Monday, Jul. 06, 1931
Worthy Primate, Modest Giver
"And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
"And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
"And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them,'Verily I say unto yon, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
"For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in : that she had, even all her living."
Mark--12 : 41-44.
No widow's mite was the $10,000,000 which Manhattan's Edward Stephen Harkness gave to British charity (TIME, Oct. 6. 1930). This gift caused George V and Queen Mary to receive Mr. and Mrs. Harkness tete-a-tete (TIME, June 22). Last week at a luncheon in the Great Giver's honor Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England, did his bit.
"We admire not so much the extent and value of Mr. Harkness' benefactions," sonorously intoned the Primate, "as the spirit in which they are fulfilled. We have in mind the man behind the gift."
Dr. Lang is the sort of man who would rather have a pious widow's mite than $10,000,000 not given in the proper spirit. The Archbishop would live meanly among the poor, were he not obliged to live sumptuously at Lambeth Palace. The Primate would sail to Jerusalem in a fishing smack like St. Peter's, did not J. P. Morgan insist upon taking him there on the Corsair (TIME, March 16).
Mr. Harkness is a man who almost never says anything to the public. Re- sponding to Dr. Lang last week, while Poet Rudyard Kipling looked on and nodded approval, the Great Giver said:
"When I remember the very eminent men whom you have entertained and some of the splendid addresses you have listened to I only wish it was within my power to follow in their footsteps and say something which might be of profit to you to hear. But as nature has withheld this gift from me, I content myself with telling you how very glad I am to be here, how very pleased I am to have been entertained by you, and to thank you from the bottom of my heart."
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.