THE QUIET HOUR.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13171, 1 February 1936, Page 7

THE QUIET HOUR.

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN. PAUL# THU AGED. (Published under the auspices of the Pahiatua Ministers’ Association). Jt is calculated that the Apostle must have been somewhere between fifty-eight and sixty-four when he wrote c>f himself to Philemon as Paul the Aged. It has sometimes been asked whether Paul would have spoken of himself as an old man, say at sixty or sixty-three. But a thousand things may come in to make a man feel either old or young at that, or any other, age. The kind of life a man has lived ; virtuous or vicious, religious or irreligious, idle or industrious, for himself, or for God and his generation, the state of his health, the state of his fortunes, his family life, his business life, success or failure, and so on. Cicero wrote his Cato at sixty-three and the great orator's design in that famous dialogue was to brace up those men around him whose knees were beginning to tremble and their hands to ha no- down about that time of life. To this end he cites Plato who died at his desk at eighty-one; and Isocrates who wrote one of his best books at ninety-four and who iivgd another five years to enjoy the fame of it; and another who completed one hundred and seven years and left behind this testimony: "L have had no cause for blaming old

hn the other hand Roger Bacon complained of himself at fifty-three as already an old man. Sir Walter Scott, lamented himself at fifty-five as a £ ‘grey old man.’’ Bet us not forget Dr. Johnson’s advice: “Drink water, sir, and go for a hundred!” Among Paul’s last words are those: "On y Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus. when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” With one foot in the grave as it were, Paul is still reading books and writing parchments. We see Paul forsaken, lonely, cold and without liis cloak, chained to a soldier and waiting in one of Nero’s mad fits for his martyrdom. Well may Paul say, if in this liie only we have hope in Christ we arc of all men most miserable. But Paul lias such an anchor within the veil that, amidst all these sad calamities, old age and all. he is able to send out such wonderful epistles of faith and love as the Ephesians and the Colossians and s£© Philippians, the Pastorals and Philemon.

Think of such a passage as this: ‘.'For me to live is Christ and to die is gam. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Bord Jesus ( brist, Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working wherebv He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. For I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand.” What a man was Paul, even in his old age! You may depend upon it. Paul did not forget his Bible when he was packing his trunk at Troas. We are iar better off in the matter of books for old age than Paul was with his Bible and all. Never, then, be without both your Old and New Testaments. Read your New Testament without ceasing. Bet us read these ancient classics of the soul again and again, till ond's whole being is saturated with them and his final rapture into heaven seizes one with these in the hand. You may remember how a great Divine as lie grew old, was wont to go back now and then and take a turn up and down in bis unregenerate state. Paul was wont to do the same thing. Paul was like William Taylor who when asked of God what h© would choose for a gift for his old age, answered repentance unto life. And thus it. is that if you are well read in Paul’s old-age Epistles you will find far more repentance unto li>e in his last years than even in his years of immediate conversion and remorse. You meet with an eyer-deeper bitterness at sin, and at himself as time goes on ; and then a corresponding amazement at God’s me rev.

It. is said of Santa Teresa that she felt a thrill go through her every time the clock struck on the mantol-piece. The same thrill as she bad been told, that all our earthly brides feel each time their slow clock strikes. An hour nearer seeing Him! she would exclaim and clap her hands. Up-, and make yourselves ready! Up, and read your Paul and pray without ceasing, till you shall stand on the tip-toe of expectation and with full assurance of faith. Yes, up, till you also shall salute His sudden coming, and shall exclaim, Even so, come quickly, Bord Jesus!