The Henson Journals

[125]

Quinquagesima February 11th, 1923.

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O Lord, who has taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake.

Amen.

This is not an ancient collect, but one of those composed in 1549. It is evidently based on the Epistle – S. Paul's glorious hymn on charity. I remember, when I was an undergraduate in Oxford in the early eighties, being much impressed by Jowett's repeating of this collect before preaching in S. Mary's.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. and then, after breakfast, revised my address for the clergy, until lunch–time. In the afternoon I read Pusey's 'Life'. His essay at negociating an union with the Roman Church appears to have had the normal course, and the normal fortune. Eager approaches on the Anglican side, non–committal compliments on the Roman, restiveness & reproaches in both camps, extravagant Anglican expectations, and then sharp disillusionment when the Roman authorities speak. I cannot doubt the present essay will repeat the too–familiar history.

[126] [symbol]

I motored to Durham, and put up in my rooms at the Castle.

Newman's Letter to Pusey, Sept. 4th 1868, is very illuminating, and probably as true now as it was then. It is in vol. IV. p. 154–156. The impression left on my mind by the whole narrative is that of a conceited self–centred group of enthusiasts, vainly imagining that they were the Church of England, pushing forward an impossible project with a tiresome persistence which disgusted those whom they desired to propitiate, & who were quite clever enough to take their true measure, & to see that they had really nothing to offer. Newman wrote with brutal frankness to Pusey in 1868, "If the Archbishop of Canterbury were to say, 'I will become a Catholic if …' the only question in answer would be, Do you speak simply as an individual or in the name of the Anglican Church? If he said 'as an individual', they would not even look at his paper.

I attended Evensong in the College Chapel, & heard an excellent sermon from the Master. I gave the Benediction. I had supper in the Common Room. Mead Falkner was there. We had pleasant conversation, which however was confined to the Master, Falkner, & myself, the two younger men, who were present, hardly opened their mouths. I noted with real apprehension that Mead Falkner's hand shook more irrepressibly than ever, & that he looked ill. We are all wearing out.

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