The Henson Journals

[433]

19th Sunday after Trinity, October 10th, 1915.

433rd day

Ella & I went together to the Cathedral, and received the Holy Communion in that wonderful Choir. After breakfast I went into the Nave at the Military Service, & sate near the Western door. The singing, led by a cornet, was excellent: & the prayers, lessons, & blessing were audible enough: but the sermon, though delivered in a loud voice, could not be heard. The obvious suggestion is the introduction of a moveable pulpit, & the preaching from the same place where the audible parts of the service were taken. As I watched the soldiers dispersing, Mrs Lund, the widow of the Liverpool clergyman of that name, spoke to me. She is now resident in Canterbury.

In reply to a question from me Major Dewhurst said last night that the French would certainly go through with the war, & that they now lived only for revenge. So grim was their feeling that they were disposed to resent the polo–playing of the British Officers, as disclosing too frivolous an attitude of mind. I asked him whether in his own experience of the German soldiers he had found them less humane than others, & he answered that he had not, & that he was inclined to think that many stories of outrage had been exaggerated. On the other hand, he allowed that in Belgium fearful things had happened, & that instructions had been found urging the troops to violate the Belgian women in order to Germanize the Belgian population. This seems almost incredible, & yet it tallies with much that I have heard in other quarters. There is a strain of gross practicalness which goes along with sentimentality in German minds: & where sexual relations are concerned, the modern Germans seem at their worst. The centre of sentiment becomes the exhibition of brutal animalism.

[435]

I preached to Huguenots in the crypt during the afternoon. There was a considerable congregation but smaller than had been expected. This, perhaps, was to be explained by the circumstance that an Ambulance Corps parade was taking place in the Cathedral at the same time. The music overhead accompanied much of my sermon. M. Barnabas conducted the service in French, & I preached in English. The occasion being a 'Thanksgiving for the Reformation together with a Commemoration of the Defeat of the Spanish Armada', I thought it fitting to make an Apology for the Reformation, & to answer Gore. The sermon, on which much pains had been bestowed, took about 35 minutes in delivery. It was well listened to, & I rashly promised M. Barnabas that it should be printed – a folly which is also an extravagance! At tea came Lady Alwyne Compton, very old, very loquacious, & very deaf! Also M. Barnabas, gleaming with obese contentment, & Colonel Adams, the Senior Chaplain of the Forces, whom I heard preaching in the Cathedral this morning, but failed to distinguish one word! He was very insistent to me on the incompetence of the amateurs who have been sent to the Front to supplement or replace the regular Chaplains. Later, I preached in the Cathedral to a very large congregation, of whom a considerable proportion were in khaki. The heartiness of the singing, & the close attention of the people, pleased me. I repeated the sermon which I preached in Birchington, with a few additions. Mrs Wace, who is wholly or partially a German, thanked me with some warmth for what I said about the greatness of the German People, & I think the old Dean was not displeased. At supper came Colonel & Mrs Earle, commanding troops in these parts: both very cheerful & pleasant folk.

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