by the unusual importance of the debate, I was careful to write out in advance on slips the several propositions which I proposed to submit.

Your Grace knows how earnestly I deprecate any doctrinal pronouncement from the Episcopal Bench at this juncture. The certain ill effects of such a pronouncement I can the more clearly see as I the more carefully reflect. The good effects I cannot imagine.

It cannot be too strongly pressed on your Grace's attention that the practically unanimous [193] [symbol] sense of the Lower Convocation House with respect to Canon Knox Little's gravamen was one of regret at its introduction. Once a question of the Creed had been raised, many members felt themselves bound to take action, but all - as far as I could discover - saving a knot of extreme High Churchmen deprecated the raising of the question. The fanatical spirit in which the gravamen was conceived, moved, & pressed may be sufficiently indicated by the fact that the mover quoted, endorsed, & dilated upon the grotesque declaration of the late Dr Liddon that 'Modern Oxford was the 'world' as conceived by S. John'. It will be within your Grace's recollection that Dr Liddon's censures fell nowhere more heavily than on that very distinguished representative of modern Oxford, the Bishop of Worcester.

Apologizing most sincerely for troubling you when your weight of cares is so great,

I am, my dear Lord Archbishop,

Sincerely & dutifully yrs,

H. Hensley Henson

---

Issues and controversies: grooming of choir boys; virgin birth