The Henson Journals

[138]

18th Sunday after Trinity, October 16th, 1927.

"He wrote little, but prepared for the press the collected essays 'Virginibus Puerisque', in which he preaches with captivating vigour and grace his gospel of youth, courage, and a contempt for the timidities and petty respectabilities of life.."

v. D. N. B. art. on R. L. S. by Sidney Colwin.

All one's adult life is spent in escaping from that gospel. Youth passes, & carries courage with it. Contempt for 'the timidities and petty respectabilities of life' dies out as experience discloses the reasonableness of the one and the power of the other. We learn the bitter truth of Wordsworth's lines to the child:

Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight,

And custom lie upon thee with a weight,

Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!

The gospel of Duty, very repulsive in youth, but unfolding its charms gradually like an opening flower as the years past, is the only Gospel that can stand the stress & strain of life. And of this truth also Wordsworth is the spokesman, when he frames a man's confession:

Through no disturbance of my soul,

Or strong compunction in me wrought,

I supplicate for thy control;

But in the quietness of thought.

Me this uncharter'd freedom tires;

I feel the weight of chance desires;

My hopes no more must change their name,

I long for a repose that ever is the same.

Did R. L. S. ever grow to understand that gospel?

[139]

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the chapel at 8 o'clock. The Communicants numbered 10 including myself. In the sunshine of a brilliant autumnal morning the chapel looked gloriously beautiful. Surely the possession of such an oratory is no mean privilege.

Bethune–Baker's letter on "Doctrine of the Sacrament" in reply to Bishop Talbot is vehemently expressed, and forms an almost fierce attack on the Revised Prayer Book.

Then I wrote to William, sending him the Report on the Present Status of the Wild Fowl of Europe, and asking him to tell me all he could about the birds and beasts which he encounters in Johannesburg. Also, I wrote to Jimmie.

Ella went with me to Bishopwearmouth, where I preached to a congregation of Freemasons & their wives. The parish church was quite full, even the galleries being filled. Lord Ravensworth read the Lessons, and there was a choir of Freemasons which sang heartily and well. The attention to my sermon was close and sustained, but I doubt whether any good was done by it! After the service we had tea at the Rectory. Lord R thinks that the Revised Prayer Book will pass through Parliament, & promises to be in his place to vote for the Resolution. After tea we returned to Auckland.

[140] [symbol]

The Times (Friday, Oct: 14th 1927) devotes a column headed 'A Parson in a Hurry' to reviewing Dick Sheppard's book, "The Impatience of a Parson", of which copious extracts have already appeared in the Morning Post, and the Manchester Guardian. The review, though civilly expressed, is extremely severe, but not too severe for the reckless rhodomontade which it has to deal with. It is just 20 years since another popular preacher, (who like Sheppard had been exalted by his admirers to an importance all together out of proportion to his knowledge, his character, or his ability,) published a similar book. R. J. Campbell's "Christianity and the Social Order" disclosed a larger range of reading, a superior intelligence, and a more terrestrial interest than those which have inspired the similar volume of Dick Sheppard, but it represents the same catastrophe. Both men's heads have been turned by their popularity, of which they have been too vain to discern the utterly factitious character. Both men illustrate the career of a modern version of Charles Honeyman, for such is verily the career of a fashionable London preacher. The nonconformist soon came to earth woefully, his Icarus–wings melted very quickly under the sun of criticism: the Anglican, whose equipment is even slighter, will not sustain a longer flight.