The Henson Journals

[56]

Christmas Day, December 25th, 1922.

[symbol]

The very central and constituting Verity of the Christian Religion is proclaimed today. Take this away, or abate anything from its fullness, and Christianity shrinks into a reformed Judaism, with 'another and greater Israel' added to 'the goodly fellowship of the prophets'. For the differentia of Christianity is the Worship of God in Christ, and, therefore, such a belief about its Founder as will justify that Worship. On Christmas day this central and constituting verity is presented in a form, dear beyond measure to Christian hearts, difficult in the extreme to considering minds. Truth may be conveyed and interpreted through Myth, but can this truth? Is there any alternative between fact and fiction here? If the Birth of the Redeemer be stripped of its legendary wrappings, and Jesus be accounted the Son of Joseph, what are the consequences for the Christian faith? Cannot the supernatural conception be postulated even although the physical fact be normal? What is really gained by maintaining the physical miracle? What fitness is there in a normal life being inaugurated by prodigy? "For it became Him (God) to make the Author of their salvation perfect thro' sufferings". What need for this method if the very manhood were miraculous? "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also in like manner partook of the same….for verily not of angels doth He take hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham". What place is there in this teaching for the "Virgin Birth"?

[57] [symbol]

I distributed Christmas presents to the household. To William I gave a copy of Scott's Poems, thus completing his equipment & reversing the historic order of the works. Also I gave him the Scott speech. I preached in S. Anne's, and celebrated the Holy Communion. Coleman, the Professor of Hellenistic Greek, who had officiated at Staindrop, lunched here, & afterwards went with us into Durham, where we attended Evensong in the Cathedral. I sate in my Throne, where the carols sounded to great advantage, and I gave the Benediction. Then we had tea with Bishop & Mrs Quirk. We returned to Auckland afterwards. The weather all day was most unpleasant with frequent rain–storms.

Carols express the sentimental aspect of historic Christianity. They draw freely on the legendary treasures of the Church, and make no scruple of indulging an infantile freedom & inconsequence in handling it. Like the gambols of children they are very pleasing to the weary cynicism of older folk, who allow themselves thereby to be transported from a world, of which they are weary, to another world, which they partly remember and partly imagine. The popularity of carols indicates the decay, not the vitality of faith. When the fresh flowers of spring are no more with us, we have, perforce, recourse to the imitations which the shops provide. Doubt may be an evidence of belief, as pain may disclose life in a limb. But the extraordinary spectacle of churches thronged with men to hear the carol–singing of the choirs readily cheats us into supposing that there is a revival of Religion among us.

---