The Henson Journals

[527]

3rd Sunday in Advent, December 12th, 1915.

496th day

O God, by Whose inscrutable Providence, I have been called to this

awful Ministry, suffer not my weakness to defeat Thy purpose,

But make fit for Thy service the vile creature whom Thou hast

Made an instrument of Thy Will. Have compassion on the

Worst of Thy servants, and let the strength of Thy Presence

Prevail against the insolence of his transgressions for Jesus

Christ's sake. Amen

I celebrated at 8 a.m. Most of the communicants stayed in the knave, having come in after the Litany. This vexed me, for I am sure that they can't hear the Celebrant at that distance. At 10 a.m. I preached to the troops. The number has fallen considerably during the week by the departure of the Artillery to Ripon. Following my general scheme of preaching, I spoke of the Church, & illustrated a discourse on Comradeship by Lord Robert's story of the generosity of the Highlanders in the Afghan campaign. They gave up their great–coats to the Gurkhas, who were suffering from the extreme cold. At Mattins Knowling preached an excellent & very interesting sermon. I was exasperated to see a third of the congregation leave the Cathedral when he mounted the pulpit! After service I took Pearce for a walk through Houghall Wood. The sun shone brightly, but a freezing wind pierced one's bones. Pearce preached at Evensong. He will never make a good preacher, for he is too involved in his composition, too allusive, & too obscurely topical. Add a "pulpit manner", and a curiously artificial pronunciation, and you need seek no farther for the reasons why he has not succeeded in the pulpit. On the other hand, he has administrative gifts of unusual excellence: he makes & keeps friends: & he has developed no mean powers as [529] a student of medieval documents. Jevons, Gee, Fowler, & Knowling came in to tea. I was distressed to learn from Jevons that "the officers billeted in Hatfield Hall behaved very badly["]. He says that in Keble College, the Bursar posted the suggestive notice: "Temporary officers are requested to behave as temporary gentlemen"! I preached at S. Nicholas to a mixed congregation with bad colds!!

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