THE SCROOGE WHO WOULD NOT GIVE A SUBSCRIPTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 32, 14 December 1945, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE SCROOGE WHO WOULD NOT GIVE A SUBSCRIPTION

"Here is Christmas with us once again—and Christmas, is marked by a kind of outburst of benetieenee. We give presents to one another. We think of absent friends. Wc remember our poorer neighbours. ] is all very beautiful and delightfu. when it issues, from a loving heart. "But I imagine some people iind 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 i they do they do grudgingly. They get annoyed by the multitude of appeals which Christmas brings with 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 appeared 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 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 oi the spirits is the man to imitate— the Scrooge who gives, with his two hands, with a certain Lavish ness and extravagance; the Scrooge who sent the prize turkey to Bob CratchitV not the little prize turkey but the big one; the Scrooge who gave the boy half a crown to go and bring the turkey with him within live minutes; the Scrooge who } meeting the old gentleman whose appeals he had so ruthlessly refused tlje 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 live minutes and who had sucli a wonderful y party; the -Scrooge. who ? next morngave Bob Cratchit such a dig in the ribs as almost sent him staggering into the tank and said 'I am ° 9 7

not going to stand this sort of thing any and therefore I am about to raise your salary.' What a Christmas Scrooge had, and what a Christmas he gave I • "For giving is the quality of 'mercy' which come.s from the glad heart. It is twice blest. It blesses him who gives and hiira who takes." —From The Inevitable Christ by the Rev. J. D. Jones.