The Henson Journals

[17]

3rd Sunday in Lent, March 19th, 1922.

We beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servant, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"Desires" go deeper even than prayers. They belong to the "groanings which cannot be altered", and disclose the drift and direction of the very man. If they be right then, indeed, one is "clean in the inward parts", not otherwise. If they be wrong, the door lies always open to the worst moral collapses. How true to experience is the order of the Psalmist's Prayer. First, "cleanse thou me from my secret faults", then, "keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me". This gives the key to those tragedies of unexpected personal failure, which move the scorn of the world and the horror of the saints. "Make me a clean heart, O God: & renew a right spirit within me."

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the chapel at 8 a.m. William communicated. How unfathomable is a young man's mind! I cast my thoughts to the time I was his age, & try to recall how the Blessed Sacrament appealed to me then. I was a young Fellow of All Souls, and I communicated every Sunday morning in the College Chapel. How distant and how near it all seems!

[18]

I left the Castle at 1.15 p.m. stopping in the Park to rebuke a youth for bringing a dog there against the rules, and motored to Jarrow Grange via Durham, Chester–le–Street, & White Mare's Pool. For most of the way, all beyond Chester–le–Street, the road was execrable. I arrived at Christ Church about 2.45 p.m., and found everything prepared for the confirmation. Clayton, who had spent the night in Sunderland, joined me in the vestry. I confirmed 215 candidates, & then had tea with the Vicar, Rev. E. M. Williams. His wife told me that she was a niece of Thomas Denham, whom I knew well as an undergraduate in Oxford. Then we returned to Auckland, arriving about 9.45 p.m. The confirmation this afternoon was satisfactory. Not only were the sexes divided, (males 95 females 120), but they were all apparently of sufficient age, & a fair number were adults. The candidates were attentive, and reverent in demeanour. They came up to be confirmed properly, and without excessive "shepherding". There was a considerable congregation of "witnesses", & the singing of the hymns was very hearty. It was plain to me that pains had been taken over the preparation, & that there was much interest in the parish over the event. Williams, Lilburn, and Ritson struck me as distinctly keen & effective clergymen. So I was less displeased than usual with what I saw and heard in the district where the Venerable Bede worked and died.

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