The Henson Journals

[476]

Monday, July 17th, 1916.

714th day

Caröe went off after an early breakfast, and I settled down to some necessary work. I wrote to Parker–Smith, Ernest & Olaf. I drew up a form of Service for August 6th, and gave it to the Precentor. I went to the Bank & cashed a cheque. Finally I corrected the proofs of the Warburton Article, and sent them back to the Secretary of the Literature Society. This brought me to lunch–time. I rolled the lawn, and attended Evensong.

[Symbol] Caröe tells me that the Archbishop of Canterbury in the recent meeting of his Diocesan Conference at Lambeth made a new departure by putting up Mr Davidson to address the members on the subject of the mission. We are getting on, as the Prime Minister said.. [sic]

I wrote to Harris declining to sign a petition seeking clemency for the traitor Sir Roger Casement. His treason is unpardonable.

The weather today has been heavy but by no means warm, very dark and damp. The effect on one's energy & spirits is deplorable.

I have decided to announce the service on August 6th as a 'Special Service of Prayer & Thanksgiving after Two Years of War'. This will suffice to differentiate it from those melancholy functions which suggest, or even affirm, that the War is a judgment on us for our sins, & that it will continue until we have become Total Abstainers or Socialists or Papists or all three together! Crude praying for victory is one extreme, this Jonah's–call–to–the–Ninevites–attitude is the other. Is it not possible to find a middle course of modest & manly religion, which, owning a most difficult duty, seeks from the Author of Duty the moral strength to fulfil it, & thanks the Giver of all Good Things for what He has already granted?

[474]

"Meanwhile, what is happening to the god of the Christians? Governments and peoples are behaving as though they knew him not; though the world is still crowded with his official representatives, who assuredly will not remain silent in the present crisis, which is the most uncompromising challenge ever made to their faith since it came into existence.["]

Loisy "The War & Religion" p. 27

"The great moral forces of the past influence our present conditions no longer. The abominable scene which we are witnessing at present may well be more disquieting for that which is described popularly as belief than for what we define usually as unbelief."

Ibid. p. 57

This is the XXth century counterpart of the monastic wail during the anarchy of Stephen's reign, when 'they said openly that Christ and his saints slept'.

[472]

I left Durham on Tuesday, July 18th, & travelled to London. There I stayed at the Deanery, St Paul's, with my wife, until Saturday, the 22nd when we both went to Windsor in order to spend the week–end with Ernest's parents at the Hermitage, Clewer. Ernest lunched with us at the Deanery, & travelled with us, but had to return to Seaford on Sunday evening. He and I went together to the Holy Communion at Clewer Parish Church; & later we all attended Evensong at St. George's, Windsor, calling first on that queer old stick Dalton. We returned to St. Paul's Deanery on Monday the 24th, and stayed until Wednesday the 26th. On Tuesday, the 25th, I lunched with Meicklejohn at Brooks', attended a little conference of the "True Temperance Association" at the Westminster Palace Hotel, and dined with Lord Muir Mackenzie. On July 26th, we went to Oxford, & stayed for two nights at the Clarendon Hotel. We dined with the Pembers, & lunched with them on Thursday, when I attended Mowbray's Funeral at Mattins. On Friday, the 28th, we lunched with Mrs Oman, & then parted, Ella going to visit her relatives at Charlton Kings, & I going to All Souls. After seeing Ella off at the station, I walked to the Acland Home to see Raleigh. I found him in the garden attended by his nurse. He is barely able to manage his speaking, & he is very helpless, one side being paralyzed, but he seemed pleased to see me, & I talked with him for half an hour. Then I returned to College, where I dined with Cruttwell. He has been invalided home with rheumatism acquired in the trenches, & is now employed in teaching the cadets at Oxford. On Saturday, the 29th, I lunched in the Buttery with Cruttwell and Fletcher, & then walked with the latter to Somerville College, which [470] is now used as a military hospital: & then to the Acland Home to see Raleigh. On Sunday, the 30th July, I went to the Holy Communion at 8 a.m. in St. Mary's. After breakfast I had a good deal of talk with Cruttwell about the chaplains at the front. He gives a very depressing account. They seem to be a mean–spirited & feeble folk, little regarded by the men, and despised by the officers. This is confirmed by Gilbert, of whom I had made specific inquiry. I attended Mattins at S. Giles's: and then lunched with Strong in Christ Church. Cruttwell & I went to see Raleigh: & then I had tea with Mrs Oman. There was present a daughter of old General Maurice. She introduced herself to me as a former member of my congregation. I dined in college with a very pleasant party. Dicey, Oman, Goudy, Cruttwell, Johnson were all present, also Rait, now a Professor in Scotland. We sate in the Quadrangle after dinner, and talked until 11 p.m. The warmth of the atmosphere was remarkable. On Monday, the 31st July, I loafed about the College all day; the heat making all exertion tiresome, & dined with Cholmondely in the Common Room. I finished reading through Charnwood's book on 'Abraham Lincoln', and wrote him a complimentary letter. On Tuesday, August 1st, I left Oxford and travelled to Durham, where I arrived shortly after 5 p.m. I spent the remainder of the day in clearing off some correspondence which awaited me. I wrote to Harold Cox to ask whether he would care to have an article on the Archbishops' Committee on Church & State for the October issue of the "Edinburgh", & saying that, if so, I would be willing to write one.

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