The Mansion

This is a must read every year at Christmas right along with Dicken's Christmas Carol.

This book is short and easy to read quickly. It presents a message on charity that reminds us of the true spirit. Mansion has good advice in an entertaining novel on how we are able to grow from our acts of charity.

If every boy and every girl in the world were to grow into maturity believing in, and practising, the ideals set forward in this story, much of sorrow would disappear; violence, civil disorder, and war would be almost impossible, and a new era would have come. The story sets forth nothing new; it emphasizes century-old ideals of kindliness, sympathy, and self-sacrifice.

I inherited this book 13 years ago. Since that time, I have incorporated it into my thinking on a daily basis. The significant point of the story is "What Counts, That which is truly given; Only that good that is done for the love of doing it; Only those plans in which the wellfare of others is the master thought; Only those labors in which the sacrifice was greater than the reward. And only those gifts in which the giver forgets himself" This insight has enabled me to find comfort over my daily bread.