The Henson Journals

[58]

Tuesday, August 22nd, 1922.

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[^written in Greek, Matthew 21:13^]

The ideal is declared by its Author: & the woeful obscuration of it in practice by the Judge. This is one of the disconcerting utterances of Jesus. Probably at no time in its history as a centre of worship did Mount Zion appear more evidently to be 'a house of prayer for all the nations' than then when He said that the official Hierarchy was making it 'a den of robbers'. It is the fearful question that lurks behind all impressions & opinions, certifying them to be untrustworthy and ill–founded – "The Lord seeth not as man seeth." We try – we can hardly escape the necessity of trying – to appraise religious work, to judge ourselves, and we have no other materials for judgment than these external things, which the Judge warns us have no relevance in His Eyes.

"Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, & in thy name do many mighty works. Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity."

What testimonies could be more convincing! What references more satisfactory! Acceptable preaching, individual conversions, manifold beneficent activities – that in the poor wretch's own belief was the time picture of his ministry , & be sure his conviction, if bred by his own conceit, was nourished & made fat by the flattery of others, who ought to know: & in Christ's view, all the while he was only 'working iniquity'!

[59] [symbol]

"At this period there were not many conversible gentlemen in Newcastle, which made one value Mr Collingwood the more: for the men were in general very ill–educated, while the ladies, by their appearance & manners, seemed to be very unequally yoked. The clergy at the time were almost all underbred, there being only one vicar in the town, and the rest only curates or lecturers. Sometimes a neighbouring clergyman of university education accepted of a lectureship for the sake of living in town in the winter, though the salaries were no more than £100: yet had it not been for the ladies, the state of society would have then been disagreeable. For many years past it has been different."

So Alexander Carlyle, writing about 1805, describes the state of society in Newcastle in 1761. The 'Autobiography' was only brought down to 1770, when, in the editor's words, 'the pen literally dropped from the dying Author's hand.' ["The Autobiography of Dr Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, 1722–1805, edited by John Hill Burton. New edition with many additional notes & thirty–two portraits of eminent men of the time in Photogravure. T.N. Foulis. London & Edinburgh. 1910.]

Carlyle "interested himself in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, and in Southey's early poems, but we have not his own criticisms on them." He read & approved some of Wordsworth's poems.

[60]

We left Dargavel at 3 p.m., and motored by way of Erskine Ferry and Killearn to Sauchieburn, which we did not reach before 7.10 p.m., though the distance was not above 35 miles. Be we lost our route twice over, first, in trying to find Moss Hall near Killearn, where we had tea with old Miss Lawrie, and next in finding the way to Sauchieburn. The weather was most depressing. Rain fell almost continuously, so that we perforce travelled now an undergraduate of Balliol, & a fine young man. He spoke with vehemence of the fashionable vice of drunkenness, which (according to him) ravages undergraduate Oxford. The Junior Dean is a notable drunkard! It may be imagined what must be the condition of the youths, over whose behaviour he is appointed to keep watch & ward. There were, of course, a good many total abstainers in college, and the men from the grammar schools were for the most part too poor, & too devoted to their reading, to give way to excess. But Etonians were very bad, & there were some outsiders, of whom as much might be said. I encouraged the lad to talk freely because I wished to gain as just a notion of the moral situation of the college as possible, since I must preach there on Nov. 5th.

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