HARVEST AMONG MEN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 62, 10 September 1912, Page 2

HARVEST AMONG MEN

CHURCH OF ENGLAND MEN'S SOCIEIY. VISIT OF THE RKV. .f E. WATTSDITCHFIELD.

Evidences of the vitality of the Churclr of England have been numerous in New Zealand of late years, and in the Rev. J. E. Watts-Ditchlield, of London, who arrived here from the south this morning, on a tour of the British Empire on behalf of the Church of England Men's Society, there ' is embodied a remarkable witness of the work the Church' is doing. In a brief conversation with a Post reporter, the evangelist-^for that is what Mr. WattsDitchfield is for the Church — told a little of what the society in the few short years of its existence had already done. Pounded in 1899, it had now 4219 Dranches in various parts of the world, and a total membership of nearly liiU.OOO — all of them communicants. Its presidents are the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York. It was established for the purpose of rallying together the keenest men of the Church for an aggressive policy with regard to work among men. It had been felt that such work had been somewhat neglected &o far as the great masses were concerned. "I do not think," said Mr. Watts-Ditchfield, " that the masses are by any means infidel, but for some reason" or other they have stayed outside the churches and chapels. The society has been a tremendous success— such a society has never been known before in the Church. It brings men together for a common purpose, and adds works to faith." Mr. Watts-Ditchfield has already completed a very successful tour of all the Australian States, and has come up from the Bluff through the South Island. He notices prosperity everywhere, and finds the South very like England, save for the wooden houses. He has addressed meetings of the branches of the society wherever they exist, and conducted mass meetings also, his latest being a great gathering in His Majesty's Theatre at Christchurch last Sunday. He will visit Picton, Nelson, and adjoining districts, returning to Wellington at the week-end, when he will address a mass meeting for men in the Town Hall on Sunday evening.