The Henson Journals

[138]

17th Sunday after Trinity, September 26th, 1920.

What is the precise significance & religious value of the mission on which I have been engaged? That there has been an amazing mixture of incompatible motives is certain, but that need mean no more than that ecclesiastical action enjoys no exemption from the normal conditions of all human conduct. In Swedish religion also there is division, rivalry, the politics of party, & the secret diplomacy of personal ambition; and these have entered, it may not be doubted, into the Swedish side of the rapprochement which has found formal expression in the function at Upsala last Sunday, and in the programme of today. But is there anything deeper & more religious? Is there any sense of spiritual loss in their ecclesiastical isolation among the Swedish Churchmen, as there is unquestionably among our more intense "Anglo–Catholics"? Does ecclesiastical isolation matter to the spiritual Christian to whom the politics of churches & hierarchies are properly indifferent? Will any English Churchman be any less uncharitable & unsympathetic because two English bishops have taken part in Swedish services & preached in Swedish pulpits? In America, and in India, where Anglicans & Swedish Churchmen confront one another as antagonists, will our experiences here have any influence for good? The astonishing display of ceremonial pomp in a Lutheran Church impresses the Swedish public more than the existence of a new sense of spiritual fraternity! The compliment to the importance of their Church & Nation, which our mission seems to imply, gives more satisfaction than the attainment of a more truly Christian attitude in the relations of two great bodies of Christians! Still there is another side.

[139]

I inquired of several Swedish ecclesiastics whether there was any friction between Church and State in Sweden ^on the subject of Marriage^, as there is increasingly in England. The answer was always that there was none. Marriage, it was everywhere held, lay wholly within the control of the State. Considering (α) how lax the marriage–law of Sweden actually is, & (β) how bad the record of the Swedes is in the matter of sexual morality, this is rather disquieting. The discrepancy of religious temper & habit, disclosed rather ominously in the correlation of last Sunday's prodigious luncheon with the Holy Comunion, might be overcome by a gradual assimilation of our better tradition, but the divergence of moral attitude is a more profound & intractable chasm. It is difficult to see how an operative fellowship is possible when the Churches have divergent doctrines of morality, the one church permitting as legitimate what the other church prohibits as vicious.

Doctrinally there is a broad division, but perhaps one that is destined to prove less broad, as the Church of England, however reluctantly, absorbs the spirit of the modern world. Our orthodox champions – Gore, Chase, Gibson & the rest – are really obsolete, and becoming more clearly so every day. The Evangelicals are so intellectually contemptible that their influence in the future may safely be ignored. Archbishop Söderblom affirms his belief in the Incarnation, but his [explicit disbelief] ^doubt as to^ [in] the Virgin Birth, not merely on critical grounds, but also on grounds of theological fitness. How can a supreme spiritual mystery be tied up with a physical prodigy, which proves, and can prove, nothing? If this position were frankly stated in England, how many advocates of an alliance between the Churches of England & Sweden would there be? I suspect that we are building on the foundation of an immense mutual ignorance.

[140]

The Epistle for this Sunday is certainly congruous with the professed purpose of my visit to Stockholm. It is the classical passage on the Unity of the Church. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all". And the Gospel has a very evident bearing on efforts to establish ecclesiastical union, for it rebukes the overweening personal claims which have been so potent a factor in the mingled & melancholy record of Christian divisions. "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; & he that humbleth himself shall be exalted". And the Collect is one of the simplest and least ecclesiastical of the whole number. No Christian of any description could object to adopt it for himself, & for his fellow churchmen;

"Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent & follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works: through Jesus Christ our Lord". Amen.

Pastor Svanberg came in good time to escort me to the Palace, where I was received by the King, with whom I talked for about 20 minutes alone. His Majesty is a tall, well–built man, grey & melancholy in aspect. He spoke English very well though with a foreign manner. We spoke of the ceremonial at Upsala last Sunday, of Swedish politics, of Bolshevism, of the threatened coal–strike, of Germany, of the Prince of Wales, & of the late Crown Princess. The King in saying Goodbye, expressed the hope that we shall meet again. Then I wrote my name in the Queen's Book, and came away.

[141]

"I don't know, Sir, which has the harder rôle to play in the modern world, sovereigns or bishops", I said, & the King "opened out" on the paradox of his position with a Prime Minister whose "platform" included the establishment of a Swedish Republic. His Majesty's sympathies with Germany were very evident. "France is too vengeful", he said, "the terms of peace are too hard". I observed that the French had much to forgive, & that the destruction of so large & important part of France could not easily be forgotten. The King agreed politely, and changed the subject. "The Archbishop of Upsala is a very able & active man", he said, and added "perhaps too active". I inquired whether a coal strike in England would have serious consequences in Sweden. "Happily, we have enough coal now in the country to last through the winter", he said. We discussed the League of Nations, in which his Majesty had evidently very small confidence. He expressed himself with some plainness on President Wilson, & I cordially agreed in his censure. Then he mentioned the late Crown Princess, & spoke with feeling about the suddenness of her death, & the magnitude of the loss, personal & public which it involved. "It is very hard on the Crown Prince" he said. I expressed my sympathy as well as I could. On the whole this Monarch struck me as a good man, tormented by the paradox of his position, & apprehensive of the future. He has a sincere manner, & will carry himself with dignity when the crash comes, if come it must.

