The Henson Journals

[98]

Saturday, January 30th, 1926.

Women be no meet vessels to rule or to preach, for both are forbidden them: yet hath God endowed them with his Sprit at sundry times, & showed his power & goodness upon them, & wrought wonderful things by them, because he would not have them despised. We read that women have judged all Israel, & have been great prophetesses, & have done mighty deeds. Yea, & if stories be true, women have preached since the opening of the new testament. Do not our women now christen & minister the sacrament of baptism in time of need? Might they not, by as good reason, preach also, if necessity required? If a woman were driven into some island, where Christ was never preached, might she there not preach him, if she had the gift thereto? Might she not also baptize? And why might she not, by the same reason, minister the sacrament of the body & blood of Christ, and teach them how to choose officers & ministers?

v. Tyndale. "Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue" p.18 (Parker Society).

[99]

A beautiful day, sunny and calm yet fresh. I worked all the morning at the lecture. There came to lunch a young man, named Gerald Neill, who meditates Ordination next Advent: Warth, the Vicar of St Luke's, Darlington, who desires to add a chancel to his church: and Cecil Ferens, who came for a walk in the Park. After lunch, Cecil & I walked in the Park for an hour and a half. I was much pleased with his conversation. After tea I resumed work on the lecture, of which I have now written rather less than half.

The Times prints a new account of the execution of Charles I "written by one of the earliest of English journalists, & rediscovered within the last few weeks in the British Museum." It is by John Dillingham "author" of The Moderate Intelligencer issued on February 1st 1649. There is a reference to the king's dogs which I do not remember having seen before. "That night he commanded his dogs should be taken away and sent to his wife, as not willing to have anything present that might take him off from serious consideration of himself." There is a description of the block as "a little piece of wood, flat at bottom, about a foot and a half long" which settles a controversy.

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