The Henson Journals

[106]

Sunday after Christmas, January 1st, 1922. New Year's Day.

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Who can tell how oft he offendeth: O cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.

Keep Thy servant also from presumptuous sins, lest they get the dominion over me: so shall I be undefiled, and innocent from the great offence.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart: be always acceptable in Thy sight,

O Lord; my strength, and my redeemer.

Psalm. xix. 13–15.

Personal life is the foundation of everything. If one could be right within, nothing else would be seriously wrong. For the whole career is built up in a series of ever enlarging activities. Within the household, where the man's "personality" tells directly on wife, children, and servants, its moral quality and social effect will be mainly determined by the soundness or unsoundness of its head. When his private life, thus extended into the unit of Home, is right, his life as neighbour and citizen can hardly be gravely wrong, and his definitely official activity will not be hindered, discredited, or altogether arrested from thence.

This above all: to thine own self be true.

And it must follow, as the night the day.

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

"Truth in the inward parts" – there is the grand essential. But how shall this be secured, when so much of the life is public, conventional, almost confessedly unreal? A bishop's life is beyond any other official life stamped with unreality. No purpose of hypocrisy need exist, for the fact is implicit in the conditions under which spiritual office must be held and exercised in such a world as this: Nevertheless, the individual who must hold the bishop's place is in visible and considerable danger of becoming a humbug. "My brethren, be not many teachers, for we shall receive heavier judgment."

[107] [symbol]

A cloudy sky, fairly high temperature, and a good deal of wind. This is not a bad description of the mood in which I find myself!

Ella, Linetta, and Ernest accompanied me to Durham, where I preached in the cathedral to a small congregation, and afterwards celebrated the Holy Communion. William & Ernest kneeled side by side at the Communion rail. It is odd to think how both came into touch with me, and how intimate in both cases the relation has grown to be. We lunched with the Bishop of Jarrow. I attended Evensong, & May acted as my staff–bearer. He sate in the Throne with me in order to hear how the music sounded there. Ernest and I had tea in the Deanery, and then we motored over an infamous road to S. Gabriel's, Sunderland, where I preached, repeating with suitable variations & additions the sermon of this morning. There was a very large congregation. After service we returned to Auckland in a violent tempest, arriving about 9.30 p.m.

There seems to be some silly chatter about the probability of my succeeding the present Primate at Canterbury. Lord Scarbrough spoke of it the other day at Lumley: and Ernest tells me that Pemberton mentioned it to him last night. He says that it is the common gossip, and that notices in the newspapers on the subject are not infrequent. All this is very annoying, humiliating to me & vexing to the Archbishop. It is not only baseless, but in the highest degree improbable. Besides, the Archbishop is not aged, & he certainly will not resign. In any case, how could I possibly take over the functions of that chair? Before the Enabling Act. I might possibly have managed to play the part: but now, how could I preside over an "autonomous" church? Lang, Burge, Pollock, Temple, Kempthorne, and Temple – every one of these might become Primate with general acceptance: but Henson? No: the church would go into convulsions at the prospect! But the silly rumour is likely to be repeated often enough to gain a kind of general acceptance: then, when the event finally discloses its groundlessness, there will not be lacking plenty of amiable folk who will descant on my thwarted ambition or re.!!

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