The Henson Journals

[4]

2nd Sunday after Christmas, January 4th, 1931.

A calm morning. There had been a slight fall of snow during the night.

Charles, Fearne and I motored to Durham, where I preached and celebrated in the Cathedral. There was an unusually small congregation, & (an unprecedented circumstance) no reporter came after the service to beg for the MS of the sermon. I was told that there was a reporter present, so that I may infer that he judged the sermon from his point of view to be not worth reporting!

Indeed there was no 'copy' in it, for I preached from S. Matthew vi. 25. "Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life", and I was solely concerned with the true significance of the Lord's words to ourselves. We returned to Auckland after the service.

I wrote to William.

I finished reading a novel by J. B. Priestley, called "Angel Pavement", which I was induced to read because his previous work, "The Good Companions" had pleased me much. But, though the book was not without great merit, I found it tiresome. Certainly the picture of post–war society, which it professes to present, with almost photographic fidelity, is extremely repulsive. But I am incorrigibly Victorian!

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