The Henson Journals

[160]

16th Sunday after Trinity, September 12th, 1926.

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I celebrated the Holy Communion at 8 a.m. The communicants, including my guests, numbered 12. – a very solemn and consoling service. I used the Cosin plate, thinking the while of the associations of conflict and triumph which invest it. Passi graviora, whatever comfort from his retrospect the Trojan hero could desire must be accessible to the English churchman who reviews the history of his church. And truly we need in this dolorous present all the comfort that the past can bring.

I motored to South Church with Lady Limerick in her rather luxurious car, the rest of the party following in mine. There was a wretched congregations [sic], perhaps 150, mostly women & girls, in a parish of 17,000 people! The curates attributes [sic] the absenteeism of the parishioners to motoring and broad–casting. They motor or cycle all day, & satisfy their consciences by listening to a sermon on the wireless! I preached from S. Paul's words in Romans xiii: "They are all God's ministers".

After lunch I wrote to William. It is "not inconsiderable" that we have kept up our fortnightly interchange of letters almost uninterruptedly for 2 years: but necessarily, since through absence there can be no creation of fresh ties of association to replace those that are severed, the letters grow ever more impersonal, until one asks one's self the question, Is it indeed worth while to go on with the fight against alienation & oblivion? Our lips speak easily of life–long friendships, and our hearts throb in eager response, but nothing human endures, & he is a fortunate man who preserves any friendship to the end.

I read through the very interesting Report on "The Present Status of the Wild–Fowl of Europe with special reference to those of the British Isles, by Percy R. Lowe, O. B. E., Assistant Keeper in Charge of Birds, British Museum (Natural History)' which has just been published by the International Committee for the Protection of Wild Birds (British Section). It makes for sad reading.

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