The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1900-09-19 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

COLLECTION AT THE Y.M.C.A. On Sunday last a P.I3A. was heat in the Y.M.C.A. Hall, Grange-road, at which the Birkenhead Poets] Band attended, and a collection was made for the widow of the late Mr. George Fell, who was a regular attendant at the services. Mr. Procter presided, and said: that they met under somewhat special circumstances. They were in the presence of a deep sorrow, a sorrow which affected the whole township. The meeting was •a practical expression of Christian sympathy, with the murdered- man. Mr. W. H. Balaton delivered an address, after-some pleaaing-selecticme had been given by the band. In choosing the text—" He. that is without sin amongst you, let him cast the first stone at her "—Mr. Balaton said he had chosen the text, not with the. object of attempting to expound it, but because it contained the spirit of his address. He did not use the recent tragedy as an. illustration to gratify morbid curioeity- nor to improve the occasion, but because he felt there were lessons of the deepest importance for all to learn from it. They were MX/04lb, and rightly so, that 'the perpetrator, or perpetrators, of the crime should be brought speedily to justice, but there was another' side to the question—" People who lived in glass-houses should not throw stones." Some might feel indignant when told that, but for certain circumstances any man present might sink as low as the murderer. This fact was clearly shown by such scriptures as "The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, &c.," and it was also proved by everyday experience. The higher qualities of man were often discovered only through special circumstances. A man might be ignorant of ' his courage until suddenly called upon to• risk his life to save a fellow creature. The present war had been full of noble deeds , born of the occasion, and in the same manner man's baser proclivities were shown and developed by circumstances. Many were honest because they had never been put to a severe test, and when that came they Sailed. He also instanced the case of young men going down step by step because of -drink, bad company, Asc., and because that, when their testing time Caine, they had nothing but their own will to trust to. The seeds of evil were in every heart, and, if allowed to grow, no one could say to what lengths of sin a man might go. If these ;things weretrue, two thoughts must present themselves—" What I have done." "What I may-yet do." Some deeds of the past row up -before them. They thought the memory was gone, but now they stood out clearly in all their ugliness, and they said "How can I obliterate it?" When the murderer had expiated his crime, the law had no further. claim upon him. Jesus Christ had expiated our crime, and God was now willing to wipe out our past. As to the future, Jesus Christ ascended to heaven,, so that the Holy, Spirit might be -sent to us. At theconchiaion of thediervice all present stood up, the band playing the " Dead `March "- in Saul, making a most impressive scene. The amount of the collection was a .15s. 7d.  and