The Henson Journals

[283]

Good Friday, April 10th, 1925.

There has been the usual denunciation of Good Friday football in the newspapers, and some of the clergy appear to be exerting themselves to secure the prohibition of matches on that day. No doubt the association of the Day of the Cross with the noise and excitement of a normal holiday is very repulsive to a devout and considering mind, but there is no getting past the fact that the great majority of the English people are neither devout nor considering where Good Friday is concerned. They would certainly not attend the services in the Church, they will certainly eat and drink with the freedom which normally distinguishes their holiday behaviour. What, then, is it proposed that they shall do with themselves on Good Friday? A football match may at least keep them out of mischief and in the open air. If one had the power, would it be right or edifying to impose Christian observances on non–Christians? It would, so far as we can learn, involve the oppression of the majority by the minority. We only claim 3,500,000 parochial electors out of a nation which exceeds 35,000,000 and at least a third part of the parochial electors are not communicants. Even if it is assumed that the Papists and Dissenters make up as many as the Church, & that all desire to observe Good Friday religiously, the great majority is hostile.

[284]

Nay but Thou knewest us, Lord Christ, Thou knowest.

Well thou rememberest our feeble frame.

Thou canst conceive our highest and our lowest.

Pulses of nobleness and aches of shame.

Then though our foul and limitless transgression

Grows with our growing, with our breath began.

Raise Thou the arms of endless intercession.

Jesus, divinest when Thou most art man.

[284]

It is terrible that one's heart should be so little stirred by the fact which our faith interprets as the Atonement for our sins. It is terrifying that one's faith should be so powerless to control one's life. Many indulge in the luxury of devotion who take from the Cross of Jesus neither gentleness nor the will to sacrifice. Why is it that we, desiring to be "conformed" to the model of the Crucified, trying to bring our own minds into harmony with His Mind as disclosed on Calvary, praying for the Gift of His Spirit go away from our penitential acts just as hard, selfish, proud, sensual and mundane as we were? What is the reason why even the Cross fails us?

[285]

The Editor of the Hibbert Journal contributes a notable article to the current issue of that publication entitled "Perspective in the Narratives of the Passion". He suggests that the women who witnessed the crucifixion played a more important part than the evangelists have stated. "The conjecture is at least allowable that women were the bearers of the last injunctions of the dying master ̶ a message of sufficient urgency & import to turn some of the fugitives in their tracks and to account for the part they subsequently played in continuing the work for which he had lived and died". He adds that "possibly some remnants of the message have survived in the farewell discourses' of the fourth Gospel".

"If this hypothesis be rejected, no alternative seems to be left save that of accepting the current theory of writers on Christian origins ̶ that the disciples were restored to their allegiances by apparitions & by the discovery of an empty tomb. It is an unattractive alternative. The scientific historian who cares for the values at stake in the inquiry will not accept it till all other explanations have failed, and then only with reluctance".

On the whole, I think, the traditional theory seems to me less offensive to my reason, and infinitely more acceptable to my heart.

[286]

I read the Ante Communion service in the chapel. Ernest and I motored to Heighington, where the parson Mr Leau, had been suddenly indisposed. Ernest read the morning prayers, and I read the lessons & Ante Communion service. Also I preached the sermon. Heighington has a population of 875 souls, but not more than 70 of them attended the service. The weather which had been brilliant degenerated while we were in the church, & we returned to the castle under rain.

Ernest and I motored to Sunderland, picking up Clayton at Spennymoor. As there was measles in the Rectory, we had tea with the Raines, & then took part in the procession of witness. Happily the weather had cleared, and we were able to march round the streets without getting soaked. Both the members of Parliament for the city walked in the procession, as did the Mayor and several of the Town Councillors. Great pains had been taken in making the arrangements. The streets were lined with great numbers of people, who carried themselves very respectfully. A muffled peel was rung on the bells on the parish church, where the procession ended. I preached the sermon. After service Clayton & I returned to Auckland. Ernest remained in Sunderland.

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