The Henson Journals

[121]

Friday, August 15th, 1919.

From low to high doth dissolution climb,

And sink from high to low, along a scale

Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;

A musical but melancholy chime,

Which they can hear who meddle not with crime,

Not avarice, not over–anxious care.

Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear

The longest date do melt like frosty rime,

That in the morning whiten'd hill and plain

And is no more; drop like the tower sublime

Of yesterday, which royally did wear

His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain

Some casual shout that broke the silent air,

Or the unimaginable touch of Time.

It would surely be impossible to set forth the main plea of Modernism more justly, and more effectively. The War has been, not so much a "casual shout", as a gigantic & long continued explosion, and it has brought down all the "towers sublime of yesterday". None of these "did wear his crown of weeds" so royally as the ancient palace of hierarchical Christianity, and none has fallen into ruin, so complete & so tragical. "The unimaginable touch of Time" has been exchanged for the sledge–hammer strokes of sudden and violent crisis.

[122]

And yet "Truth fails not" – that is the great affirmation of Faith. Amid the crash of historic systems it is seeking and finding a fresh "outward form" for the help of mankind. "God fulfils Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world". The angle of the poet's vision is not quite the same as that which determines the thought of the "valedictory sonnet" to the river Duddon:–

"I see what was, and is, and shall abide;

Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide,

The form remains, the function never dies.

The underlying idea, however, is the same, although the thought runs in a different groove. The continuing life of the river consists, not in the identity of the water, but in the persistence of "form" and "function". The continuity of Truth is not secured by an unaltering "outward form" but in an unchangeable spiritual essence. The metaphors of the "frosty rime" and the suddenly collapsing "tower sublime are not illustrative of anything more than the transitoriness of the "outward forms" of truth. They nowise suggest the deeper & more comforting fact of truth's survival through the process of mutation. And yet it is precisely this fact, which it is really hard to believe in, and to hold fast.

[123]

"In view of the general dislocation of society which the Great War has occasioned, and ^of^ the widely distributed unsettlement of men's minds, it appears to be of large & evident importance that the essential unity of Christians should be made as plain and effective as possible, we, the Bishops undersigned have thought it desirable to set out plainly some directions in which we think that action might usefully be taken, and to assure ^disclose publicly^ the clergy of our dioceses ^measure^ of personal sympathy and official sanction which the clergy of our dioceses can count upon when they endeavour to improve the relations between the Church of England and the Non–episcopal Churches, which divide with her the spiritual allegiance of English–speaking Christians.

The difficulty of drafting anything for a public statement is enormous. One is either stilted, or jejune: one says too much or not enough.

After lunch I motored in to Helensburgh, & fetched Ella from Seaside. We were back in Barochan for tea. Old Mr David Murray talks freely, & with much humour. He has evidently a great & varied knowledge of Scotland.

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