A Word to the Aged.
It is comparatively rare to meet with any whose years exceed the allotted span of threescore and ten. Even when fourscore has been attained, "their pride is labor and vanity." These rare exceptions to early mortality only prove how death reigns, and that the days of the creature are "few and evil."
When sojourning one summer in the country we heard of a very old man, said to have seen more than a century in this scene. Our host made casual mention of him while helping to carry our baggage into his farmhouse. I at once asked: "Is he safe on the Rock?"
The farmer, however, could not answer for that, neither had he an answer as to his own security from the storms of God's wrath soon to be poured out on this Christ-rejecting world. So, as "ambassadors for Christ" we felt a responsibility towards him as well as a great desire to see and question his aged neighbor.
Our opportunity came in a few days. On a clear summer afternoon we set out to find the old man. His home was on a humble farm; and as we neared the dwelling we saw a bent form standing at the house-end, leaning Jacob-like upon a staff. "That," said my friend, "must be the object of our search." As we approached he saluted us in answer to my call, and we could not but feel deep respect as we looked upon him.
What an object for pity! Trembling limbs, bent shoulders, toothless gums, dim eyes—the epitome of the old man of Ecclesiastes 12:33In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, (Ecclesiastes 12:3). He had lived here all his life, and was reputed to be one hundred and two years old. In time past he had been a strong, active man; and until the previous winter he could walk to the nearby town and back, a distance of eight miles. But he had fallen on the ice and broken his leg— his only experience of being confined to bed, for he had never known sickness.
The old man's days on earth now were evidently few, and my comrade urged me to put an all-important question to him. With my hands cupped to form a megaphone, I shouted, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
"Aye, aye!" was the response.
"Do you know Him as your Savior?"
The dull ears caught the glad sound. Never can we forget the answer as, with the tears welling from the almost sightless eyes, he cried: "Blessed Jesus, what would I do without Him?"
The tears filled our eyes too as my friend exclaimed: "There's no doubt about him. He is 'on the Rock.’”
After shouting some scriptures into his ears to cheer the aged pilgrim on his way, we received from him a hearty "Thank you, thank you for these words; nobody speaks to me about Him here." We bade him farewell till the day we shall meet him in the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming.
You who are growing old, how is it with your souls? The wise King Solomon wrote that "the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness." What a crown of shame when found in the way of sin and death! Sorrow only for you, my reader, if hoary in the service of the devil, and white in the pursuit of the baubles which the god of this world has been setting as lures before you.
Oh, hasten then to Jesus, while yet your lamp of life holds on to burn. Soon must "the silver cord be loosed, the golden bowl be broken, the pitcher be broken at the fountain, the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit"—your never-dying spirit—must give an account to God. (Eccl. 12:6, 76Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. 7Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:6‑7).)