The Henson Journals

[252]

Tuesday, March 17th, 1925.

An inquirer should not enter upon the subject of the miracles reported or alleged in ecclesiastical history, without being prepared for fiction and exaggeration in the narrative, to an indefinite extent.

Newman. Essays on Miracles. p.229

I motored to Barnard Castle School, and confirmed 33 boys in the Chapel. This was the first confirmation since the new Headmaster's appointment, and it was curiously chilling. Whether the sectarian feeling stirred up over the question of the chaplaincy was the cause, or the anti–episcopal agitation of the Vicar, or the resentment of the local papist, I cannot tell, but that some untoward factor was telling I could not doubt.

Later, I motored to Darlington, and confirmed 104 candidates in S. John's Church. This is rather a fine church, conspicuously placed on a rising ground where two roads meet, & marked out by a spire. The parson – Thompson – has been there for 12 years. He is a Wadham man. The living is worth £400 net, and is in the gift of the Crown & the Bishop alternately. There is a large population of railway men. After the service I returned to Auckland.

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