SERMONS BY WIRELESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18635, 29 April 1924, Page 8

SERMONS BY WIRELESS

OLD-FASHIONED EVANGELIST "GIPSY" SMITH'S MISSION. Sensational tactics or the emotional appeal do not find favour with Captain " Gipsy " Pat Smith, the Scottish evangelist, who arrived at Auckland by the R.M.S. Niagara yesterday to start his New Zealand campaign. "I ana an oldfashioned, plain evangelist, and I believe in the quiet, earnest appeal," said Captain Smith, yesterday. "If a man .disagrees with me it is not for me to say he is bound for the hot place. He is entitled to disagree." Captain Smith, who is young and alert, mentioned that at the time of his conversion ho was a rough gipsy lad in Glasgow, where he was born. He has since done considerable evangelistic work in England and the United States, and is now making his first visit to these southern lands. He has a special interest m Australia, for he was closely associated with the Australian troops in the North of France, and became so much attached to these men that he has since had a desire to see the land that produced them. The evangelist had something to say about the tremendous vogue of wireless in America, and the uses to which it is put. While in Los Angeles he spoke at meetings which were attended by over 200,000 people, and besides this vast audience his message was carried to many thousands more by means of a broadcast system. At one meeting he asked wireless enthusiasts who were listening-in to his address to write to him telling him of the success of the plan, confining his appeal to those 1000 or more miles away. He received well over 400 messages, and from Philadelphia, approximately 3GOO miles distant, ' came a "letter announcing that the talk had ' been clearly received, and enclosing 500 dollars toward the work of the mission. Captain Smith will spend three weeks in Auckland, and will then go to Wellington, after which he will continue his mission in Australia, where his engagements will occupy about four months. He will then return to England, and will later go to South Africa on a seven months' mission. Since' leaving England in December last Captain .Smith has travelled 21,850 miles.