The Henson Journals

[24]

3rd Sunday after Easter, May 3rd, 1925.

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It is not the case that the Jews with whom Jesus had to deal put down all maladies to the action of spirits, so that they had no other way but this to speak of ailments, bodily or mental. That is true of primitive therapeutics, and in the sacred texts of Egypt and of Assyria and Babylonia we may see how this view continued even in higher civilizations. Every malady was thought to be due to a spirit: there was a form of exorcism for the spirit of each ailment. The Jews of Christ's time are not at this stage of medical science. The Gospels report many cases of sickness which were not ascribed to demonic action. Fever, palsy, blindness, deafness, lack of speech, are all spoken of in Mark in the terms we use ourselves; by Matthew and Luke other classes of ailments are suggested, which are mentioned in addition to demoniac possession: & we hear of physicians as well as of exorcists.

A. Menzies. "The Earliest Gospel" p.69 'Excursus on the demons of the Synoptic Gospels'

[25] [symbol]

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8.

The "Observer" has an interesting article on Thomas Henry Huxley 1825–1925, by his grandson, Julian Huxley. He quotes the following from one of his grandfather's letters:–

"Children work a greater metamorphosis in men than any other condition of life. They ripen one wonderfully, and make life ten times better worth living".

I believe that to be exactly true.

An article "By a Correspondent" headed 'The Lords and Scottish Local Opinion' has quite a brisk attack on the Bishop of Durham for his "amazing pronouncement from the episcopal bench". It winds up with the menacing question "Can the Church remain silent in face of this defection from the cause of public right?".

At 3 p.m. the annual service of Freemasons was held in the Chapel. There was a fair muster, not perhaps quite so large as on former occasions. Shaddick acted as my chaplain, & carried the pastoral staff. After the service I took him to my study, & showed him the ex–Chaplain–General's Letter, which finally clears up the strange confusion which gathered about his name, &mighthave done him irreparable damage. I wrote to the Bishop of Exeter on the subject.

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