The Henson Journals

[14]

Thursday, March 8th, 1917.

948th day

Instead of going to church at 8 a.m. I worked at the C.T. sermon, & finished it by lunch–time. Sykes came to lunch, & we went together to a meeting of the Ch. Def. Society Ctee. Mr Priestman arrived late, but S. brought him on to the Deanery, where we finished the business, & had tea. Col. Maclean called to thank me for my kindness to the Troops! Harold Henson, now a Captain in the battalion of Colonials, arrived before dinner. He is a silent youth. Gee also came to see me. Much snow fell today.

[12]

'Whoever teaches civilians to love their self above all things, or military men to believe that they have no vocation but a murderous one, helps to make the one so weak that they must be ready to quail before any physical force, the other so wicked that they must be ready to exert it. And the loss of all national spirit will lead, as it has ever done, not to a golden age of Christian fraternization, but to military despotism.'

F.D. Maurice

'We are called to rise above the level of fighting pagans, not to fall below it. There is indeed, a lower depth than that of the military spirit – the depth of complacent mammon–worship.'

Miss Stephen 'Quaker Strongholds'; p.133

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