The Henson Journals

[70]

Saturday, February 14th, 1931.

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A bright day, but still very cold. I wasted much of the day in collecting materials for an answer to the Dean's questions about Richards. There can be no reasonable doubt that "residence" implies occupancy of the prebendal house, & that it must extend to at least 3 months in the year.

In the afternoon I motored to Sedgefield, & called on Lord Thurlow. He is clearly mending, but will certainly not be equal to his full duty for many weeks yet.

Somebody sends me a slim volume by Westcott – "From Strength to Strength. Three Sermons on Stages in a Consecrated Life", inscribed "to the Memory of Joseph Barber Lightfoot". A marker is placed at a passage in which Westcott's enthusiastic "nationalism" finds eloquent expression. But the sermon which includes it was preached as long ago as 1889. In the interval of more than 40 years which has elapsed, the whole aspect of the world has changed, changed for the worse. It is impossible to believe that Westcott or Lightfoot would have counselled acquiescence in the present bondage of the Church of England to the House of Commons. They would have been the protagonists of opposition.

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