[142]

From the Palace I returned to the Hotel to pick up Ella and my bag, & then proceeded to the Church of St Clara, where I preached at the "High Mass" or morning service. There was a blaze of (electrically) lighted candles on the Altar: the two officiants were vested in albs & chasubles, but there was no celebration of Holy Communion. I preached with Pastor Svanberg standing beside me, & translating my sermon paragraph by paragraph, an uncomfortable situation for the preacher, & hardly less so for his hearers, since it broke up the unity of the discourse, & made it very difficult to follow the argument. However, the large congregation listened with exemplary patience.

Later, we had tea with the Ramsays. There came hither also two Americans, also of the diplomatic world, who spoke with information of the Bolshevist régime in Russia, where family life is almost altogether destroyed. Mothers, being compelled to work, are forced to leave their children in asylums. Can anything more horrible be imagined? I expressed my astonishment at the helplessness of the Church, which had apparently "fallen like a pack of cards" before Bolshevism. I received the usual explanation viz; that the parish popes, sunken in superstition, & being nowise respected morally, carried no weight with the people. Another example of "salt that has lost its savour"! But will the Church of England show up better when its hour comes? We dined at the Grand Hotel at a vast cost, & then returned to our Hotel, marvelling at the weird beauty of the City under the flood of moonlight.

[143]

A SWEDISH BATH

[N.B. I had often heard tell of a Swedish bath, but never before this morning have I actually experienced it. Having for the space of a one whole week been limited to an impossible pie–dish, in which nothing more than an Apostolical feet–washing could be attempted, I was very ardently desirous of a more ample and effective ablution. Accordingly, to order a bath was my first proceeding on arrival in the Hotel Terminus. I was directed to a bath–room, where the bath, two–thirds filled with fairly hot water had been duly prepared. I was somewhat disconcerted to find that there was no bolt for the door, but as I had been escorted thereto by two women, I assumed that I was in no real danger of being interrupted. Hardly, however, had I got into the water before the door opened, and a vigorous young woman armed with a lump of soap, & a brush, such as floors are scrubbed with entered, &, before I could remember some intelligible word of protest, seized my foot, & began scrubbing my leg! As it was too late to save my modesty, I yielded to my fate, & was dealt with as thoroughly as ever an infant by its mother. The damsel never showed the faintest embarrassment, but pursued her task without "turning a hair". After the scrubbing &c she indicated the shower–bath & when this had been undergone, proceeded to dry me, and "trim" my feet. Then I was suffered to resume my pyjamas, and she accompanied me back to my room, and was rewarded for her violences with a kroner. The whole performance seemed as natural & fitting as showing your tongue to a doctor, or stripping for his inspection; but it was a startling experience for a bashful bishop!]

[144] [symbol]

From a brief account of his funeral I learn that Dr Sanday is dead. This must have come suddenly for when I met Strong in York on August 24th, he told me that Sanday was growing impatient of idleness, & had asked to be allowed to preach in the Cathedral next Lent. My relations with Sanday began in 1886 when I attended a course of his lectures on Paleography. About that time he asked me to write a small book on S.Les, & I accepted, but he had forgotten that Gore also had been asked, & had accepted! So I withdrew, & Gore wrote on S. Les. From time to time he wrote to me with references to public utterances of mine, which he approved, or disapproved. He was disposed to credit me with more fondness for controversy than in point of fact belongs to me. In the conflict raised by my nomination to Hereford, he came forward as my champion in the "Times", but his letters had the effect of disturbing the mind of Evangelicals, & bringing Wace into alliance with Darwell Stone. Quite recently, I wrote to him asking him not to carry out his avowed purpose of answering the Bishop of Zanzibar's foolish book, "The Christ & his Critics": and he agreed to my suggestion. He contributed a charming account of the Warden's undergraduate career to the "Memoir" which I edited.

I feel that his death removes one who was genuinely my friend. Sanday was a scrupulously fair man, &, in order to make sure that he was doing full justice to opponents, he read everything that he could lay his hand on with reference to the subjects in debate. Thus he dissipated his energies on the work of inferior men, & subordinated his own incomparably superior intelligence to theirs. His death removes from the Church of England its most attractive & considerable scholar.

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