The Henson Journals

[168]

Friday, October 8th, 1920.

What shall be the line of my special contribution to the tradition of Durham? I cannot be a "saint" like my immediate predecesor, or a "prophet" like Westcott, or a scholar like Lightfoot, or a princely magnate like Van Mildert. The rôle of statesman, which I think I might have played under the conditions which once obtained, is hardly possible now. I may possibly impress the diocese as an orator, though that is a reputation which I do not greatly value: & I might (if God gave me time and strength) put forth two or three charges which might rise above the level of most such utterances. Thirlwall lives by his charges, for his scholarly productions, admirable as they were, have long been superseded. If I had but the patience & perseverance to do myself justice, I believe I could produce charges which wd live, but then nothing in my career justifies the belief that I have either of those indispensable qualities. There remains the humbler but perhaps not inferior part of a just and vigilant governor. This I must attempt, but I doubt my competence. Justice I can bring to my episcopal administration for I do hate oppresion of every kind, but vigilance implies that continuing purpose & steady habit which accord ill with my shifting paradoxical temperament. This review of possibilities is certainly depressing. For the deeper requirements of great spititual office – a disciplined character, personal piety, & habits of religion – I can say nothing that is promising. God Himself must "make me sufficient as a minister of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit", of myself I can be, and do, nothing here.

[169]

The wonderful weather continues. Recollections of "Quentin Durward" haunt my mind when I remember that I am in Liège. After breakfast Dolphin took us to see a large glass factory. We spent an hour in seeing the different processes. About 5000 persons are employed in this factory, of whom 1500 are females, & about 400 boys. During the War it had been necessarily closed, but the proprietors had spent 6,000,000 francs in maintaining their employés. They had re–opened after the conclusion of the War, & were already producing 90 per cent of their pre–war output. We visited the Hotel de Ville, & the Palais de Justice, & then returned to the House for lunch. The afternoon was filled by a visit to the ruins of the last fort which surrended to the Germans at the beginning of the War. Nothing more sad and sinister could be imagined than this spectacle of havock. Underneath the wreckage most of the garrison is entombed. We returned to the city & visited the Cathedral and St Jacques – both fine churches. The eternal pardox of Christianity could not have been better exhibited than the combination of these monstrous relics of War & these great Temples of Peace. After tea, I baptized Margaret Furnival, the youngest of mine host's children. She behaved in an exemplary fashion. Paul Dolphin, a fine little boy of 5 1/2 witnessed his sister's baptism with impressive gravity. [Then I paid for the tickets to London. (£6.12.6). and received the equivalent in English money of my German paper. The exchange is now 237 marks to the pound, i.e. a mark is worth no more than one penny!]

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