They say that I am growing old
I've heard them tell it times untold;
But I'm not growing old.
This frail old shell in which I dwell
Is growing old, I know full well—
But I am not the shell.
What if my hair is turning gray?
I still can see to follow Him
Who sacrificed His life for me
Upon the cross of Calvary.
What should I care if time's old plow
Has left its furrows on my brow?
Another house, not made by hand,
Awaits me in the Glory Land.
What though I falter in my walk?
What though my tongue refuse to talk?
I still can't read the narrow way;
I still can watch, and praise, and pray.
My hearing may not be so keen
As in the past it may have been;
Still I can hear my Savior say
In whispers soft, "This is the way.”
The outward man—do what I can
To lengthen out his life's short span—
Shall perish, and return to dust,
As everything in nature must.
The inward man, the Scriptures say,
Is growing stronger every day.
Then how can I be growing old
When safe within my Savior's fold?
Ere long my soul shall fly away
And leave this tenement of clay.
This robe of flesh I'll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize—
I'll meet you on the street, of gold,
And prove that I'm not growing old!
J. E. R.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”