The Henson Journals

[263]

17th Sunday after Trinity, October 4th, 1925.

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The end of summer–time gave us an additional hour in bed, which I employed in reading an interesting essay on Milton by Glover. He is too thorough–going a sectary to be quite satisfactory as the interpreter of the great Puritan poet, who was saturated in the culture which sectaries contemn, and possessed by a passion for intellectual & moral liberty which Socialized sectaries of our time cannot understand. Glover himself is a queer blending of incompatibilities, for he is a brilliant & cultivated Humanist as well as a sour & loveless Sectary. But he, like the rest of us, is locked up to interests and enthusiasms which have been stricken with obsoleteness by the supremacy of economic politics. Who cares now for truth, or purity, or freedom, or culture? The base appetites of the "underdog" are now the "principles" of political movements: & the "proletariat" carries to its new throne all the squalor of its habits, & all the penury of its mind. Into what a world are we moving! A world in which there is no more reverence, or friendship, or aspiration, or achievement, – only a viper–pit of conflicting instincts, all bestial! Yet, such is the magic of phrases, & such the holding power of party–allegiance, that educated & religious men affect to believe that the future well–being of Civilized Mankind is bound up with the triumph of "Labour"! Anything, for them, before union with old opponents, & the cancelling of old shibboleths!

[264]

The Ordination in South Church was carried through without mishap, save that much more bread & wine was consecrated than was needed. I was rather disappointed with the congregation. Considering that the parish contains 17000 people, that the other buildings in which Divine Service is normally provided had been closed in order that those who attended them might attend the Ordination, that it was the first Sunday in the month, when most godly people are wont to Communicate, I had expected that the church would have been filled to overflowing. In point of fact, the building was not more than 4/5ths filled. Parry–Evans preached briefly & suitably. He has a clear voice, & expresses himself well, but he sways as he speaks, & is somewhat monotonous.

Two Deacons were ordained, & three Priests viz:–

Norman Copeland (Beamish)

Kenneth Kay (Herrington)

Cecil Vivian de Laybourne Surtees (Bishop Auckland)

Dennis Bartlett Hall (S. Gabriel's, Sunderland)

Arthur Henry Norris (S. Oswald's, Durham)

Moulsdale (who sung the Litany) Cruickshank & Wilson lunched at the Castle.

I preached at Tudhoe, where a Harvest Thanksgiving was being observed. This was a departure from my rule [265] not to preach at Harvest Thanksgivings, but I wanted Archdeacon Derry, who had undertaken to preach in Tudhoe, to take the duty at Newbottle, where the unhappy vicar has resigned. Jimmie went with me to carry the staff. My text was Psalm xxiv. 1. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof". The attention of the congregation pleased me. This is a purely mining population, but happily the pit is still working, though most of the men don't get more than three shifts in the week.

Indeed there are well disposed persons, who much want to be admonished, how dangerous a thing it is, to discountenance what is good, because it is not better; and hinder what they approve, by raising prejudices against some under–part of it. Nor can they assist in rectifying what they think capable of amendment, in the manner of carrying on these designs, unless they will join in the designs themselves: which they must acknowledge to be good & necessary ones.

Bishop Butler. Sermons. p.214

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