ADDRESS TO MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 105, 19 September 1912, Page 4

ADDRESS TO MEN.

REV. J. WATTS-DITCHFIELD. The Rev. J. Watts-Ditchfield, who is touring New Zealand in the interests of the Anglican Church, delivered an impressive address to men in St. Mary's schoolroom last evening. Archdeacon Evans presided over a large attendance. Mr. Watts-Ditchfiekl, who is a powerful speaker, made a frank appeal to his audience to be strong men—men with character. At the outset he delivered impressive greetings from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, who, he said, spoke in the warmest terms of the. work beiny done in this lone outpost, New Zealand. The speaker announced himself as "out from the Old Coutnry," and said he was not ashamed of it. Proceeding, he sought to remove many misconceptions about the state of England. The old church, lie emphasised, was not played out. Never before were men so determined to win old England for Christ. Neither was the old Gospel played out. "We have," "lie said, "the old creed, and we take our stand by the old creed." Christianity, he continued, appealed to jfche intellectual powers of the British race. It was impossible,for anyone who gave the matter serious thought to reject the appeal which Christianity jnade to the individual and to the world. It was Christianity alone that could put the world right. Sneli eminent scientists as Newton, Herschell, Lord Lister, Stokes, and Sir W. Iliggins, amongst others, were men of deep religious convictions; Gladstone and Salisbury, in the political world; leaders of the Bar, social reformers, explorers—all testified by their lives and their work to the value of Christianity as an inspiration to the greatness of achievement. Mr. Balfour was to bo found every Sunday morning in the place of God, while out of forty-two labor members, thirty-two were actually active members of some Christian body. Mr. Watts-Ditch field then went on to make a powerful appeal for men of character. It was the lack of this, and he said this advisedly, that made the Church weak to-day, If a man was a Prime Minister he wae a better Prime Minister because he was a Christian. The same applied to any man, no matter what his walk in life. "Let people," added the speaker, "realise that there is something in Christianity; that Christianity means character!" The true Christian was not the man who sought religion in order to ensure a passport to Heaven, but rather the man who was determined to give his life for other*. Prior to his address, Mr. Watts-Ditch.-field delivered an impressive sermon in St. Mary's before a large congregation.