The Henson Journals

[14]

12th Sunday after Trinity, September 7th, 1930.

[Symbol]

We went to the morning service at the parish church. This was several miles distant from the house, a circumstance by no means unusual in Scotland, where the great size of the Parishes has had considerable effect on the social & ecclesiastical life of the people. There was a congregation of about 100 men, women, & children, of whom rather more than one fifth were men, and about three fifths women. The fewness of the children struck me as remarkable, the more since a little sermonette (which was for its purpose admirable) was specially addressed to them after the first lesson. This is an American practice of doubtful value. The sermon itself from "the comfortable words of our Saviour Christ" which concludes the 11th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, was delivered, so far as I could see from the Gallery, without notes. The preacher's voice & manner were impressive, but his discourse was sentimental and his delivery too dramatic for my cold & cynical taste. Still the congregation listened with close attention, & appeared to be impressed. The minister was a tall dark man, with a hook nose, a deep vibrant voice, and a scholar's stoop. He spoke with a strong Scottish accent, so strong that I found it even difficult to understand him.

[15]

[symbol]

The local minister, not of the parish but of Dalton which is nearer, Mr Knowles, an unctuous rather servile bachelor, came to lunch with his sister. He did not share my surprize at the notion that £350 sufficed for the income of a parish minister, for he said that the normal amount was no more than £300. He seemed to resent my suggestion that the Church of Scotland was in no effective sense established, but he failed to offer any reason for his resentment. The fact is, that the exorbitant vanity of this nation, nowhere so exorbitant as in respect to the "national" kirk, does not allow these Presbyterians to acknowledge that the principal factor in their successful achievement of "autonomy" in "Establishment" is the political insignificance of Scotland. "De minimis non curat Parliamentum" [Parliament is not concerned with trifles]. Who cares what is done or said in the Scottish churches?

The case of the Church of England is far otherwise. Bound organically into the constitution, & socially considerable throughout the country, the Church of England, even in these days of triumphant secularism, is interesting and important to vast bodies of Englishfolk, who have ceased to hold its doctrines, do not respect its traditions, nor attend its services. This is, indeed, our present difficulty.

[16]

[symbol]

There came to tea a party of relatives & neighbours of our hostess. Among them, was a weather–beaten soldier, halting on his legs, & somewhat hard of hearing. General Woodward, a man who had done much service & during the Great War, held important appointments. He interested me, not least by the evident horror of war. He expressed indignation at the glib references to 'another war' which are now often made by those who either escaped the terrific experiences of the recent conflict, or had been born too late to share in its burden. 'When I reflect on what I myself witnessed and went through', he said, "I cannot endure such language." He told me that he had received the injury to his legs through exposure to a blizzard in the Dardanelles. The temperature fell suddenly no less than 65⁰, so that he had to endure the severity of a mid–winter climate when clothed in his lightest summer garb. "We often had to bury soldiers with their rifles, since these were frozen so hard to the man's hands that they could not be detached". He said that the men were only able to go on, by being, so to say, dehumanized. They lost touch with reality, & were in fact actually mad.

---