The Henson Journals

[92]

Sunday after Epiphany, January 7th, 1917.

888th day

"That Christ Jesus our Lord is truly present, and received in the blessed sacrament of his body and blood, is so clear & universally agreed upon, that he can be no Christian who doubts it. But in what manner He is both present & received is a point that hath exercised many wits and cost many thousand lives: & such as some orthodox divines are wont to express with a kind of scruple, as not daring to speak out."

So Bishop Hall begins what he ventures to call, "A plain & familiar Explication of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood out of the doctrine of the Church of England for the satisfying of a scrupulous Friend. Anno 1631". [v. Works. VIII. 768–776]

It is sufficiently plain that the Author holds the primitive conception of Heaven as a place: "When all is said, nothing can be more clear, than that, in respect of bodily presence, the heavens must contain the glorified humanity of Christ, until his return to judgement". He quotes 'the fifth rubric in the end of the Communion, set forth as the judgement of the C. of E., both in King Edward's and Queen Elizabeth's time, though lately, upon negligence, omitted in the impression'. This "Black Rubric" was inserted in the 2nd P.B. of Edward VI by the Council 'on the eve of publication'. It was omitted from the P.B. of 1559. At the Savoy Conference the Puritans demanded its restoration, and (though the bps declared the restoration unnecessary) the Rubric was restored with an important change. "The words 'corporal presence' were substituted for 'real & essential presence', and it thus became a defence of the doctrine of the Real Presence instead of a denial of it" (v. Proctor & Frere. 197). It was omitted in the American P.B. (1789). Dr Peter Gunning is said by Burnet to have been responsible for the change in the language of the Rubrick. (v. Refn ed. Pocock p.8).

[90]

Bp. Hall would appear to be mistaken in saying that the Black Rubrick had been 'set forth as the judgment of the C. of E. in Q. Elizabeth's time', unless he meant by that expression no more than that, in spite of the rubrick's excision from the Elizabethan P.B., it was 'most diligently declared, published, and impressed upon the people' by Elizabethan bishops. (v. Procter & Frere. p. 102 note.)

I celebrated the Holy Communion at 8 a.m. Ella and Ernest were among the communicants. Beyond attending Mattins & Evensong, and reading Lessons, I did nothing of a Christian Minister's work. Before lunch Ernest & I walked round Houghall Wood. After Evensong there came in to tea Captn Lewis from Cocken: Dolphin & his wife: Dr Stennett & his wife: Mrs Little: & Pemberton. With the last I sate talking in my study for nearly an hour: then I wrote some letters, & the day was gone! Vanity of vanities indeed!

Ernest went to see Dr Stennett, and to take his opinion on the question of his fitness to return to Gravesend tomorrow. That opinion being decidedly adverse, he abandoned all intention of returning, & wrote to his adjutant pleading the doctor's judgment. Later he complained of a bad throat, & persuaded himself successfully that he was really unfit to travel. Indeed, this may well have been the case, for it is but a fortnight since he was in bed with an attack of influenza. Nevertheless, I am chagrined that for the second time he should be unable to return to duty when visiting Durham. After dinner I read aloud from that entertaining autobiography, 'The History of the Life of Thomas Elwood'. The narrative is extraordinarily fresh, & suggestive: but it leaves the attraction of Quakerism in the XVIIth as dark a question as ever.

[88]

The Berlin correspondent of the Handelsblad writes:–

"The time has now arrived when the stores make themselves attractive for Christmas & exhibit all kinds of Christmas articles. But the windows do not present the same appearance as in normal times. A gigantic Christmas tree is, indeed, lighted in the great sale–room, but in place of the manger of Bethlehem there is now a battle–field of fighting troops, burning villages, devastated fortresses ……. There is no other kind of toys this year – no engines, no railways, no little machines, no unmilitary dolls, no stables, no furniture vans. Only tin soldiers & uniforms. It is a war Christmas for great & small."

[v. "Times". Dec: 11th 1914]

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