The Henson Journals

[19]

Tuesday, April 16th, 1929.

PAU to BIARRITZ

There was much rain in the night, & the day began with a clouded sky. The weather has become distinctly warmer.

Eaton–Smith told the following to illustrate the difficult thesis that the late President Wilson did possess a sense of humour. In a small dinner party at which both the President and the relator of the incident were president present, the latter, a waggish fellow, finding the situation dull, sought to improved it by an anecdote. "Do you know this story, Mr. President?' he inquired. My brother, crossing the Atlantic, noticed a rather pompous traveller, from whom he thought he would "get a rise". So, approaching him, he said, "Excuse me, sir, but are you a Christian?" The answer was equally prompt & disconcerting. "Go to hell, Sir". Returning to his companions, he was urged to renew his attempt, and did so. "I have already given you your answer, Sir, & I repeat it, Go to hell'. 'But, Sir, you must have misunderstood my question, it was this (speaking very distinctly) 'are you a Christian?'

[20]

'Eh, what, Sir, says the other starting up. I am a little hard of hearing, I misunderstood you. I thought you said, Are you from Princeton?' Wilson, who had been himself a rather notorious head of Princeton University, lay back in his chair, & roared with laughter.

Then the horror of packing, and the terrifying experience of paying the bill. The account, though formidable, was less so than my fears had suggested. The 4 days at Pau actually cost no more than the 3 days at Carcassonne. We journeyed without any discomfort to Biarritz, where we arrived at 1.15 p.m. The Hotel Victoria is well–placed, and our rooms command a view of the sea. On getting in to them, I counted my money, and found that I had 3200 f. in notes which, at the present exchange, may be worth pounsign23, and notes in English for £16.10.0. In addition there is fifty pounds worth of Cook's credit notes, a grand total of £89.10.0. This ought to suffice to carry us back to Auckland Castle by the 26th. But surprises are infinite!

[21]

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BIARRITZ

Is Lourdes a legitimate development Christ's Gospel? or is it a base corruption growing rankly in the soul of a Religion which has become a superstition like a poisonous fungus on a dying oak? Is it more repulsive, morally and spiritually, than the screaming fervour of our corybantic zealots? Is the eager market in objets de piété which proceeds at Lourdes, & the vast machinery of advertisement by which it is maintained, really distinguishable in moral quality from the commercialised evangelism of America, so cruelly pictured in "Elmer Gantry"? Are these hateful phenomena of debased religion, Popish and Protestant, intrinsically worse than the preferment–hunting & "quiet worldliness" of the English Establishment? Taking the notorious scandals of ecclesiastical Christianity in all its historic varieties, and setting them over against the demure prosperity, the supercilious Pharisaism, & the muffled mundanity of Plymouth Brethren & Quakers, can we finally adjudge the one to be clearly superior in spiritual worth to the other? "Well, is the thing we see, Salvation?"

[22]

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The jingling of the coins in Iscariot's bag has been more audible than the bitter weeping of S. Peter throughout the centuries, & S. Peter has been more often followed in his apostasy than in his repentance. At least the universality of Christian failure demonstrates the folly of seeking some secular ordering for Christ's Religion which shall guarantee it against hypocrisy. Whatever spiritual triumphs have been gained by the Gospel must always be seen in a setting of scandal. Warnings against 'filthy lucre' were needed even in the first days when its gaining was often seasoned by the bitter herbs of persecution. What wonder then that cupidity and ambition have taken monstrous forms in the 'piping times' of the Church's worldly success? 'We have the treasure in earthen vessels'. And, of course, the scandals do not constitute the whole verdict of history on the Religion of Jesus. The 'marks of Jesus' have never been wholly absent from 'His Body, the Church'. Nor even in the confused & shadowed annals of the individual disciple has the witness of the Spirit been altogether imperceptible.

[23]

After arranging our possessions in our room, we walked into the town, & admired the spectacle of the ocean, which was breaking on the shore with much minatory emphasis. We had tea in the large hotel, hardly the light–house, which the golfers frequent, & then returned to the Hotel Victoria & wrote letters. I wrote to Lord Darling enclosing a letter from Ella to Di, asking them to visit us this year. Also I wrote to the Dean of Westminster.

The Times of yesterday reports a speech of the Abp. of York on the Education Question. He appears to endorse the old obsolete policy (so dear to our fanatical ancients) of "holding on to the Church Schools". I had expected something better from him, but I begin to think that, like his father, he is "a [?] painted to look like iron". After dinner I wrote to him on the subject. Birrell has a letter on the front page of the Times exulting on the endorsement of his educational policy by Lord Eustace Percy's strange encomium on the 'Cowper –Temple' arrangement.

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