The Henson Journals

[232]

Low Sunday, April 11th, 1926.

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I celebrated Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. We were only 4 communicants including myself. After breakfast I turned my attention to the Brighton Sermon, which hangs fire woefully. I think Robertson's preaching methods might be dwelt upon, e.g. his felicitous but really unwarrantable use of Scripture, in which respect he resembled Newman: his self–portraiture in his preaching, a result, perhaps, of his almost morbid sensitiveness: his choice of interesting subjects – he preached "to the times" – He preached from notes, containing in some cases only the heads of his subject, and in other cases full notes on each topic treated of in his sermon. He sometimes wrote out "recollections" of his discourses for the use of members of his congregation. He has a sanity of outlook which is all the more impressive because it goes along with an almost whimsical ingenuity. He traces connexions where none are apparent, & finds suggestions in the unlikliest [sic] materials. Thus his treatment of Scripture is wholly uncritical, & sometimes unreasonable, but it ever serves admirably his homiletic purposes. He makes his text no more than the scaffolding of his message.

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Of all the nations on the earth, none are so incapable of enjoyment as we. God has not given to us that delicate development which He has given to other races. Our sense of harmony is dull & rare, our perception of beauty is not keen. An English holiday is rude & boisterous: if protracted, it ends in ennui & self–dissatisfaction. We cannot enjoy. Work, the law of human nature, is the very need of an English nature. That cold shade of Puritanism which passed over us, sullenly eclipsing all grace and enjoyment, was but the shadow of our own melancholy unenjoying national character.

F. W. Robertson. Sermons. 2nd Series. p.14

Robertson's courage is noteworthy. Thus in 1850, when the "No Popery" agitation provoked by the Papal Aggression was at its highest, he deprecated the "vituperative and ferocious expressions wh. are used so commonly against the Church of Rome," and professed views on Baptism which were abhorrent to the Evangelical world. "The heart of the mother is more than a match for the creed of the Calvinist." There is a robust common sense in his whole view of Sacraments.

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On large national subjects there is perhaps no class so ill qualified to form a judgment with breadth as we, the clergy of the Church of England, accustomed as we are to move in the narrow circle of those who listen to us with forbearance & deference, & mixing but little in real life, till in our cloistered & inviolable sanctuaries we are apt to forget that it is one thing to lay down rules for a religious clique, & another to legislate for a great nation.

F. W. Robertson. Sermons. 2nd Series. p. 181

The sermon "The Sydenham Palace, & the Religious Non–observance of the Sabbath," preached on Nov. 14th 1852, is an admirable example of his robust common sense, his intense moral earnestness, and his true moral perspective. A noteworthy characteristic of Robertson's sermons is that they are almost completely destitute of quotations. Partly, perhaps, this is explicable by the fact that they were not written compositions: but, partly, it indicates a consciousness in the great Preacher that quotations are hardly ever really serviceable to edification. And he tells no stories.

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"Mr Robertson's custom was to preach from forty to fifty minutes, with a clear, unbroken delivery, in which there was no hesitation or tautology." (Preface to Corinthians).

"There is a wide–spread opinion that it (the pulpit) was designed for the edification of the mind as well as the heart: & it may be that one great cause of the indifference with which men are said to listen to preachers arises from the fact that for the most part their addresses are far below the intelligence of their audience, who are wearied with the trite repetition of platitudes that neither instruct nor inform."

(Preface to Sermons. 4th series)

Raven in "Christian Socialism" unites Robertson's Sermons with those of F.D. Maurice as alone "fresh & full of meaning" now of all the sermons of that time (v. p. 80).

I wrote to the Secretary of C.O.S. consenting to give the inaugural lecture of the little Foundation in honour of Loch, which has been founded. It is a horrible nuisance thus to add another burden on my over–weighted shoulders, but I hardly see how I could refuse an invitation made in flattering terms, & directly associated with Loch's memory.

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