Religion and Life

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Religion and Life

/■ HOSE who go to church hear J many sermons addressed, in whole or in part, to youth, but few to age. And rightly so, for youth has many claims and many perils and carries the future in its hands. But age is waiting for a living word and has its need of comfort and encouragement. Men are slow to admit, in any practical way, the fact of their mortality and to realise the brevity of the time that remains. After three score years and ten, said a friend, the other day, the years are only loaned to us. We count them, as Elia said, "like miser's farthings," and grudge their passing. Fair may be, the prospect of a better country to whose bourne we hasten, but the gentle essayist speaks for a great company—"l am not content to pass away like a weaver's shuttle. Those metaphors solace me not ... I am in love with this green earth, the face of town and country, the unspeakable rural solitudes and the sweet security of streets. I would set up my tabernacle here ... I do not want to drop like mellow fruit into the earth." We may say it is a bit of pagan philosophy but, nevertheless, we read the words with a catch at the heart. Rarer Joys And there are rarer joys than these material blessings to which we cling, as Elia well knows. He speaks of friendly society and candle-light and fireside conversation and happy jests

By PHILEMON

and sober talk, and of his "midnight darlings," the treasured folios ot his library. "I am content to stand still," he says, "at the age to which J am arrived, I. and my friends; to be no younger, no richer, no handsomer." But it may not be. The circle narrows. The fireside lights die out one by one. Friend after friend departs. Others, thank God, surround us but, in spite of their courtesy and consideration, they can never replace those that have left us. Happy is he who can make the best of it and avoid the touch ot complaint to be found in F. W. Macdonald's letter to W. L. Watkinson, where speaking of the annual Church Assembly they had been wont to attend, he says": "I have not had a line from an old friend, minister or layman, to sav that I was remembered in the Assen'iblv of which for fifty years I have been a part. 'What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue! And how soon our fellow-shadows learn to do without us." Nor is it easy for those who have borne responsibility and been accorded trust and honour by their fcliowmen to lay down the tarks of a busy lifetime and watch them pass to other hands. Here, maybe, is found a supreme test of the courage and <j;ood sense of age. We recall Dr. Inge's last sermon as Dean of St. Paul's, in which lie said: "This is perhaps a world in which everyone is wanted but no one is wanted very much." and added: "One who lias been an actor all his life does not quite like the idea of becoming a mere spectator, and so often bangs on at

his work too long." And yet, if it were but known, Old age lias still his honour and his toil; Something ere the end, some work of noble not e, May yet he done. The power to serve in less conspicuous ways remains, and the opportunity is never far to seek. It was by a happy stroke of genius that Silvester Home, preaching to elder folk, lighted for his text upon the words of Jesus: "About the eleventh hour He went out and found others standing . . ■ and He sait-h unto them, 'Go ye also into the vineyard.' The Harvest of Life And when all is said there is one abundant recompense for all that age must lay aside. The wise and virtuous man has gathered the harvest of life and comes rejoicing "bringing his 'sheaves with him. ' Fellowship with God, the sweet influence of love and friendship, the practice of unselfishness, the willing service of others, ail have brought an inner wealth upon which death cannot lay its hand. It is of this that Sir Thomas Oveburv wrote, now over three centuries ago, the striking words: "A man feels the oncoming of age rather by the strength of his soul than by the weakness of his body." This, too. St. Paul had in mind in the triumphant passage: "Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day." Such a man has nothing to fear. He is ready for the call howsoever it may come. God is the strength of his life and his portion for ever. His end shall be like that of the patriarch, of whose passing the exquisite words were written: "By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, worshipped, bending in prayer over the head of his staff."