The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-06-16
BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE.
bishop W. X. Nunde.l

We rarely hear old age referred to
as beautiful. We speak of childhood
as beautiful. A grace still more at
tractive is associated in our minds
with youth. Even ripened manhood
and wamanhood have superior charms;
but we gloomily anticipate age as
the period of mental degeneracy
and physical decay. The freshness
Of life is wasted; the bloom gone from
the cheek, the light from the eye,
the vigor from the step. Patient,
quenchless love may retain its respect,
and still perform the Offices of kind
ness; it may even discern a spiritual
beauty back of furrowed cheek and
lusterless eye; yet, in the common
estimation, old people are a burden
to themselves, and, however much
the faithful heart may revolt at con-
Tossing it, burden to their friends.
But is this estimate correct? On the
contrary, we are convinced it is very
far from true. Undoubtedly there are
instances where old age is not only
uninteresting, but positively repulsive.
There is neither outward comeliness
nor inward grace.
The unhappy subjects have lost
all relish for life. Existence has grown
to be burden moodily borne, and
yet is often convulsively clung to from
spectral fears of the dying hour. Such
an old age--impatient, exacting, un-
loving and unlovely---exhales no fra
GRANGE and exhibits no bloom. 1t is
sapless trunk, which spreads no
grateful foliage and bears no luscious
fruit. But such is by no means the
universal experience.
Innumerable are the instances where
the evening of life exhibits a richer
radiance than even its purpling morn
Its declining sun suffusing the wes-
tern sky with an almost supernal glow
Recurring to such instances, it is nc
extravaganza to speak of old age a:
beautiful. 1t may be so richly
adorned with rarest virtues as to prove
surprisingly attractive. We know the
picture of home life is heightened in
interest by the variety and even
contrast of elements which it presents
We should certainly miss from it the
face of blithesome childhood, but with
no less regret the snowy locks O
benignant age. Many household i:
blessed with the lingering presence o
an aged inmate who proves its very
center of attraction and happy in
fuence---and when that revered form
is missed, at length, from the familiar
place, and the arm chair is vacant
there is an uprising of "a sorrow as pro
found and real as sore bereavement
can ever bring. But beautiful ole
age is not adventitious. 1t is the
outshining of beautiful character
1t springs from the harmonious assem-
blage Of lovely traits traits which art
due to the patient, wholesome discip
line of a lifetime. Those who arr
younger cannot give too careful con
sideration to this fact. We shall reacl
old age sometime if God spares us
The frost of its stern winter will inves
Us sooner or later. But they need no
quench the genial warmth within
Nor need they rob the outward life O
its bloom and sweetness. A pur
youth and a manly manhood will con
duce to a refulgent old age.
The people who do right in thi
world do right because they love to d
right and not because of the penalt
attached to wrong as set forth in tn
tenets of the law. These are hurryin
times. Some things get sadly left b<
hind and nothing is so far behind tt
times as civilization. The law of "must
is inscribed on its banner. That
where the mistake lies. When civiliz;
ton catches up, the word "must" wi
- be erased and in its place will be al
other word with a thousandfold mo
force and meaning Do you know Il
word? It is Glove. ."-Durham Sun.
lie A gentleman, under forty years of ag
)I | whose hair was rapidly becoming thin al