The Henson Journals

[17]

Whitsunday, June 8th, 1919.

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Still the brilliant hot weather, and the world marvellously beautiful, though beginning to have a parched look. The growing anxiety of the farmers is becoming audible. A failure of the harvest through drought would be no common calamity just now with the famished millions of Central Europe & Russia clamouring for foodstuffs.

I went to the cathedral at 8 a.m., and celebrated the Holy Communion. Among the communicants were the two boys, Melbourne and Randle, whom I confirmed in the Cathedral on Ascension Day.

At Mattins I preached in the Cathedral to a considerable congregation. My text was "There is one body, & one spirit", and my subject, the Church. I spoke with direct & avowed relation to the controversy about the Enabling Bill, and made as clear a case as I could for the idea of a National Church, and for the maintenance of the Church of England as a national institution. In the afternoon the Rev. J. H. Ward came to see me with reference to his appointment as Diocesan Missioner. On the whole he impressed me well.

Compston preached at Evensong in the Cathedral to a very large congregation. He has a fine voice, a good delivery, & excellent matter; he lacks lucidity and the power of arranging his discourse effectively. Charles Scott and the Archdeacon of Hereford came in to supper. There is some sign of a change of weather.

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