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They were fed, they were housed, and, indeed, they were loved, all to a point adequate to equip a young man or woman with reasonable armor against the vast and unpredictable battles for the souls of youth.
and run home to tell his parents, which they always encouraged (“’tis not boasting to tell Mum and Dad!”),
Indeed, there is reasonable argument that pride is itself the seedbed of all other sins.
“Love must have its limit! It cannot possibly cover all I have done.” He looked up to the spirit, vulnerability etching his features. The spirit had compassion in his eyes as he said, “Love’s purpose is not to hide our errors. Love’s purpose is to forgive them. That is very different.”
“Jacob,” he said imploringly, “every day of your life we called to you.”
“Jacob, this was a chance. Had Ebenezer just listened for a moment, had he let one ice crystal on that frozen heart thaw enough, he might have given just a shilling to get them out, and in so doing experienced a speck of the joy of giving, which might have led to something more.”
“That caroler, he was prompted too?” “He was,” the spirit said. “Are spirits so involved in men’s lives?” Marley asked. “Mankind is involved in men’s lives. We only help them know how.”
“Spirit, I am no longer a believer in coincidence,” Jacob confessed.
If we do nothing but to remove a rock upon which someone might have tripped, though they may never know we did it, is this not our cause, our reason for life?
But if I were to give her food and clothing and a home, what would be required of you?”
And yet, for all the majesty of the creations of brilliant men, he felt, this moment, that he had never seen anything so masterful, so complete, so elegant as the unity of this little poor family in this nondescript home in Camden Town. His entire life, he had marveled with disapproval at how the destitute allowed life to assault them. Yet this, here, this alone was life! This was the heartbeat for which the rest of the world existed.
And to this day, when we find ourselves in the right place at the right time to assist a poor wayfarer on the path of life, a moment’s pause may recall the story of good old Scrooge and good old Marley, and our hearts may be softened, we may stop to listen, and we may even offer a hand of kindness to the one who just happens, by some circumstance, to cross our path.
