The Henson Journals
Sun 18 October 1908 to Sat 24 October 1908
Volume 16, Pages 373 to 374
[373]
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18th Sunday after Trinity, October 18th, 1908.
I celebrated at 8 a.m. in S. Margaret's. There were 28 comts including Geake & his wife.
The Speaker was in his place at Mattins; but the attendance of members was lamentably small. However the congregation was fairly good, & the offertory exceeded £20. Sir Henry Graham was in Church. I preached about social duty from the words in the Gospel for S. Luke's Day 'The Labourer is worthy of his hire'.
Dr Bonney preached in the Abbey, and after service came in to lunch – a pleasant, & well informed man ready to talk of what he knows, and able to talk well.
There was a very large congregation in the Abbey at 3 p.m. when I preached on 'The one thing needful'.
Peile preached at 7 p.m. to another great congregation. He has an excellent voice & manages it excellently. His sermon was well composed & well–delivered: but too lop–sided in its emphasis. The situation of Christianity at the present time was described too darkly for a general congregation, & the consolatory tail–piece of the discourse was too brief to correct the melancholy impression created by the bulk of it. The time–limits of modern preaching are so narrow that lop–sidedness is one of the most difficult of faults for the preacher to avoid.
[374]
This week (Oct: 19–24) has slipped by very resultlessly. Monday was wasted in preparing the constitutional case with Beeching. Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday were filled with the attempt to collect materials for a sermon on 'Reserve', which I meditate delivering at Cambridge. On Saturday morning there was a memorial service for Sir John Puleston in S. Margaret's. I managed to revise & partially rewrite two sermons for next Sunday.
The S. Margaret's Guild made its new start on Wednesday, the 21st Oct. About 40 members turned up, & the new secretaries, Mary and Linetta, entered on office. I took for the subject of an address, the Worship of Christ in the Eucharist. This seemed likely to be serviceable in view of the general disturbance of religious notions induced by the Papists in connection with the Eucharistic Congress.