The Henson Journals

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18th Sunday after Trinity, September 30th, 1923.

Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the chapel at 8 a.m. John Communicated.

Johnson accompanied me to Frosterley, where I preached & read the lessons in the beautiful, and beautifully placed parish church, built by Street. There was a large congregation, of which a conspicuous part was provided by "Buffaloes" and 'Rechabites'. The Vicar, Revd W. F. Cullen, has been living in the parish, first as curate–in–charge and then as Vicar, for 17 years. He is an Irishman. The patron of Frosterley is the Bishop of Chester. The electoral roll in a population of 1160 is under 100! But most of the people are said to be Dissenters. They were established in the place long before the church was builded [sic]. Mostly they are quarrymen engaged in the famous quarries from which the marble in Durham and Auckland was brought. The beauty of the weather showed to advantage the beauty of the country.

Later, I motored to Jarrow, and, after having tea with the minister, Revd John Gray, of the Presbyterian Church, preached in the said church to a great concourse of Freemasons, and others. I took for my text Isaiah 65.8. "Destroy it not [242] for a blessing is in it", and I applied the words to the case of the League of Nations, for which I made an earnest appeal. I think the congregation was impressed, and, if the pastor was to be believed, my "deliverance" was timely. After the service the officers of the Lodges attending the service assembled in the schoolroom adjoining the church, and received me formally in order, to thank me for my sermon. From the flatterous speeches of the Worshipful Masters I gathered that they were both pleased as Freemasons and gratified as Nonconformists. My attendance and preaching in a Presbyterian Church seemed to them a wonderful evidence of Christian charity! It is a very odd world: and the church is even more odd than its rival. We returned to the Castle, arriving about 9.30 p.m.

Johnson annoyed me by expressing much scepticism and some contempt for the League of Nations. Perhaps my annoyance arose partly from physical fatigue, and partly from the consciousness that his unholy sentiments could find echoes within my own mind. Indeed the difficulties & disadvantages inherent in any attempt to organise common action out of the contrariant factors which constitute the civilized world of today are very apparent to me, and would carry me to a complete pessimism as to the prospects of the League, if I were not persuaded that the general conscience is moving in the direction of abolition of War, and that such abolition is in the line of God's manifested Will.

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