The Henson Journals

[45]

Friday, October 17th, 1924.

No one can understand the strange history of the organised temperance movement in this country who does not allow for the compulsions which convictions and ideals, tenaciously, if not always sagaciously, held, enforce upon those who hold them

Arthur Sherwell

This Faith healing madness spreads rapidly. Hickson, having finished in Bradford, is missioning in Paddington, where some maiden ladies profess to have been healed. The Medical Officer of Health in Sheffield has an excellent letter of protest in the "Manchester Guardian", but reason & knowledge are powerless before fanaticism. Here is a paragraph work noting:–

"From the point of view of the Churchman, perhaps even more serious is the damage done to religion. The fallacy of these cures is always manifest in the long run, but by that time popular interest has evaporated, & perhaps the kind of 'faith' that depends on manifestations of this sort is better destroyed".

I wasted the morning in reading the pronouncements of the two Lambeth Conferences held in 1908 and 1920, and the Reports of their Committees. It is evident that the Church is already too deeply committed to this folly, to make effective action in restraint of it easy, if even possible. Ryle and Burge – both disposed to be malades imaginaires – are responsible for much.

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