The Henson Journals

[172]

19th Sunday after Trinity, October 10th, 1920.

I went to the Cathedral for Mattins, & stayed to the Holy Communion. The sermon was preached by Ellison, as Lord Mayor's chaplain, from the text, "Consider the lilies, &c". It was quite a good sermon, but it was made to lead up to a rather fatuous plea for preserving the City churches, not as parish churches, but as centres of beauty. As we were leaving the cathedral we "ran into" Mrs Alfred Lyttelton, and Mary, & stopped to speak to them. How many recollections of St Margaret's they brought back to mind! I still wonder whether I ought to have left that church, & that "ministry of the word". After lunch we called at the Temple, & made the acquaintance of the Master's newly–married wife, a pretty & pleasant looking lady. Then we returned to the Deanery, & found the Campbell Dodgsons, Mr & Mrs Severn, and Ethel Gore–Booth.

I went to the cathedral again at 7 p.m., and heard Barnes preach to an immense congregation which, as I saw it from the Choir, seemed to fill the whole length of the nave. His text was from the Gospel of S. Luke, where S. Peter's confession is recorded. It was very well–expressed and well–delivered; and it was almost aggressively orthodox. As the preacher began by referring to his recent sermon to the British Association, there could be no mistake about his purpose in preaching. I went in to the vestry after the service, & exchanged a few words with him. He asked me to preach in Westminster Abbey on one of the Sunday mornings in January next.

---