The New York herald., 1879-01-06
FIFTH AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH


THIRrY-FIRsr ANNUAL SERMON TO THE AGED
BY REV. DIR. ARMITAGE.
Tho Rev. DR.. Armitage preached his thrty-frst
annual sermon to the aged in the morning, taking
his text from H. Corinthians, w. 16-"Though our
outward man perish. yet the inward man is renewed
day by day" The reverend Doctor having stated
clearly the principles applicable to his subject said
Here the Apostle speaks Of double manhood and
double life. The first Of these he says is outward
and the second inward while their relation to each
other is held by law Of contrast the perishing
by gradual decay and the other enjoying daily re-
newal The outer, embodying man is the visi-
BILE. material human frame, and the inner embod-
led man, is the invisible, immaterial, immortal
ture. The two denote our whole personal existence
the body boing casket and the spirit priceless
jewel Now, there is time when the body is not
wasting away, but, on the contrary, is in a state
of development and growth from birth to maturity.
It's natural waste and disntegraton follow this STAGE
for these properly belong to the last half OF life
But different order OF things marks the history of
the inward man, the higher nature. Here you trace
no fretting and consuming conflict for in the idea OF
Immortality the soul partakes Of the divine life.
From the time that it first anmates the natural body
gathers strength little by little. through and
perception feeling and reason, and the process goes
on perpetualy, being endued with new power day by
day throughout its existence 1t is almost certain,
however, that the Apostle in speaking here of the
onward man. does not intend to speak much of
the soul in its entirety in its moral department.
and as that department is held under the dominion
of high spiritual and religious life. The Apostle
Peter most beautifully sets forth this exalted of
our being "the hidden of the heart"
in that which is imperishable of the meek and
quiet spirit which in the sight of God is OF great
price. In the context the Apostle Paul speaks very
freely of his great suferings for Christs sake and
carries he idea that, while these leav
ing their marks his bodily frame. his moral self
felt depletion Of strength. for day by day he
supplied with strength. He nearly of the
age of Lord, and he wrote this epistle in the
year 81. he was verging upon sixty when. toll and
hard usage began to tell upon his frame.
RENEWED STRENGTH FOR THE SOUL
The thought which sends home in the text Is that
bodily suffering may be channel through which
moral strength flows that out OF the decay Of the
body comes renewed strength for the SOUL He bears
up heroically Under his sufferngs this great
principle of nature and redemption namely, that
out of weakness comes might, out of DEATH life. On
this principle his lite of peril and martyrdom gave
invisible strength for new toll and suffering. When
he speaks of the daily renewal of the inner he does
not mean that he was boarding up strength, gold
is boarded against time to come; but that,
day exhausted his strength another revival refreshed
there was also daily restoration because waste and
supply are the daily conditions of all life. No tri-
umph is great as that of the soul the body.
1t is inspired by the highest motive and can forego
first every comfort of life and then life itself for
Christ sake. The whole history of Christian mar
tyrs AID heroes shows that when the outer man has
been perishing in the flames the inner has tri-
umphed over its agones There is no such sublime
spectacle as that of soul taking its last look upon
the body and voluntarily withdrawing from dwell
ing place unsued to its future uses, while it
sons upon the cause OF that unhtness. Artists
poets great thinkers and orators all lend their contr
buttons, i'll active life well in death, to show
how the decay of the body stimulate
the soul to action and clothe it with power
This power often evinccs itself i'll the paroxy ysms
of pain and in the tormenting uproar of morbid dis
quiet No man but Cowper could have written John
Gilpin" could he, If he had hovered all his
life the very verge OF despair Robert Hall held his
congregations under supernatural fascination of
thought. language and action For the time being
his majestic soul seemed to incarnate itself his eye
and illuminated his face, like star behind heck of
vapor and then burned like that star unveiled But
Robert Hall could not have been what he had he
not been born with disease which inflicted excruci-
ating pain upon him from his cradle to his grave.
Our context shows that the apostles soul dictated
that age imprisonment and the prospect OF martyr
dom made his soul moro gigantic than SO, my
aged friends, apply this great principle making all
the pains aud inhrmt1es of old age strengthen the
hidden man Of the heart