If the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, how he must hate the taxpayer!

Holmes twists a familiar biblical maxim—“the Lord loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7, KJV)—into a sardonic comment on compulsory taxation. The joke hinges on the contrast between voluntary charity, which can be offered gladly, and taxes, which are extracted regardless of willingness. By implying that a taxpayer is the opposite of a “cheerful giver,” the line satirizes the moral rhetoric sometimes used to justify public levies, suggesting that coerced giving cannot claim the same spiritual or ethical virtue as freely chosen generosity. The epigram’s bite comes from its mock-theological logic: if God loves the cheerful giver, then the resentful, compelled payer must be especially disfavored.