A FEW months ago I wanted to get an easy-chair re-caned, and was directed to an old man in charge of the lighthouse, about a mile distant from where I live. On his bringing the work home we had the opportunity of a little chat together. He told me he had had the care of the lighthouse for just twenty years, and that during all that time he had not gone to bed at night. Part of his duty was also to cross the river and light the large lamp at the end of the pier, and sometimes when it blew hard, the waves would roll over so strongly that he could not get to it.
Having lighted the lamps he sheltered himself in a little wooden hut on the beach, which in the cold of winter occasioned him much pain from rheumatism.
This brave old man of eighty years of age, seeing he was getting old, and thinking he might have to give up the charge of the lighthouse, set to work, and learned the trade of chair-mending when he was seventy-seven, so that he might earn his own bread.
“Well, as you have plenty of time for reflection at night, what are your thoughts of Him who is the Light of the world, and of yourself, for very soon, perhaps, your lamp of life will go out?” said I, after hearing my old friend’s story.
The old man’s face brightened up into a happy smile, and his eyes seemed to lose their dimness, as he said, “I am justified through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for me and put away my sins. The Lord gives me strength to work by day, and to perform my duties by night.”
What a lesson this old man teaches us! He had many privations, much bodily suffering, and domestic troubles, but he was happy in his Saviour’s love, and lived in the faith of being justified through the blood of the Redeemer.
Let us, old or young, learn to put on a cheerful courage, looking to the Lord for guidance and counsel, being able to say with the Apostle Paul, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” VICTOR.