The Henson Journals

[268]

19th Sunday after Trinity, October 29th, 1916.

818th day

The following inscription on a Christian Church indicates a very crude notion of the Divine Providence:

"Studius built this house to John the great servant of Christ, and quickly gained the reward of his work by obtaining the consular fasces." ['The Greek Anthology. p.5.]

We motored to Christ Church, Sunderland, and there I preached twice, first, to the ordinary congregation at Mattins, next, to a gathering of Freemasons at a special service in the afternoon. The weather was most unfavourable. Nevertheless, the congregations were considerable. We lunched with Mr de Plage, a Banker, who is also a prominent Freemason. He has two little boys at Bow School in Durham. We arrived back in the Deanery about 5.15 p.m.

The "National Mission" in Sunderland, I was informed, had laid great emphasis on 'Prohibition'. This no doubt has happened generally. It greatly pleases the sectaries, & goes far to propitiate that numerous section of the Radical party which regards 'Drink' as the grand instrument of Toryism. I inquired what had been the 'message' delivered by the 'Archbishop's Messengers', and Mrs de Plage replied, "O just what we've all heard since we were seven years old. We know it all well enough: the difficulty is, how to do it." I suspect that the good lady gave expression to a widely extended opinion. This welter of vehement exhortation leads to nothing. The old difficulties are not removed: the old errors are not renounced. Vehement repetition of worn–out formulae does not really illuminate the understanding, or even for long satisfy the heart.

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