WHEN THE TIDE GOES OUT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20702, 27 April 1929, Page 27

WHEN THE TIDE GOES OUT.

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller. In the hey-day of life, when everything' is joyous and hands and mind are fully occupied, and 24 hours seem all too short to pack in all we want of life’s surprises and demands, it is not difficult to believe that one’s faith in God and man is amply sufficient. It is like launching a boat ■when the tide is in. The W'ater bears you up and soon you are scudding across the waves, the wind filling your sails and the rigging twanging like a harp. Rocks are covered, shallow places have become deep, and the horizon is wide. ■ But when you are old —the tide is out. The rocks rear their jagged heads, the foreshore is marshy, the wind biting, and the horizon has receded. Faith in God and man is not so easy of acceptance, and the cold chills of doubt settle upon the heart. We are so accustomed to speak of. beautiful old age and to quote the poet who touched his harp and sang “ Grow Old Along With Me.” Yes; all that is true, hut it isn't true for everybody. I must confess to a feeling of poignant sadness when I see and meet old people who are left alone in the world. Old age can be very, very lovely., Happy are the old people who have sons and daughters who take time to cheer them, and to put up with their little fads, and who make the eventide of life sweet with remembrance. And happy are-the old folk who, sitting by the fire, can recall with joy the early days when life pounded through their veins, of courtship days, of happy marriage, and family life with its struggle and loss and gain, and, best of all, can trace the goodness of God through all the years. But sad are the old people whose faith in God and in His goodness has grown weak with the approaching years, and for whom there is nothing left but a trembling fear. For_ them, too, the tide has gone out, but with this difference, they nave no hope of its returning. A desolate and bleak old age is a tragedy of sadness. It has fallen to my lot, more than once, to sit by the bedside of old people whose lines have been spent in joyous service to God and man, but who, when strength left their limbs and they were forced, by the weight of years, and the slow inroads of disease, to lie up and await the end, have also been gripped with the terrible fear that God has forgotten them. At such a time a minister needs great patience, and, if I may say it without seeming egotism, great skill. Let no. man take up the ministry lightly. It is the most exacting of all callings. To he sensitive to the sufferings and needs of others and to be to the touch of God, demands a great price. Although I am positive that the fear that God has forgotten such old people is largely attributable to physical causes—to the general breaking up of the human system—yet I know that in many cases it is not so. The fear is very real and the consequences seem terrible. It may be that there is one such person reading my article this week and to that one I 'would say this; God understands. Just let that thought creep into your mind and let it grow. He knows your life, your struggles; He knows how you have tried again and again to follow the light; and, because He knows, He understands how frightened you are and He makes allowances. Cease thinking of your fears and think instead of the love of God that never lets go. It is not His will than anyone perishes. One day He will make the pile complete. If •you, quietly and honestly, will trust in the goodness of God, just as you trust the goodness of any of your friends who do not forgot you, you will find a peace coming into your heart that nothing can take away. “If any man will come unto Me, I will in no wise cast him out.” Jesus said that, and surely we can trust Him.. And, if He does not cast you out He must take you in. Never mind your lack of faith. Your faintest desire for peace and hope is a sure evidence that you have not done anything that has quenched the Spirit. Rest upon Hia goodness and cease bemoaning yoiir faults. And, more, I would say to such a one, Simply because the tide has gone out, that is the surest proof that it will come in again. Your life, as well as the tide, is in God’s hands. Sometimes the, tide seems to be so long in coming in and our eyes ache with longing. I should like the old to look upon death not as dread ordeal .but as the incoming tide of a fuller life that willhear them up and carry them into the haven of rest. And God’s grace,_ too, is like the incoming tide, “Where sin did abound, grace did super-ahound.” The grace of God, the understanding grace that makes allowances, will cover your fears and strengthen your weak faith. In life you have not been divided from God. And death is not a separator but a uniter. Quietly lay hold on God, when the tide goes out. And, if vour grasp is frail, remember that what matters most is God’s grasp of you. It is just there where so many old people fail. Because their hold is slackening, they think that God is not near. But He is. Don’t fret and don’t struggle. “ Let me no more my comfort draw, From my frail hold on Thee; In this alone rololce with awe, Thy mighty grasp of me." The loneliness and fear that come when the tide goes out, pass away, when we trust Him Who holds us and the tide, in the hollow of His hand.