The Henson Journals

[161]

Monday, August 2nd, 1909.

Empress of Ireland:–

We passed through the Strait of Belle Isle without fog. Those who kept watch were rewarded by the spectacle of icebergs, looking beautiful in the moon–light. This morning one solitary iceberg was visible at a considerable distance. It looked like a sharp tooth against the horizon. The day is cold & sunless: there is a considerable wind; & the sea cannot truly be described as placid. The motion of the ship is too much for comfort.

By novel–reading & conversation we wore through the day, & were able (not without some hesitation) to present ourselves at the Captain's table.

Dr Denny & I continued our conversations. He has but a mean opinion of Du Bose, whom Sanday cannot sufficiently exalt. He regards Bacon of Yale as a capricious & untrustworthy critic. Incidentally he told me that he was now 53 years old, and had been ordained in 1886, i.e. one year previously to me. He denies that the Presbyterian doctrine of Orders can be reconciled with the dogma of 'Apostolic Succession', & assures me that [162] Cooper has no following in Scotland. He had himself been present at a meeting summoned to advance the cause of Reunion. The Abp. of Melbourne had described his well–known scheme: & Cooper had been the other speaker. But the general result had been to demonstrate the futility of their notion that the way to a restoration of unity lay in the direction of negociations about validity of orders. Not a fraction of Scottish Christians cared about that question at all.

We discussed the Johannine question. Dr Denny cannot reach a conclusion. The more he considers the external evidence, the more impressed he is by its force. In the teeth of such clear, early, & cogent testimony to the apostolic authorship of the 4th Gospel, surely only very weighty considerations could justify denial of that authorship: but the persistence & prevalence of doubt on the question are unquestionable, & cannot but indicate that the case against the tradition is very strong. His own studies had certainly brought its strength home to him. He was especially struck by two facts: (1) the emphasis placed on materialistic details which add nothing whatever to the significance of the narrative; & might be thought inexplicable on any other hypothesis than that of the historicity of the narrative, e.g. the waterpots are said to be 'of stone' & their measurement is stated. (2) the absence of value in the narratives save when interpreted symbolically. The Johannine narratives had been described as a compound of three factors in varying proportions – the traditional, [163] the symbolic, & the dogmatic. Sometimes one factor is most apparent, & sometimes another. This description appears to be incompatible with the apostolic authorship of the Gospel. He told me that, when a boy, he had first conceived a doubt of Biblical inspiration from noticing the expression 'about twenty or thirty furlongs'. Surely, he reflected, this is not the language of the Holy Ghost, but rather of an honest but uncertain witness.

We discussed our impressions of America, & found ourselves agreed in thinking that both in the States & in Canada the self–conceit & self–content of the people are very extraordinary. "I should not care to make the statement anywhere to the west of Liverpool; but to my thinking, Canada is of all civilised nations the most uneducated." I suggested that 'uncivilized' expressed better my own feeling, & he eagerly accepted that word in addition to his own. He had been present at a meeting in Vancouver summoned to support the movement for an University of British Columbia. One prominent speaker urged that the University must 'fit young men for success in business', and advanced the unanswerable argument:– 'We find the money, & are entitled to call the tune'! He added that perhaps S. Paul's words might be applied to a new country. "That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural: & afterward that which is spiritual."

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