The Henson Journals

[51]

Monday, December 28th, 1925.

Give me a good digestion, Lord,

And also something to digest.

Give me a healthy body, Lord,

With sense to keep it at its best.

Give me a healthy mind, Good Lord,

To keep the pure and good in sight,

Which, seeing Sin, is not appalled,

But finds a way to set it right.

Give me a mind that is not bored

That does not whimper, whine, or sigh.

Don't let me worry overmuch

About the fussy thing called "I".

Give me a sense of humour, Lord,

Give me the grace to see a joke:

To get some happiness in life,

And pass it on to other folk.

These lines form the burden of a seasonable card sent to me by the Bishop of St Alban's. Perhaps the level of aspiration is rather that of the old covenant than of the new, still, if the prayer were answered, we could cut out of the world's life the sinister figures of the dentist, the doctor, the lawyer and the priest.

[52]

I started to write the Article for the Bishoprick on "Religion and Education", but had hardly written a sheet of foolscap before I had to motor to Ramside with Ella and Linetta in order to lunch with the family there before going to Pittington, and baptizing Penelope's son, Charles Pemberton Wallace. I stopped in Durham on the return journey in order to see Mr Cyprian Marr, whose [sic] tenure of a grant from the Ordination Candidates Fund depends on my approval. I got back to the Castle by 5 p.m., and resumed work on the Article but with woefully little success.

Mr Harding, the recently–appointed Headmaster of the Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, died suddenly yesterday morning. He was only 32 and seemed to be in excellent health. I wrote a letter of condolence to his widow, though truly it is no easy thing to find fitting words in such a situation. Both Harding and his wife lunched here at the time of his appointment, & my impression of them was favourable. Beyond that I knew nothing of them.

The thaw continued, and as the day drew towards night, rain fell steadily. Few vestiges of the snow remained when I returned to Auckland.

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