The Henson Journals

[188]

Friday, August 10th, 1928.

A fine morning, but, perhaps, not very promising. The noise of passing motors is disagreeably audible in this house, for the interval between the road & the house, though amply sufficient to guarantee quiet in the old days of horse transport is now hopelessly inadequate.

I received the Oxford Diocesan Magazine with an Article by the Bishop on the Crisis. It agrees substantially with what I have written in the Bishoprick. I wrote to thank him.

I met Jack Clayton at the station in the afternoon, and we spent the time till dinner talking in the garden. Fearne rang me up on the telephone to say that Ella and she had reached Auckland Castle in safety, that they were tired, & would, therefore, not arrive until tomorrow.

Jack & I had much talk. It is evident that he has established himself in Salisbury, as he did in Durham, in the affectionate regard of everybody with whom he comes in contact, that there also this sentiment is mingled with a certain amusement and the little old–fashioned archaisms of speech & manner, which he affects, & that these innocent affectations are beginning to amuse also himself. His considerable ability & astonishing unselfishness are rather emphasized than obscured by his occasional absurdities.

[189] [symbol]

Recent experience, as surprising as it is untoward, has compelled English Churchmen to think about the Church, its origin, character, constitution, function and destiny. Is the Christian Religion separable from the Church in idea and in fact? Can we contemplate a Churchless Christianity? Is the Church a Divine Creation? or is it a human organisation, the creature of circumstance, & the servant of secular interests? How far is its Ordered Government an original element of its life? What is its true function in human society? What is its ultimate future? Is it a passing phenomenon? or is it an integral part of an eternal Purpose of God? Such questions, or some of them, are to be discussed in the Congress which begins its Sessions today. Here it must suffice to indicate the relevance and value of the appeal to that Apostolic Version of the Revelation of God in Christ, which must be for the members of the Apostolic Church final. Against the suggestion of ecclesiastical history and the insistent pressure of current opinion reinforced by the evident balance of material advantage we set the witness of the Apostles, disclosing to us the Mind of Christ, and we can be in no doubt as to the answers which the questions we have propounded must receive.