The Henson Journals

[223]

Monday, April 14th, 1924.

Stagnation, not change, is Christianity's most deadly enemy, for this is a progressive world, and in a progressive world no doom is more certain than that which awaits whatever is belated, obscurantist, and reactionary.

Fosdick Christianity & Progress. P. 165

"The world passeth away and the lust therefor, but he that doeth the Will of God abideth for ever". It is an escape from this bondage to never–ceasing change that we seek to find in Religion.

"Change and decay in all around I see

O Thou Who changest not abide with me".

What is "stagnation", but a process of dying, a mortal acquiescence in a drying up, or cutting off of the springs of life? It is not the proper antithesis to change, which ought to mean an invigoration of life by fresh resources.

I attended the funeral of the late Vicar of Eldon, Gray. There was a considerable concourse of parishioners, and more than a dozen of the clergy from the Rural Deanery. The lad who was managing everything in the vestry was evidently much distressed. He gave a simple and affecting account of the Vicar's sudden collapse. He assisted him to the Vicarage, & when they parted Gray took the lad's hand, and kissed it. This boy also is an aspirant to something more than his present job.

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