The Random Thoughts of Henry Holloway
Any woman will tell you that a man is just a boy at heart. ‘Why, for goodness sake, look at the way the father plays with John’s toys! When father takes ill, why sure he has to be nursed and coddled like a youngster.’
Well, that’s how the women put it. Between ourselves, men, I think the women like us that way. They’d be lost if they hadn’t somebody to fuss about. Frankly, I think, they are more concerned than we men are about trying to keep that boyishness.
Tell me, do you pinch the youngster’s comics when they come into the house? I imagine there is hardly a house into which the comics do not come. We don’t really read them, of course, we just pick them up to look at them.
I have seen a good many different types of comics, some good and some not so good, and some, like the curate’s egg, good in parts. Have you ever noticed that one of the most popular ideas in most of the comics is a boy or girl who is always getting into mischief? There is Dennis the Menace; there is Beryl the Peril; there is Calamity Jane, and I don’t know how many more of their kind there may be. I think we like these characters because they are so true to life; because, if you like there is a little bit of the ‘devil’ in all of us. A film caught my eye some time ago. It was ‘The Enemy Within.’ I think that just about describes our situation. Jesus once went through the whole catalogue of human folly and wickedness and He said that it all came from within - out of the heart of man. It doesn’t make pleasant reading to be reminded that in our very hearts there are dangerous and dark forces of evil, threatening our souls and threatening to blast the lives of others. It is a sobering thought to think that we live with a time-bomb in our hearts especially if the fuse hasn’t been taken out.
A lot of people are inclined to be like Dennis the Menace and let the ‘devil’ loose. Like Huckleberry Finn, they say, ‘What’s the use of doing what’s right, when it’s so easy to do what’s wrong?’ You could, of course, say what Paul said: ‘I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.’
Talking about angels one day, a little girl, Pamela, said: ‘There are angels in Revolutions. “Oh, no!’ said her companion. ‘It’s not ‘revolutions’ it’s ‘Revelations’. Resolutions is what we have at the New Year.’ Well, it strikes me that if that devil inside us is not to get on top, we must have some kind of revolution.
A young man once went to meet a young lady coming from church. He was new to London and didn’t know where to go exactly and there were two churches close to each other; one of them was the Church of All Saints and the other was the Church of the Holy Innocents. He saw a congregation coming out of a church and went to a policeman ‘Tell me,’ said he, ‘Are these All Saints or Holy Innocents?’ They’re neither,’ said the policeman, ‘they’re Methodists.’ No, we are not all saints; and in a world like this there are few of us who could be called innocent. But I like to remind myself that there is a power that takes the sinner and makes him into a saint.
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