The Henson Journals

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18th Sunday after Trinity, September 21st, 1913. Tillypronie.

Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This short collect is the perfect model of modern prayer. It uses the old familiar terms, and yet uses them so that the mind is nowise moved to insist on any exact definition of their meaning. "The world, the flesh, & the devil" – we know them all in tragic experience, though we could wrangle till Doomsday over their precise significance. "With pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God" – that is the Alpha & Omega of genuine prayer. Not specific petitions, but that large & lofty aspiration. To be at one with Him, our sole Source & only rightful Lord – that is the sum of all we want to say. Nothing more need be said: nothing less will serve. 'Fiat voluntas Tua' – all is summed up in that. Most of the collects have this character of sanity and largeness, so that as well for public use as for private they satisfy the mind as no other devotional compositions have ever done. They are the best part of the Anglican's religious heritage.

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I dislike Sundays in Scotland. Everybody is religiously uncomfortable, for everybody feels under the necessity of excusing himself. If your host is Presbyterian, he thinks himself bound to explain why he follows so unusual a course: &, if he is an Episcopalian, he must needs justify his sectarian position as best he can. His guest, if he be seriously religious, is likely to share the discomfort of his host. We were taken in the motor to the Episcopalian church at Aboyne, 11 miles away. It is a pretty stone built edifice, of a more elaborate type than is common in Scotland. Donaldson, the Master of Magdalene College, & now Vice–0chancellor of Cambridge, read the prayers, & the incumbent, Jones, preached. The sermon was of a very rhetorical type, expressed with much eloquence, & delivered with emphasis & feeling. The text was Amos iv.13. 'He that formeth the mountains, & createth the wind, & declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, & treadeth upon the high places of the earth; the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name'. The sermon was rather a rhapsody on the prophet's expressions, than a formal discourse. It was disfigured by many 'topical' allusions. Meredith was quoted, & references to the Grampians and the Welsh hills were frequent. Carnegie, Lord Halifax & Sir Oliver Lodge were all mentioned! Such preaching is more common among Nonconformists than Anglicans: & I was not surprised to learn that Mr Jones had been [456] originally a Welsh dissenting minister. He would draw a congregation anywhere from the suburban population: but I doubt whether educated people would long tolerate a mode of preaching which is properly obsolete, & readily fails into bathos. The congregation this morning was evidently interested: & the orator held a triumphant levée outside the church when service was over. Lawley & his wife were there; also Lady Albinia Donaldson.

We lunched with our host's mother, who lives somewhat lower on the hill side in a pleasant house with a fine garden. There are many fine editions of classical authors & other books of more than ordinary interest.

After tea I wrote letters to Marion & Ernest Rudling. After dinner I read poetry in the drawing room – Gitanjali by the new mystic from India, Rhabindranath [sic] Tagore, Sir Alfred Lyall's poems, 'Pilate's Wife's Dream', 'Theology in Extremis', & 'Joab'. These are fine pieces.

Mine host talked with me before going to bed about the local Scottish families. Lord Aberdeen & Lord Huntly are both in very straitened circumstances, & neither has so carried himself as to add credit to the peerage. The first is a man of virtue, who wins almost universal contempt: the last is a wastrel, whose personality appears to be proof against every scandal. Lord Aberdeen's heir is the unfortunate Lord Haddo: Lord Huntly is childless.

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