The Henson Journals

[126]

2nd Sunday in Lent, March 8th, 1914. 39 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh.

O merciful God, Who hast brought me through so many years to this hour for the unknown purpose of Thine own Providence, have compassion on my ignorance, weakness, & sin: save me from the folly & wickedness of resisting Thy Purpose in my life: open my eyes to the meaning of the opportunities which come to me, & give me the grace of Thy Holy Spirit that I may use them rightly according to Thy Will. Forgive, O God, my many sins, cleanse & order my personal life; preserve Thy servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me, so shall I be undefiled, & innocent from the great offence. Keep the door of my lips, O Lord: & reign always in my thoughts. Thou hast brought me to great honour, & comforted me on every side. Suffer me not wholly to misunderstand Thy Will & lead me in the way of Thy Commandments. Shew Thou me the way that I should walk in for I lift up my soul unto Thee. These my prayers I dare to offer in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Amen

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Sir Andrew Fraser is a member of the Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, but he was unable to attend the meeting of the Committee at the Hague. He told me last night that the Bishop of Winchester endeavoured to secure a condemnation of the Kikuyu proceedings, & moved a resolution to that effect, but he received no support save from Mrs Creighton & another Anglican. Then was drafted & carried the ambiguous resolution which has lent itself to so much misunderstanding.

Kelman had taken part in a meeting in Balliol College Hall, which had been organized to conclude the Oxford Mission. He had met Gore, & took from his contact the impression that Gore regretted his foolish letter to the "Times", and was casting about for a way of escape from the false position in which he had immersed himself.

The weather was most unkindly, the rain falling continuously & with increasing vehemence. However there was a great congregation in S. Giles's when I preached at 11.30 a.m. Three young clergymen all, I think, wearing Cambridge hoods came into the vestry, & conducted the service save for the small concluding portions for which the preacher was responsible. They were all good–looking & well–mannered. They sang the praises of their absent chief right loyally, a circumstance which inclined my heart to them, since truly loyalty to chiefs, & specially to absent chiefs, grows infrequent among us.

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The service was reverent & careful, taken not without modification from a service–book prepared for S. Giles's by the late minister, Cameron Lees. There were two lessons which I was asked to choose. The Lord's Prayer & Apostles' Creed were recited rather feebly by the congregation. I hear that there are searchings of heart among the more conservative members of the congregation over the Apostles' Creed, the reading of which is an innovation by the present minister. I preached from Acts xi. 2b "The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch", repeating the sermon which was originally written for Aston (v. p. 116).

The acoustics of the church are not good, but I took great pains in delivering my discourse, & was assured afterwards that everybody could hear quite easily. Certainly the people were very attentive, although I preached for 40 minutes! Before the final Benediction there was an Anthem, very well sung. After the service, Mr Wallace came in to the vestry, & I was shown the Chapel of the Thistle. The Lord Provost, & his predecessor, made themselves very civil, all singing the praises of Scotland with loyal pertinacity! I was assured that my not appearing in the surplice would be appreciated! There is a streak of absurdity in the Scotch, which their very considerable merits cannot wholly conceal. Their national vanity is the more comical since they really are considerable enough not to need trumpet–blowing!

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Sir Andrew Fraser told me that when he was Lieut.–Governor of Bengal, he entertained Bryan at Belvidere. One evening he invited his American visitor to join the family prayers.

After the function was ended, the American sticking his thumbs into his waistcoat, observed sententiously when he had risen from his knees, "I beg to tell you, Sir Andrew, that I have appreciated extremely your domestic devotions." The American accent, & the pomposity with which the words were spoken, proved too much for the staff, who collapsed into ill–suppressed merriment, while Sir Andrew gravely bowed his acknowledgment of the compliment. Bryan was full of questions about points of government &c, but he evidently cared nothing about the facts save in so far as they served his purpose of preaching by the dreadful example of India the wisdom of America's surrender of the Philippines.

The weather grew worse as the day waned, & when we went out to S. Cuthbert's for the evening service it was snowing hard, though the temperature was so high that the snow flakes melted as they came to earth. Accordingly, the congregation was sensibly reduced. The Church was not much more than half full. I preached rather wearily, repeating the sermon on Psalm XLII.I. which I delivered in Christ Church (v.p. 108).

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On Friday, March 13th 1914, Ella & I motored through wind & rain to Stanhope, where I addressed a meeting in the interest of the Bible Society. The meeting had been organized by the Bishop of Richmond, who is Rector of the parish, in conjunction with the local sectaries. In spite of the deplorable weather, there was a very good meeting. We motored back to Durham afterwards.

On Saturday, March 14th 1914, we lunched at Lambton Castle with Lord Durham & his sister. They shewed us the house & grounds. I had some interesting conversation with his Lordship. He told me that he had written to the King urging him to be firm on the Ulster question; & that he could not but believe that H.M. meant to put his foot down. He expressed great admiration of the king's personal courage, of which he had himself been a witness in India, where his Majesty insisted on moving freely among the people, in spite of the counsels & fears of the officials. He said that the Prince of Wales was greatly afraid of his Father, as were the rest of the children, a circumstance the more surprising since there could be no doubt of his strong affection for them.

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Issues and controversies: irish home rule; Kikuyu