The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-12-27
About Ola Men lS
[From an unpublished manuscript,

p About thirty centuries agoe-more oi
less l1there fingered in life a1 old man in
the land of Israel. He was devout old
mar" and knew something of the i'm
1pulses of prophecy He wrote a psalm
1perhaps nanyAthis one certainly. II
was sung at the altar. 1t is the seventy
first in our book of Psalms. In the ninth
verse theiold man prays,tt Cast me. not
! off in the etirhei Of foold age. iForsake me
lnotwhen my strength faileth. Y This is
the natural apprehension Off old servants
| of God. ndThesoldd mans contemporaries,
it may be, were mostlof them dead. be
feeling flonelinessnins life ccreeps on as
1old age advances. Such feel luthemselves
fin the presence of a generation that can
mot sympathise with them! The young
prefer the young There are mo congreI
CATIONS of,ethedold!w Only "a few gray
1headssremainss scattered here and there in
I the helcongregationI lgtsusI 5d1 % aseosi
The tai1ure1 'ofostrength is one, of the
1Isuggestiens, ofoconsciodsness sin an uold
kmanls solitude. b He istino longer equal
to the fdutiesDof full iIlife.sn He comes for
isympathyyto the Head of the Church,
His s)heartespeeks outin soft tones to him,
Jehovah callsihimself the Shepherd ofythe
Sheep Heytakes the young lambs in, his
arm. He gently leadeth the feeble and
therburdened. But he does not forget
the feeble DID, The old Psalmist comes
back upon thesame idea in the eighteenth
verse lin ow, when L am old and gray
headeda o God, forsake me not. Till
Shave Showed thy strength to this genera
htion+-7and Bhy power to every generation
4gett to ioome:ip sA} asw ,1sdaisnar sayI |
,Eu The old, Psalmist seems to fear that he
has oatlivedi hisiusefulness. HeIWants to
llbe, useful In some way, till heldies. 10 He
tthlnks'sGo can understand him, ifuno
zone else can. The Apostles may have
felt the same way. They preached while
they could preach, or while they were
iPermltted to preach--and then (sone of
them in prison. they wrote the New Tes-
ftament.t The old Psslmist rs in the same
school jehovah, whose praise is in the
sanctuary liked this psalm of his aged
servant very much He loved to hear
at sung. ! yHe3ordered it toTbs written In
the Psalm book of the Chursn. He said
an has heart, & Let that psalm be sung in
all the agessHD He set it as one of the
gems IN our Bible. isK ore 'n r aaT +
b This is alfnere inciden5rin the life of a
nameless man. ink am not sure at all that
1T was David The headings of the
Psalms are not inspired Ne only know
litgwaB aniiold man that wrote it. He
felt as old men sometimes feel. His
outer nature was deoaying The tent OF
his pilgrim life was coming to pieces,
But there is an aoa2aer nature that has
been, indiyidualizing itself meanwhile.
This, in the old man, was full of thouobts
OF "a spirit world. 1t was begotten in
him by the second Adam. Tt is Christ
IN him. There is no other true religion
but this. This is the hope of glory. 1t
Is thus that a child of the old Adam be-
comes child of God.
90 This old man we speak of has been
now some thirty centuries in heaven
Around him are the older ones than he
Adam, Noah, Moses, and the rest. And
now there are there with him almost a
hundred generations of elect ones who
have been born and have died since. The
old man has seen many things in heaven
IN thirty centuries. He was there when
Messiah went forth and came from God
into this world-a spirit till then, to be
embodied in Mary s. womb. He was
there too when the Messiah came back
triumphant over Death and Satan, at
tended by a convoy Of holy angles-and
/ IN a glorifed human body How the
oid. Psalnpist rejoiced to, think that he
also oog9Rld yetabe glorifed il body just
like that. Does he. remember, how he
once sang, that list Psalm T? " To such
ends as this it is thatT1, .-strT. od, h.
Even down to old sgeosll Gods people shall
| His soyeteign, eternal, uncbsngable,1ove ,"9,H
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adotn,
l'fh eyshallstiiI IN his bosom be borne.
l'1odo oil 10 6otsl2eb odi "a. DsPg
NIL