GIPSY SMITH WELCOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19417, 27 August 1926, Page 12

GIPSY SMITH WELCOME.

FIRST SPEECH TO THE PUBLIC AN APPEAL FOR CO-OPERATION. The noted evangelist, Gipsy Smith, was accorded a public welcome by a crowded audience in the Baptist Tabernacle last evening. The body *of the hall and the gallery were literally packed and many people stood in the passages. Ministers of various denominations welcomed Mr. Smith to Auckland. The Revs. Evan S. Harries, Lionel B. Fletcher, Leonard B. Dalby, J. Lamb Harvey, J. J. North and Ivan S. Stebbins, and Major Myers, of the Salvation Army, and Mr. R. A. Laidlaw, spoke of the visitor's past work and hoped that his mission in Auckland would be equally successful. In a simple speech, interwoven with glimpses of humour, observatibns of sound practical philosophy and an impassioned appeal for help in the work of .his mission, Gipsy Smith replied to his welcome. He told the audience a few anecdotes of his early life among the Romanys and of the results that had attended his preaching. " I want it clearly understood," he continued, "that all my life I have sought honestly to be a friend of the ministry. If I could not go to a town by invitation .of the preachers and churches, I would not go there at all. I want to be the application of your ministry." He considered the Church should be more alive to : the - needs of. the, present day.' Anyone with any senso would decry the: present mad rush after pleasure, but the Ghurch did not realise that in it lay a golden opportunity. •" The world .to-day is hankering, after .God,/' ho said, "and people must find an outlet for it. This is the Church's opportunity to enter." ' • ' ■ ' ' ' ' " This is your mission more than it is mine," the evangelist told the audience. "You live in Auckland; I don't; and you have the moral life of your city to he responsible for,'' Evangelism he considered necessary. Anyone turning up his nose at it was revealing his ignorance, of the Bible, Cod and the history of the Church. "If Ged can take a Gipsy boy from his tent and make him a blessing'to six continents,, then ho can also take someone who is somebody. When a church loses . its evangelical, work, it ceases to be a church." He urged the church members of the audience to co-operate with him in the work of the mission. "I cannot do it all on my own," he said. "The salvation of Auckland is your business. People are going to be influenced by you. They will expect you to be on the job and despise you if you are not.. If you want, a revival, draw a chalk ring round yourself and ask God to begin inside the ring. If you get your own heart right, others will follow. ' Gipsy Smith Will hold a meeting for men in the Baptist Tabernacle at 7.30 this evening, and in the Pitt Street. Methodist Church, Mrs, Young, of his party, will hold a meeting for women. The ministers will meet the evangelist at a luncheon to be held In the Y.M.C.A. , to-day and a meeting will follow for ministers, lay preachers and students.