The Henson Journals

[297]

Whit Sunday, May 23rd, 1926.

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This is, I think, the first Whitsunday on which I have not done my duty at the altar, and in the pulpit. It is indeed, very strange that this sudden crisis, bringing me sharply into the very presence of Death, & making apparent how near to the term of my ministry I have come, should move me so little. What is there in my career which could make anybody interested to recall it ten years, even five years, hence? No book has been written which can possibly live: no sermon has been preached which will ever be recalled: no society or institution has been founded or assisted by me: the petty controversies in which I have played a part belong to the froth & foam of current ecclesiastical life. Only, perhaps, as being the occasion of an agitation against a Crown nomination to a bishoprick, will my name survive, & then only in the trivial story of the Fall of the Establishment. I doubt if there will be any memoir or biography desired in any quarter. My very appearance will soon pass from mind, for no portrait of me is among the series at Auckland Castle, nor has any public desire that one should be painted ever been expressed. No public school, or college, or learned society would be glad to add my name to its record of distinguished men, for none has included me among its members. No son will transmit my name:

[298]

There is no relation to whom I could leave my Journal with any reasonable confidence that it would be either valued or appreciated. Could there possibly be a career, more insignificant, futile, & evanescent?

I had a restless unrefreshing night, during which I finished reading Anthony Trollope's novels "Phoeneas Finn" and "Phineas Redux." The picture of Victorian politics is remarkably vivid and accurate, the characters are well–conceived and well–maintained, and there are many vigourous & humourous episodes.

I read through the "Address to the Clergy of the Diocese in S. Paul's Cathedral, April 30th 1926 being the 25th Anniversary of his Enthronement" by the Bishop of London, of which a printed edition was sent to me last week "with the Bishop's good wishes." It is a highly characteristic composition. In the 1st of the 4 sections, in which it is arranged, the Bishop states and re–asserts "the main points of his policy." These are (1) "I shd try to be absolutely fair to all parties in the Church." (2) "I have tried to keep to the fore the Mission aspect of the Gospel." (3) "Then I have tried to bring out the social message of the Gospel." This he elucidates by referring to C.E.J.S., of which he is Chairman, and to Rescue & Preventive Work. The next 2 sections deal with [299] [symbol] "the World Call to the Church" i.e. to the great appeal for Foreign Missions which has recently been made. As this has been engaging the Bishop's attention during the last few months, it inevitably dominates his mind, but it gives a curiously inapposite character to his Address on such an occasion. He pleads earnestly for money & men. The final section is personal. He describes the 9 months tour in visitation of the Anglican Communion, which he is about to undertake. "I am embarking on this small adventure for the same reason that I embarked on the great adventure of the London diocese 25 years ago. Like many I have sent forth, I feel "called" to go."

And this is all that our premier Bishop has to offer the Church of England & the Diocese of London at a juncture in which disruption threatens, & the community is distracted with perplexities. So far as the mental quality, the range of thought & knowledge, & the literary expression of the Address are concerned, an average assistant–curate could have easily provided them. The courage & élan of youth which might "carry it down" are no longer there: only the repetition of brave phrases, & the calculated simulation of juvenile ardour! One cannot criticize, only wonder,

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What aspect of this long episcopate bear in the future? Its importance will arise, not from its merits, but from its defects. That for more than a quarter of a century, the central, & incomparably most important, diocese of the Church of England should have been presided over by the Author of this Address is itself a circumstance of far–reaching importance: In a period of transition, when "the fountains of the great deep have been broken up" in Church & State, the Bishop of London has no conception of his duty other than that of an Anglo–Catholik curate, of evangelical fervor and a loveable disposition! Of the chaos of belief, of discipline, of morality, he can neither realize the existence, nor perceive the gravity, nor discern the direction in which to seek relief. Surrounded, year in & year out, by adoring adolescents of both sexes, by pious women, by the officials of "Church Societies" and the like – the shallowest and most mentally enervating entourage conceivable – he lives in the perpetual audience of his own utterances, at first or at second hand, and has by this time lost the sense of proportion, while beginning to acquire the complacent dogmatism of age. He has never possessed an "experiencing nature", & now is no more than the "record" of his own pronouncements.

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Bayley came to see me, and stayed for nearly an hour. He had much to say about the situation in the mining industry (of which he has knowledge), but nothing hopeful. It is apparently certain that the mineowners [sic], in spite of their firm, almost truculent, reply to the Prime Minister, are deeply divided among themselves. In fact, there can be but slight community of interest between the coal–exporting districts, like Durham & Northumberland, and South Wales, and the districts, like S. Yorkshire, where coal is mined for domestic use. Then, there are other collieries which are worked in connexion with iron & engineering industries. After Bayley came Lionel, and then the doctor. There is something very attractive about Turner, & I like talking with him.

Sir David Drummond sate with me for an hour earlier in the day, and talked about the conference of physicians, over which he has been presiding in Newcastle last week. He sate beside the Dean (Welldon) last night at the public dinner, & rather to his astonishment discovered that the very Revd gentleman was not a total–abstainer. In fact, they shared a bottle of champagne!

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