The Henson Journals

[74]

Friday, January 19th, 1917.

900th day

South's sermon to the Lincoln's Inn Benchers (A.D 1660) "Ecclesiastical Policy the best Policy: or Religion the best Reason of State" is not without stains of bigotry, worldliness, & professional arrogance, but it contains much wisdom tersely expressed. He has a striking passage on the injury to religion caused by frequent changes.

"In the present space of 12 years there were four changes about religion made in England, & that by public council & authority of the realm ……. Hence it is, that the enemies of God take occasion to blaspheme, & call our religion statism."

He argues for the policy of making the Ministry honourable in the nation:

'As for two or three little countries about us, the learned & impartial will not value their practice; in one of which places the minister has been seen, for mere want, to mend shoes on the Saturday, and been heard to preach on the Sunday. In the other place, stating the several orders of the citizens, they place their ministers after their apothecaries; that is, the physician of the soul after the drugster of the body: a fit practice for those, who, if they were to rank things as well as persons, wd place their religion after their trade."

The reference is undoubtedly to Scotland and Holland, the two 'little countries' with which the royalists were familiar. He proceeds to argue against 'debasing the ministers & ministry by admitting ignorant, sordid, illiterate persons to this function.' He is here at his best. "God wd not accept the offals of other professions". His description of the Puritan regime is bitter & (no doubt) exaggerated, but it contains truth which is always worth having in mind. "Many rushed into the ministry as being the only calling that they cd profess without serving an apprenticeship".

[72]

He dilates on the importance of Christian preaching, & the need of knowledge & ability in the preacher; comments caustically on the contempt for education openly expressed by the sectaries, & describes the consequences of their invasion of the preacher's office. "This has been one of the most fatal & almost irrecoverable blows that has been given to the ministry". He shows that 'the embasing of the ministers tends to the destruction of religion because 1) it brings them under exceeding scorn & contempt; 2) it discourages men of fit parts and abilities from undertaking it. He does not hesitate to affirm that "Religion in a great measure stands or falls according to the abilities of those that assert it". "When learning, abilities & what is excellent in the world forsake the church, we may easily foretell its ruin, without the gift of prophecy".

I wrote a few letters, made a few notes, read the Life of Lord Durham & the papers, attended Mattins & Evensong, and entertained at tea a party of 34 soldiers from Tynedock, who had been confirmed in the Cathedral. George completed his job with the letters, & collected a fair bundle of correspondence with the Warden, Raleigh & Doyle. I was handicapped by a heavy cold, to which the damp depressing weather was unhelpful. The afternoon post brought me a letter from Gilbert who is now with his friends, though his wounds are not yet healed. He writes in half indignant astonishment at the money–making tone of English Society, which seems to him wholly destitute of any realisation of war, or of the danger in which the country stands, or of patriotic duty.

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