The Henson Journals

[168]

Wednesday, August 1st, 1928.

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The morning post brought a letter from The Bishop of Manchester telling me that he had accepted appointment to the Archbishoprick of York. I wrote him a civil letter.

So the chapter of "preferment" is definitely closed to me, and I must end my career, so far as the hierarchy goes, at my present position. The "Old Adam" in me would like to have had the chance of refusing a primacy, but obviously there is no substance in that "grievance". And I am startled at realizing that my contemporaries put me on one side as passé. They may be right: I incline to think that they are: nevertheless it is alarming to have the fact so clearly affimed. But, indeed, apart from other considerations, Lang's appointment to Canterbury at the age of 64, rendered it almost imperative that a younger man should be appointed to York. It would never do to have the two Sexagenarian primates doddering together in a few years' time! Lang & Temple have been very closely associated in the policy which carried the Enabling Act on to the Statute Book, & they will work easily together.

[169]

O Lord, my God, I humbly pray,

Give me Thy help throughout this day

To speak Thy Word, to know Thy will,

Thy sovereign purpose to fulfil.

And bless, O Lord, my work to me,

And those through whom I work for Thee.

Let not my fault Thy work betray,

Uphold my goings in Thy way;

And when I have tried to do my best

Give me Thy Light and welcome rest.

Bishop Stubbs. Written in 1897. (v. Letters ed. Hutton. p. 309)

We left the Castle at about 2.15 p. m., and motored to Wooler, a distance of 72 miles, in about 3 hours. The maids, who preceded us yesterday, had prepared tea, & we soon established ourselves in our temporary home. It is not without interest that this is the first occasion in the course of my life on which I have hired a house. My holidays have all been taken abroad, or in visiting my friends. The first is too fatiguing, and the last too shackled for my years and 'cussedness'!

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