The Henson Journals

[272]

Friday, October 9th, 1925.

I don't think that my religious belief has changed since I was confirmed by Bishop Wilberforce at Eton more than seventy years ago.

Lord Halifax. A.D., 1925.

A most beautiful autumn day. The colouring of the trees in the Park was exquisite. There was just sufficient 'bite' in the air to make walking enjoyable. Jimmie and I walked round the Park during the afternoon. For the rest I wasted the day in reading polemical pamphlets by Lord Halifax and Bishop Knox, which arrived by the morning post. I wrote to the Bishop. His position is logically irresistible, but he himself represents a type of churchmanship which has no future. Nobody cares two pins about the vital truths which he argues for so effectively. Controversies about the Eucharist are on the way to become as tiresome & meaningless as controversies about justification. The papers are full of letters suggested by the Archbishop of Canterbury's observations at the Church Congress on Sermons: but the discussion is as useless as it is foolish. Interest no longer attaches to the subject–matter of sermons, & the tiny snippets of time which the modern–preacher requires for his sermon is grudged!

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