75.

The Evening of Life.

What means this knocking at my gate?
A stranger old and thin
Lingers without—as it grows late,

Should I not call him in ?

Yes, call him in without dismay,
His looks are like thine own;
Who knows but he may force his way,
If once impatient grown ?

And call I will, though man and maid
Grow pale, and hold their breath:
My boding heart the truth hath said;
It is-it is-friend DeaTH!

ISA. xxxviii. 1. "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live."

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OOD cause has he for gratitude to whom the Lord sends such a messenger, saying, "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die ;" and this is the lot of all, excepting those who are cut off in the midst of their years. For let a man gradually grow old, and how many messengers, one after another, arrive, admonishing him to set his house in order! Says not the proverb,

"Age, like a well-bred man, before

He enters the house, knocks at the gate,
Knocks at the window, knocks at the door,
Cries at all corners, 'Hark, I wait!'"

Alas for him who grows old without growing wise, and to whom the future world does not set open her gates when he

is excluded by the present! The Lord deals so graciously with us in the decline of life, that it is a shame to turn a deaf ear to the lessons which He gives. The eye becomes dim, the ear dull, the tongue falters, the feet totter, all the senses refuse to do their office, and from every side resounds the call, "Set thine house in order, for the term of thy pilgrimage is at hand." The playmates of youth, the fellow-labourers of manhood, die away, and take the road before us. Old age is like some quiet chamber, in which, disconnected from the visible world, we can prepare in silence for the world that is unseen.

There is nothing more forbidding than to see an aged person who refuses to give up a world which yet is giving up him. Even the unsanctified mind feels this conduct to be most unnatural; although, doubtless, if a man have his treasure in this world only, his heart will also be where his treasure is. How then, O Lord, shall I express my grateful sense of Thy mercy, in having given me the assurance of an inheritance in heaven, and redeemed me from the bondage of this perishing world? Oh how wretched-how unspeakably wretchedshould I be, if at this time of life I had still my God to seek! It is hard for the old to undergo conversion and reform their ways. Even old age, perhaps, may have strength enough left to deplore the vain courses of the past; but to enter upon a new path, and steadily and resolutely pursue it, must be difficult for the old indeed. Justly, therefore, does the preacher say: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Or 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. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." 1

Even this, however, is not all; for how impoverished should I feel if left in my silent, solitary hours, destitute of all my treasured recollections of God's gracious dealings towards me

1 Eccles. xii. 1-7.

during the long pilgrimage of life! If we can look behind us upon a vast extent of way, whose many thorny places and mountains and precipices we have safely traversed with a hold of the divine hand, we are then enabled, with cheerfulness and confidence, to look forward also to the hour when we shall have to cross the last deep gulf. A thousand trials have made us familiar with the hand, which will then also uphold us, and thus we muster courage for the final onset.

"O death! how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, to him that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things; yea, unto him that is yet able to receive meat," saith the son of Sirach.1 Yes; and by what expedients do such men try to overcome thy bitterness? Oh! when I see them, like some beaten foe who retreats from fence to fence behind the last intrenchment -driven now from the joyous revelry of youth, and anon from manhood's keen enjoyments, until they are reduced at last to solicit a faint gratification from stimulating, perhaps, a languid palate-oh! when I see them, like the worm which cleaves to the withered leaf, feeding on the wan and shadowy remembrance of days never to return, and trying whether it may do them any good to forget that which they now no more can change, how do I then, with my whole soul, exclaim, Thanks be to Jesus Christ, my Lord, who hath delivered me from the bondage of this corruptible world! The poet says,

"Taught by some impulse from on high, men's minds

Suspect the coming danger, as we see

The waters heave before the approaching storm."

But of you it may be said,—

'They hear the wild winds lash the bursting sails;

At every joint the shivering vessel creaks;

But strike they will not, and go blindly down."

How sweet, O death, is the thought of thee to the man who could never find a satisfying portion here below, but who, even

1 Ecclus. xli. 1, 2.

amidst this fleeting life, still lived and leaned upon the promises of that which is everlasting! I do not quail before thy scythe-it can cut off nothing which I am not willing to leave behind, that the wings of my spirit may bear me unencumbered away. Old age! for him who has a Saviour, thy rosy evening changes so insensibly into dawn, that there is scarce a night between !

Yes, I will set my house in order; the task will not be difficult. My accounts are all settled. The best of my property I take along with me. I leave my children to the great Father of the fatherless, to whom belong heaven and earth. My body I bequeath to the earth, and my soul to the Lord: He has sued for it longer than my life, and He bought it with His blood. Thus I lay every weight aside, and am ready for the journey. When the traveller has paid his debts in the city of a foreign land, how does he exult to pass the gate as he bends his steps homeward! I have no more a single creditor upon earth, and I know I shall find none in the place to which I go. Oh! it is a blessed thing to die, when we can say with Hezekiah : "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption : for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back."1 Yes, old men, the Blessed thistle is an herb of precious use.2 It soothes the aching of the heart. But beside the cross of Jesus there grows a plant that is fairer still, and has a juster claim to be called Heart's-ease. Nothing like it alleviates the bitter pangs that precede the hour of dissolution.

Life! I have enjoyed thee. Every draught from thy fountain was not bitter to my taste; nor is all vain beneath the sun, provided we enjoy not the creature only, but in the creature the Creator. That which made thee sweet, however, was the loving-kindness of my God, conveyed to me through all created things, as through so many pipes and channels, and

1 Isa. xxxviii. 17.

2 The carduus benedictus, once so approved as a simple, especially in affections of the heart.

source.

I feel that I need

this loving-kindness of my God I shall take along with me. The earthen pipes through which it used to flow may indeed be shivered, but He who made them can be at no loss to find others to supply their place. Extinct, for ever extinct, is all the pleasantness of life, so far as the creature only was its But in so far as in all our enjoyments it flowed from the thought of that supreme hand by which these were conferred, the pleasantness of life exists, and will abide with us for ever. And in this way how may every day become a treasury, and the very poorest life exuberantly rich! No, I cannot look back upon mine as if it were a mere vanity. Even now, when from my silent chamber I survey it all, my heart fills with an exultation which it cannot contain. a new heart and a new tongue to utter all that my God has done for me, and worthily to sing His praise. What sort of hearts can they have who find it difficult to understand how praising God for the mercies He has bestowed can constitute a main part of the felicity of the upper world? Among the gifts of the Spirit of grace, this itself is one, that the longer we frequent the school of Jesus, so much the richer source of delight does thanksgiving become. I have always the impression that here upon earth my gratitude has never yet found adequate expression. Words cannot utter, tears cannot exhaust, and even the deep sigh, which escapes like a full spiritual tear from my heart, cannot reveal it all. There will, however, be new tongues and new languages. Paul has told us of the tongues of angels; and on the day of Pentecost the apostles received tongues of fire, with which to declare the wonderful works of God. Oh, when the everlasting Pentecost arrives, surely, with the spiritual baptism which it brings, it will also bring new tongues, with which to praise the mighty works of God, in strains far loftier than here on earth our faltering lips could ever reach.

Zion, thou city of my God, in spirit I am already enrolled among thy inhabitants; and although for a little I must continue to sojourn in the flesh, my days shall be spent in prepa