Have you ever encountered a real "Scrooge"? I'm speaking about a negative, critical, carping, demanding, selfish person who cannot stand to see other people happy and enjoying life. You remember that the original Scrooge was a figment of the imagination of Charles Dickens, the great English author. Out of the imaginative mind of Dickens comes "A Christmas Carol" whose main character is one, Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Dickens calls, "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!"

As Dickens unfolds the story of Scrooge, we see him at various stages of his life: Christmas Past, Christmas Present, Christmas Future. Eventually, old Ebenezer came to his senses and was marvelously converted and became a man of good works.

I believe there were other "Scrooges" long bef…