Widnes Examiner. — 1913-10-25 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

NONCONFORMIST EXAMPLE.  "H a. man comes across any church news in a paper he will pass it over and go on to the next murder."  •'Such weir the -wcirdk of the 'Bev. Arthur Longden, who addressed a meeting of the Warrington and District Church of England Men's Society in the Patten Hall on Saturday evening. Mr. Longden is the -secretary of the ' society for the Northern Provinces, and his remarks were very pointed and inspiring. The Bev. •G. C. Briggs presided over a fair • attendance ormen. The Rector (the Bev. Canon Willis) and other clergy were also present. The CHAIRMAN said he had just returned from the Federation Conference at Cardiff, and the layman who went with "him was Mr. Sinith, of Stockton, Heath. It was the finest and most inspiring thing of tile kind he had ever: been to. Ile thought,' however, that there were rather too • many clergy present at the Conference. He would like More laymen to go, for they wanted to keep that society as muah as possible in the hands of the laity. The object , of that meeting was to make the C.E.M.S. more widely known. They wanted every man in Warrington to know all about it, for it was the finest movement in the Church of England to-day. . (Hear, hear, and applause.) ' There were in' the Warrington and District Federation eight branches, but only two, out of the six Warrington parishes had branches. That. waS 'not. as it should- be for every parish in Warrington' should have its 'branch.  Neglected Church News.  The Rev. ARTHUR LONGDEN gave an interesting address on the C.E:M.S. movement, and said that first of all he must deny what the Chairman had said with regard to the society being a layman's movement. It was the Church of England Men's Society. He was a man, and the society should be for clergy and laity.. If it was , not, he would have nothing more to do with it. If it was not binding clergy and laity together it was missing its object. (Hear, hear.) They had all kinds of tendencies to draw Men away from church, and they must organise if they were going to do any good, and if the Church was going to hold its own.  The Church was holding its own, and the man who said the Church was going downhill was the man wild never looked at Church news in any newspapers. If he did happen to come across any Church items he would pass them ,wer and go on to the next murder or something of that kind. They had got to conyince that man and they could not do that unless Lucy were convinced themselves, which meant !ricy had got to study. How many men in that room really took an interest in Church news, as it came out in the Press? • The reason why there was not more Church news in the weekly and other papers was largely due to Iheir own fault. • They would not give. the. information to the Press; they did not trouble themselves. Prominence was oiven to items of Nonconformist bodies because !hey gave the information sought. The Press was not averse to putting information in, but they in the Church rode the high horse, and thought they could get along by themselves, and they could not. It was not fair to the man in the -street, who read his paper, and was influenced very greatly by what he read. The man who would not' read his Bible. would read his daily paper. They had been tied and bound with hard' and fast schemes 'too long. They wanted to get out of the- ruek, 'and each branch should, consider for itself and utilise that wondePful infinite power which God had given them, which was not given to the Church of England. They could do work amongst men in the workshops and on the football field. They should brace themselves up and go on With faith.