The Henson Journals

[163]

8th Sunday after Trinity, August 2nd, 1925.

O God, whose never–failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us: through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Here is the same paradox as that implicit in the petition, "Lead us not into temptation". Is God, indeed, in such sense responsible for our temptation as that we can, and ought, to pray that He will spare us from being tempted? S. James seems to have been confronted with an obvious but formidable perversion of the truth, for after declaring the blessedness of the man 'that endureth temptation', he proceeds: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, & he himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, & enticed". But the 'lust' reacts to a seductive environment, & we pray that our course may lie through a friendly land, wherein there shall be no occasions of sin. Even so, how shall we delimit the spheres of Diving and human responsibility for the catastrophe of an individual fall before temptation?

[164]

That our personal fortunes are not unregarded by the Almighty Father is the clear teaching of our Lord, and the indispensable assumption of personal religion. That He regards us with benevolence, & designs our welfare, are conclusions which follow plainly from His character as made known to us in the Gospel. That He controls our circumstances, and can facilitate or embarrass our moral advance is implicit in the prayer that He will not lead us into temptation. How then can He be relieved of responsibility for our collapse before temptations, from which, ex hypothesis, He could have saved us? But to pray sincerely that we may not be led into temptation must imply that the petitioner is seeking to avoid temptation: if, then, with open eyes, he rushes into avoidable temptation, he thereby demonstrates the insincerity of his prayer, & no promise of Divine response attaches to insincere prayer. May we conclude, therefore, that when, in spite of our prayers, we are led into temptations, the responsibility really rests on ourselves alone, since we never had any genuine desire to be untempted? Then, temptation may be the best thing for us: & our prayer may be answered in substance when in fact it is refused, since our real object in praying against temptation was that our moral advance might be assisted, and that object was best served by our temptation. "Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations, knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience".

[165]

I celebrated the Holy Communion after Mattins in the little church. In spite of the rain, which was falling sharply at church–time, there were about a score of communicants, which pleased the old parson, but when it is remembered that there cannot be less than 300 persons in his parish above the age of 14, with little enough reason. On returning to the house I wrote to John McKitterick, who is now at Leatherhead School.

During the afternoon I loafed indoors, until tea–time, when there arrived on the scene Mrs Boyce, the Vicar's wife, and her married daughter.

At Evensong the weather had greatly improved, and there was quite a considerable congregation in the little church. I preached from Ephesians V. 15. On the whole, I was pleased with the heartiness of the singing, and the attention of the people. After the service, the chuchwardens in the vestry thanked me for preaching & celebrating. I was struck by the evident impression which my officiating at the Holy Communion had made. Any form of service seems to the average English mind properly assigned to a subordinate: a Bishop rather demeans himself if he does anything except the sermon! After dinner we listened to the wireless – a mingled entertainment, partly religious, & partly secular, a spiritual mingle–mangle!

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