A BIG MISSION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1627, 19 December 1912, Page 9

A BIG MISSION.

EVANGELISATION OF LONDON

The Rev. Martin Anstey, 8.D., M.A., secretary of tho London City Mission, arrived in Wellington on Wednesday, on a visit to his brother, the Hon. John Anstey, M.L.C, of Timaru, accompanied by his wife and daughters. Mr. Anstey and his family travelled as far;as Sydney by the Orient liner Orama, and thence to New Zealand by .the. Ulimaroa.. They wore welcomed at. Melbourne and Sydney by ■the Lord Mayors of these cities," who arranged a reception and -a- special organ recital in .their honour, and placed e motor-car' at. their disposal. Mr. Anstoy is a well-known Biblical) scholar, a member of the Standing Committee of Convocitiou in tho University of London, representing the Faculty of Divinity. Ho lectures for Dr. G. Campbell Morgan at Westminster Chapel, and is a vice-presi-dent of the Bible Teachers' Association. Ho hh<s just completed a standard work on the chronology of the Old Testament, which is to be published next autumn. jTlki London City Mission, of which Mr. A'nstey Has been secretary for tho past six years, has a band of 400 missionaries engaged in' ministering to - the needs of the. suffering poor. in. the slums of London. The chairman is Mr. F. A. Bsvan, arid the committee includes a number of well-known city merchants ■ and distinguished philanthropists. On last Sunday week Mr. Anstey preached at Bathurst Street Baptist Church and 'Pitt Street Congregational Church, Sydney, and on the following Wednesday he attended a welcome meeting at the Sydney City Mission, presided over by Sir James Graham, M.D., a former Mayor of Sydnev. Mr. Anstey remains in New Zealand for tiro or three months. He will be glad of opportunities of preaching and giving information respecting the work of the London City Mission. Last jear 5057 children.were sent to Sunday .schools, 4231 adults' were induced. ..to-..attend public worship, 1417 'converts became "attached 'as Communicants "to churches of all denominations, and 1126 drunkards were reclaimed by-the efforts of the missionaries. Situations were found for 1077 men out of work, 9096 patients were attended at four medical missions, 128,895 free meals were given to destitute children, and 65,340 to adults. The sum of ,£15,261 was deposited during the year in clubs and penny banks connected with the mission. There are 201 mission halls, with an average attendance of 75 per week, 93 Sunday schools, with 1261 teachers and 20,553 scholars, and 102 Bands of Hope, with 11,701 members. The work is entirely unsectarian, one-half of the committee being members of the Church of England, the other half Nonconformists, The work is carried on in close association with the evangelical missionaries' journals, one man alone having been instrumental in saving 22 would-be suicides. Another was used in the conversion of a burglar, whose.jemmy and other tools aio preserved amongst tho trophies of the London City Mission. A number of oonverted thieves were emigrated by the late Earl of Shaftcsbury. Mr. Anstey states that the mission's work is confined to London, but that is a big enough field in all conscience, for if one could take the eighteen next largest cities in Great Britain and bring them all together they would not make another London. Their missionaries, however, followed the Londoners down to the Epsom race's, to the big rowing fetes held between Putney and Mortlake, and to the hop fields of Kent in the hop-pioking season.

Mr. Anstey leaves for the south this evening by the Ulimaroa, and" will stay three or four weeks with his brother at his . place, "Otipua," near Timaru. Although he is out here purely for a holiday, Mr. Anstey is only too ready and willing to epeak on the great work ,he has nearest his heart. It may be that he will deliver an address in Wellington before ho returns to London.