The Henson Journals

[77]

Monday, September 12th, 1927.

I was interrupted about 11 a.m. by the Archbishop of Sydney & his son, who were on their way to lunch with the Bishop of Gloucester. He stayed for an hour, & talked much. He had been at Lausanne, where he said that Headlam made an impression: but he is a man whose judgement is worth little.

After lunch I walked round the Park with Fred. Holmes, a lad of 16, whom (he told me) I confirmed at Kelloe. He is the son of a schoolmaster at Willington. Then Kenneth Hodgson called, &, when he had gone his way, I betook myself to the Article, but to no purpose. I read Voltaire's account of the Quakers in the 'Dictionnaire Philosophique". Probably the witty Frenchman's approbation explains much of the popularity which the Quakers have enjoyed among men of the world. Dr Rufus M. Jones sets on his first page some words of Ralph's, which are curiously wide of the truth as I see it:

"The Quakers, of all Christian bodies, have remained nearest to the teaching and example of Christ".

He refers to their munificent charity to the war–shattered population of Central Europe: and this is, of course, quite admirable, but does it justify the statement that they have "remained nearest" to Christ's Teaching & Example? This munificence in charity is a comparatively recent trait of Quakerism, & it is as much a demonstration of their secular prosperity as it is the disclosure of their spiritual quality. Through the greater part of their history, they did not impress their contemporaries as conspicuously generous.