The Henson Journals

[121]

Easter Day, April 4th, 1920.

The Sunne arising in the East,

Though he give light, and th' East perfume,

If they should offer to contest

With thy arising, they presume.

I went to the Cathedral at 8 a.m., & celebrated not without difficulty for my cold is heavy on me. There were 114 communicants. Ella went with me to Eardisley, where I read the lessons, preached, and assisted at the Holy Communion. After lunching at the Rectory, we returned to the Palace. At Evensong in the cathedral I preached to a very large congregation. The effort was considerable, and my voice raucous as a raven's but the people were very attentive, and, I was assured, that they all heard without difficulty.

Streeter came into supper, and gave us a most interesting account of his investigations into these psychical and spiritualistic phenomena which now command so much popular attention. He inclines to attribute to the mediums an abnormal power of thought–reading by means of which they are able to obtain the information which makes their utterances seem to be both true & extraordinary. He had witnessed an experiment in which a soldier was induced to witness levitation, and to hold intercourse with the departed. The answers from the "other side" appear to have been self–originated by the mere force of the suggestion that communication with the departed had been established. Nothing led him to conclude that there was any valid ground for thinking that the departed were the authors of the messages ascribed to them.

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