The Henson Journals

[212]

5th Sunday in Lent, March 13th, 1921.

'O God, there is mercy with Thee, therefore shalt Thou be feared.' Thou makest no sign while we move insolently forward in the ways of sin. Thy long–suffering patience brings to us impunity: & we become ever more insolent in wrong–doing, until the chalice of our transgression overflows, and Thy stroke falls irreparably. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." If we knew our own interest, we should dread nothing so much as impunity. Yet may we not stand before Him as the convicted adulteress, from whom the accusers had retired, guilty but uncondemned? "Woman did no man condemn thee? Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more." I went to the Eucharist in the chapel at 8 a.m. with a heavy heart. It is terrible to know that there is hideous sin in the very neighbourhood of the Altar in my diocese, and to see no way how to arrest, expose, and punish it. And this is not the whole measure of my grief: for that brazen & hideous sin is truly but a mirror in which one can see the lines of one's own self. "There but for the Grace of God goes John Bradford" is an inevitable reflection when one sinner meets another in the hands of the executioner. To be the judge of another man is truly a position beyond our character, and our powers.

[213]

Clayton and I left the Castle at 9.10 a.m., and motored to Gateshead Fell, where I preached to a congregation which filled the building. The atmosphere was literally asphyxiating. We lunched with the Vicar, an aged man named Mitchell. Clayton returned as far as Durham by the motor–bus, and I went on to Gateshead, where I lectured on "Democracy & Christianity" to a Brotherhood in a Methodist Chapel. There were at least 1000 men present. Then I had tea with Davison, the Vicar of Christ Church. He is an able & interesting man, originally a miner of Bishop Auckland, who is exactly my own age. I motored back to the Castle, picking up Clayton in the Bailey at Durham, arriving about 6 p.m.

Among the morning's letters was one from Fawkes encloseing another from Glazebrook on the question of the proposed discussion of Lake's teaching about our Saviour. He writes that the intention of the Churchman's Union is "to provide a counterblast". Glazebrook adds: "I, for one, am very anxious to get his name dissociated from the Union altogether. If I were not Chairman, I should certainly propose that he be asked to withdraw." This is well enough, but once they start a lot of half–educated Rationalists chattering about this solemn and difficult subject, they may desire what they will, but they will have to take what they get – a lot of crude, and highly offensive speculation.

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