The Henson Journals

[87]

Tuesday, December 28th, 1920.

"Thomas Aquinas and Thomas à Kempis represent, amongst the great Christian writers, almost the extreme limits of the cultivation or neglect of pure intellectualism, yet they are alike in finding their supreme inspiration just in that sacrament which has retained at its very heart, undisguised & yet transfigured, the clearest notes of its historic relation to the weird imaginings of primitive man".

Wicksteed p.529

I finished the "Hibbert Lectures" with much appreciation of their excellence. The "Epilogue" is particularly good and suggestive.

Spencer, the Vicar of Firtree, lunched here. He has a son who aspires to be ordained (v.p.l.). He brought me a doctor's certificate as to the young man's health. It was satisfactory so far as it went.

The fog being thick, I abandoned my purpose of going to Durham, & telegraphed to Wilson that I wd come tomorrow. Then I composed a New Year's Day Letter to the miners, & had copies typed for divers newspapers. I doubt the utility of this, but as there seemed some expectation that I would do it, I yielded weakly. The sermons which I am pledged tp preach in Westminster on the 30th January are hanging over my mind with threatening insistence. There is a suggestion on the day – King Charles's Martydom – which might be worth accepting. The futility of violence as illustrated in the failure of the Puritans, of which the commemoration on Jan. 30th was the symbol, might serve.

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