The Henson Journals

[1]

2nd Sunday in Lent, March 12th, 1922.

Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

If the collect be regarded as a prayer suggested by the appointed Epistle or Gospel for the day, then there can be no doubt that the reference is particularly to sins of sensuality. In the Epistle S. Paul pressed on his Thessalonian converts the primary obligation of purity. "Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication… For God hath called us not unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit". I suppose that in the modern world hardly if at all less than in ancient, it is precisely on this point of controlling sexual passion that the crux of discipline is found […] & perhaps most of the 'doubts' as to the faith have […] their origin, yet a great part of their strength, from the disappointment which arises in the mind when the resources of discipleship appear to be so inadequate to the task of bridling that masterful appetite. Too many Christians […] [2] every age are practically antinomians: but a minority have too sensitive consciences to become antinomians, and they are the doubters. What the orthodox express by acts of penitence, the hereticks express by repudiations of religious theory. It is this circumstance which gives a sinister justification to the cruel assumption that doubt and immorality go together. The injustice lies in the fact that doubt and a refusal to acquiesce in a lower morality than orthodoxy assumes are also allied in the best minds. It is too commonly the case that the morally obtuse Catholick persecutes the morally sensitive Sectary. The sensual hierarchs of Constance, the champions of medieval orthodoxy, burned Huss, whose departures from orthodox doctrine were combined with a severe morality. We must make sure, if we can, that no undiscerned revolt against the moral demand of discipleship be present in the repugnance we feel to the doctrinal requirements of the Church. The late Lord Salisbury is said to have declared that not the creed, but the morals of Christianity constituted for himself the principal difficulty. It is the enormous chasm between t theory of the Christian life as pictured in the New Testament & required by the Christian argument, on the one hand, and the actual lives of professed Christians, on the other, which has ever appeared to me the most formidable of all the obstacles to belief.

[3]

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. Ella accompanied me in the motor to Staindrop, where I preached to a congregation which hardly more than half filled the church. The service was Mattins, Litany, and Sermon, and it was read by the curate, Mr Roman, very clearly. I felt agreeably surprized at hearing a statutory service! The surpliced choir was placed outside the Chancel screen, owing to the late Lord Barnard's jealous assertion of his right to the Chancel as lay Rector. William and I went round the church after the service, & were shown its principal features by the curate, who is evidently well informed about it. "The glory of Staindrop church is its almost unrivalled array of sepulchral monuments, ranging from the 13th century to the 16th, and all commemorating members of the great family of Neville of Raby". One of the most interesting portions of the church is the ancient vestry, with the domus inclusa over it. This is the only church in the diocese in which the pre–Reformation chancel screen still exists. We lunched at Raby Castle with the Barnards. Lord B. told me that some wild swans had attempted to settle on the lake, but had been driven away by the persecution of the residents!

I preached at the little iron church at Binchester to a congregation which was disappointingly small, & which the curate said was 'just the ordinary congregation'. There had been preparations made for a crowd, so everybody felt rather silly! My sermon was dull and boring.

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