THE SCROOGE WHO WOULD NOT GIVE A SUBSCRIPTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 101, 15 December 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE SCROOGE WHO WOULD NOT GIVE A SUBSCRIPTION

"Here is Christmas with vis again—and Christmas is marked by a kind of outburst of beneficence. We give presents to one another. We think of absent friends. We remember our poorer neighbours. It is all very beautiful and delightful when it issues from a loving heart. "But I imagine some people find Christmas more than a bit of a nuisance. As a matter of simple decency, they are bound to do something in. the way of giving. But they cut it down to the barest limit, and what they do they do grudgingly. They get annoyed by the multitude of appeals which Christmas brings with it, even though they do not respond to any of them. Such people know nothing of the fun of Christmas, and such gifts as they make don't carry very much pleasure with them. -*■ "They are in the condition Scrooge was in before the spirits to him—the Scrooge who wouldn't give a subscription to make a happy. Christmas for the poor; the Scrooge who accused Bob Cratchit of robbing him of a day because Christmas Day was a holiday; the Scrooge who called Christmas humbug and who wouldn't go to his nephew's for his Christmas dinner. "But Scrooge, after the visits the spirits, is the man to imitate—the Scrooge who gives with his two* hands, with a certain lavisliness and extravagance; the Scrooge who sen! the prize turkey to Bob Cratehit's, *not the little prize turkey, but the big one'; the Scrooge who gave boy half a crown to go and bring the turkey with him within five min utes; the Scrooge who, meeting the old gentleman whose appeals he had so ruthlessly refused the day before, takes his breath away by the largeness of the subscription he offered: the Scrooge who turned up at his-»"" nephew's after all, and who was at home with everybody in five minutes, and who had such a wonderful party: the Scrooge who, next morning, gave Bob Cratchit such a dig in the ribs as almost sent him staggering into the tank, and said, 'I am" not going to stand this sort of thing any longer, and therefore I am about to raise your salary.' What a Christ-"' mas Scrooge had, and what a Christmas he gave! "For giving is the quality of 'mercy' which comes from the glad heart. 'It is twice blest. It blesses him who gives and him who takes." —From The Inevitable Christ, by the Rev. J.' D. Jones.