The Henson Journals

[221]

Thursday, October 16th, 1919.

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I prepared a sermon for S. Martins, putting together ideas from several old Harvest Sermons. Fearne Booker took her departure. After lunch Ella & I attended the Prize Distribution of the Cathedral School, and I moved a vote of thanks to the Dean, saying some kind things of his 25 years decanate.

There was a large congregation in S. Martin's at Evensong when I preached. Wynne–Willson carried the staff. It seems evident that Beattie has made a good start. His choirmen seem to be largely composed of ex–soldiers. I have no doubt that his service at the Front as chaplain has given him a fund of common experiences on which he can draw in order to make himself intelligible. It will give him a link with the men. Add that he is a 'muscular Christian' with a radiant smile & jovial laugh: that he has 'private means' & is thus released from the disconcerting anxieties of poverty: that he has a charming wife & children so that his heart is kept warm by his own hearth, and there is no need to explain the readiness with which the parishioners are welcoming his ministry. If these adventitious advantages of person, of experience, of fortune were absent, how far would the naked force of his Christian witness have any acceptance among them?

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