The Henson Journals

[594]

Ascension Day, June 1st, 1916.

668th day

A stormy night preceded a blustering and uncomfortable morning. Not at all a congruous day for the Festival, which, perhaps, beyond all the rest needs the assistance of bright sunshine! What a bondslave of circumstance have I become! In Bridges' collection the last piece is an extract from the 'Church Service' rendered into English thus:

Holy is the true light, and passing wonderful, lending radiance to them that endured in the heat of the conflict: from Christ they inherit a home of unfading splendour, wherein they rejoice with gladness evermore.

The impressive thing to my thinking is that such words as these can receive the ardent welcome of the Christian's mind in every age from the days of the Apostles to this hour. They carry a meaning & a message which are independent of every force that makes creeds become obsolete, and empties liturgies of relevance. Why is this? It certainly is not any supreme grace in the language, nor any special power in the thought. Perhaps no more can be said than that it is one more self–confession of the 'anima humana naturaliter Christiana'. "I know mine own, & mine own know Me" He said. There can be no doubt that Christ is vital to Christianity, nay, that He is the only vital element in it: everything else receives such a measure of vitality as exists in it from Him. "Because I live, ye shall live also", He said again, and the declaration may extend to institutions and disciplines as well as to individuals. The condition of survival is the power to demonstrate a relation to Christ. "To me to live is Christ" said S. Paul meaning the same thing. How inexplicable & wonderful it is!

[592]

I went to the Cathedral, and celebrated at 8 a.m. All the canons were present. Ella went off to Scotland after breakfast. In response to a request from the Secretary, I sent the M.S. of my Warburton Lecture to the Royal Society of Literature to be printed in a new volume of Essays. The Choral Eucharist at 11.15 a.m. was very scantily attended. Beside the clergy & choirmen only three ladies communicated. There may have been a score of non–communicants.

I presided at a meeting of the Library Committee: and then attended Evensong. The clergy and choir went in procession all round the Cathedral. A telegram from Ernest postponed his arrival until Saturday. I finished reading the new volume of Disraeli's Life, and found it very interesting. Buckle tells the story well, keeping himself in proper subordination, & by no means deeming it necessary always to magnify his subject. The story of Dizzie's famous "dishing" of the Whigs makes it evident that there was no such "sharp practice" on his part as is commonly assumed. One finds it difficult to believe that he was sincere in his elaborate & extravagant eulogies of the Prince Consort. The impression given is that he had found out a way to the Queen's regard, and did not scruple to avail himself of it. Yet it must never be forgotten that Disraeli was a thorough Jew, Oriental in his tastes & judgments, and it may be that he did see more in the Prince Consort, also a foreigner, than the rest. He certainly regarded the Queen with an inner obeisance which no English breast could have entertained: & she certainly liked it. His relations with his old wife were eminently creditable to them both. Even Gladstone became generous in front of the spectacle.

---