The Henson Journals

[238]

Tuesday, April 13th, 1926.

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I worked at the Brighton Sermon not very effectively. After lunch we motored to Port Glasgow, and were shown an old Scottish house of the 15th century, which once belonged to the Maxwell family. The view of the Clyde was extremely beautiful.

Mr Ferguson, the local Scottish minister, came to tea, and I had a good deal of conversation with him on the subject of Modernism. He told me that Modernist opinions were widely spread among the Presbyterian clergy. I cross–examined him very closely as to what precisely he understood by Modernist opinions: & he replied with remarkable candour. He did not himself believe either the fact of the Virgin Birth, or that of the physical Resurrection. Would you, I asked, admit to one of your parishioners that you believed that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and that his body crumbled in the tomb? He replied that he would. Would you teach as much in your Church, I continued? And he answered, No. Did you state your opinions to any ecclesiastical authority before you were ordained? No, but the authorities know that there is much laxity among those whom they[239] [symbol] ordain. I asked him whether he regarded his ministry as a teaching ministry: and he replied that he taught the Humanity of Jesus. The "Glasgow Herald" this morning published a letter on the subject, so familiar on the English side of the border, of the shortage of Ordination Candidates. I asked Mr Ferguson whether this shortage was a fact in Scotland, &, if so, what in his judgment were the causes. He replied that the shortage was certainly very serious, & that he attributed it mainly to the inadequacy of ministers' stipends, and the disturbance of conscience over the doctrinal formularies. He had himself been ordained five years ago, and his experiences in college convinced him that many men turned away from Ordination because they could not bring themselves to accept the Westminster Confession. The interpretation glosses seemed to them no more than unworthy subterfuges. I inquired whether Socialism & Communism were gaining hold of the Scottish clergy, & he answered that, while there were some Communists in the Established Church, there were far more in the U.F.C. And the tendency was in that direction in both churches.

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