The Henson Journals

[135]

Ash Wednesday, February 17th, 1926.

"I have just read with a thrill of admiration and sympathy your "Continuity". Its tone and temper (if I may say so) are admirable, and add force to your argument…… But let me add a word of thanks for the 2nd Sermon, (perhaps with some doubtful points – need monasticism have gone so wholesale & so destructively?) but most noble, uncontroversial, & moving. God give you blessing & guidance in days to come".

Bishop Talbot. Feb. 14th '26.

There is something so unexpected in this kind of writing coming to me from that quarter, that I make a note of it. Probably, he had heard of my conciliatory speeches at Lambeth. When he learns of my refusal to sign the Ecclesiastical Commission's Report, he will want to recall his words! I cannot forget, though I no longer resent, that Bishop Talbot was prominent among those who tried to keep me off the Episcopal bench, & who refused to assist at my Consecration.

[136]

I celebrated the Holy Communion at 8 a.m. in the Chapel. The day was mostly spent in writing letters. Also, I drafted a short explanatory note to appear in the Report of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission in order to make clear what amount of agreement my signature indicated, and sent it to Baker–Wilbraham. To my consternation I received from Brooke Westcott, the news that he had been offered a living in the South, & the state of his wife's health made it desirable that he should accept it. The flight of the younger clergy is heart–breaking. I told him to come & talk over his decision, but I fear there is little doubt that he will go. This collision of duties – on one side the work, on another side, the wife's health – is terribly frequent. On paper, the work ought to prevail, but in experience? How is it possible to sacrifice your wife's health, even her life, to anything? The practical argument for celibacy is irresistible.

I walked round the park in the afternoon, & for awhile watched a football–match.

Holland, the Secretary of the National Society, suggested that he shd send out copies of the "Bishoprick" to his Ctee: & I bade Carter send the requisite number.

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