The Henson Journals

[167]

Saturday, March 22nd, 1930.

A brilliant morning, very welcome to the soul, I meditated while dressing on the wisdom of setting out in the next "Bishoprick" my views as to the folly of extending our parochial & diocesan machinery while our resources of men & money are plainly inadequate, and some measure of disendowment cannot be far distant. I wd emphasize the unwisdom of persisting in an ordering of the Church which pre–supposes a settled community, & the enormous degradation of our spiritual life caused by obsession with raising money which our present course involves. I wd urge the importance of directing all our efforts towards securing these ^four^ principal ends. (i) better payment for the clergy. Both recruitment and efficiency are endangered by the present low–level of clerical income. (ii) elasticity in the system. Sinking great sums in creating new bishopricks & parishes is bad business. (iii) ending the hopeless effort to maintain the dual system of schools. The cause of religious education could be better served by establishing friendly relations between the clergy & the State system. (iv) improving the education of the clergy, & removing the lowering factor of "charity" from the process.

[168]

I spent the morning in preparing notes for an address to the Freemasons of Stockton. For my subject I took the following:– "The modern Russian Persecution of Religion and the ancient Roman Persecution of Christianity – a parallel and a contrast". It would merit really careful treatment, but I can do ̭no̭ more than set them thinking.

Then I wrote to Wynne–Willson about Xan's Ordination. The lad really seems to have made up his mind to be ordained in Advent 1931.

Pattinson and I walked round the park during the afternoon. Everything bright & springlike.

Mr and Mrs Guthrie–Smith, relatives of Ella, came for the week–end, having motored from Scotland. They reported much snow on the high ground.

I wrote to Lord Darling, expressing appreciation of his verses on 'A. J. B.' which appeared in the Times on Thursday. He has a good literary taste and a great facility. These suffice for the smaller achievements of "poetry".

[169]

The Effects of a Dole. (Times. March 22nd 1930)

'Here is an amusing anecdote which has a very practical, present–day moral. It was told me the other day by a humourous [sic] old Scot, who was my cicerone when visiting the Union Government buildings at Pretoria. Some Cabinet Ministers received a deputation of the unemployed, and after a little discussion promised them a measure of State assistance. Senator 'Sammy' Marks was in the room, & when the deputation had left the Prime Minister turned to him, & hoped that it was all right. Mr Marks had his doubts. "The Lord gave the children of Israel manna in the wilderness, and they were there 40 years: had He not done so they would have been across it in 40 days."

Sir Bamfylde Fuller.

This story may stand with that told me in Harvard about the squirrels which, liberally fed by the students, have ceased to store up nuts for the winter. The Professor of Political Economy was wont to adduce them as impressive examples of the ill effects of indiscriminate almsgiving.

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