The Henson Journals

[65]

8th Sunday after Trinity, July 17th, 1921.

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What is the worth of devotional moods? The worst men can exhibit those tokens of grace. Henry VIIIth's humility as he crawled to the Cross on his gouty knees was a truly edifying spectacle, but he rose from them as lustful, murderous & despotic as ever. May we reverse the picture also? Why should we attach importance to the frivolity & petty worldliness of those whom we know to be at bottom genuinely kind and good? They have no heights and depths in their character: the whole of their good little souls is filled and satisfied by life's conventions, and these may be curiously unworthy of them. We are all, even the best of us, hard bound by the chains of temperament. Why be shamed and shocked at their seemingly total inability to perceive the tragic incongruity between their absorbing interests and their acts of Religion? Will not the All Seeing, All loving, All righteous Creator see all these things in an equitable perspective, and then Henry VIIIth's devotion will help him little, and these poor little silly "tea–party" spirits, who yet are unselfish and kind, will not be rained by their absurd & shallow obsessions. "O God, there is mercy with Thee, therefore shalt Thou be feared". It is that limitless patience of the Eternal that terrifies even while it consoles. That the Heavens should "maintain their terrible composure" in front of the monstrous moral paradoxes which mankind presents is truly an enigma which weighs heavily on a considering sinner's conscience: and ever along with it is unfailing Benevolence of God.

[66]

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. After breakfast I made notes for a discourse on the words of Psalm 119.96. "I see that all things come to an end: but thy commandment is exceeding broad". Also, I wrote the Miss Mundella.

Ella accompanied me to Escomb, where I preached in the weirdly interesting Anglo–Saxon church. There was a full congregation and the service seemed to be reverent and impressive. The Vicar expounded the building to William (whom he addressed much to the gentleman's amusement as Mr Williams!) and me. It certainly is an astonishing church, and suggests a vast number of questions. I notice with sombre interest that there was a considerable collection of men and lads outside the church, which watched my entrance with curiosity, but refrained from entering the building, which was mainly filled with women. The population of Escomb is stated to be 1700, and the old church could hardly have seated more than 150 at the outside. There is another church, a modern one, which is not much larger. The entire church accommodation is set down in the Diocesan Calendar at 300.

Garvin in the "Observer" is very optimistic about Ireland: but I did not find that there was much expectation of a settlement among those whom I met last week in London. Haldane would not commit himself in any direction, but he was evidently very doubtful of success. There is much doubt as to De Valera's control of the "gunmen".

[67]

Barbarian prejudice against education is well established in the protest of the Goths against Queen Amalasuntha's design of training her son Atalaric after the Roman fashion. Procopius narrates the incident thus:–

"All the notable men among them gathered together, & coming before Amalasuntha made the charge that their king was not being educated correctly from their point of view nor to his own advantage. For letters, they said, are far removed from manliness, and the teaching of old men results for the most part in a cowardly and submissive spirit. Therefore the man who is to show daring in any work and be great in renown ought to be freed from the timidity which teachers inspire and to take his training in arms. They added that even Theodoric would never allow any of the Goths to send their children to school; for he used to say to them all that, if the fear of the strap once came over them, they would never have the resolution to despise sword or spear. And they asked her to reflect that her father Theodoric before he died had become master of all this territory and had invested himself with a kingdom which was his by no sort of right, although he had not so much as heard of letters. "Therefore, O Queen", they said "have done with these tutors now, & do you give to Atalaric some men of his own age to be his companions, who will pass through the period of youth with him & thus give him an impulse toward that excellence which is in keeping with the custom of barbarians".

v. Procopius V.ii. 13–20 (vol.3 p.17)

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