From President Thomas S. Monson
As we remember that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God,"
we will not find ourselves in the unenviable position of Jacob
Marley’s ghost, who spoke to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s
immortal Christmas Carol. Marley spoke
sadly of opportunities lost. Said he: “Not to know that any Christian
spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will
find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to
know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity
misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!”
Marley added:
“Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned
down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men
to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have
conducted me!”
Fortunately, as we know, Ebenezer Scrooge changed his life for the better. I love his line, “I am not the man I was.
Why is Dickens’s Christmas Carol
so popular? Why is it ever new? I personally feel it is inspired of
God. It brings out the best within human nature. It gives hope. It
motivates change. We can turn from the paths which would lead us down
and, with a song in our hearts, follow a star and walk toward the light.
We can quicken our step, bolster our courage, and bask in the sunlight
of truth. We can hear more clearly the laughter of little children. We
can dry the tear of the weeping. We can comfort the dying by sharing the
promise of eternal life. If we lift one weary hand which hangs down, if
we bring peace to one struggling soul, if we give as did the Master, we
can—by showing the way—become a guiding star for some lost mariner.May We So Live
