The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-07-21
When to Stop Work.

My ut uUOI Was lully SlAly ytdlo Vi
age, but she had never thought of being
old, till some new acquaintance suggested
it to her.
'Of course, you are not using your
brush now,' one Of them said, confident
ly. They had just been admiring a fine
landscape, some of her work.
The truth met her in the face, like a
blow. She was too old.
Certainly, l am using my brush now,
just as | have done for years, not as a
piled with spirit. ''What should | do?
Why should | give it up?'
And vet. in spite of this brave answer,
she shivered, and shrank within herself,
and felt a cold wave of loneliness and dis
couragement creep over her being.
81. getting old"' she saidl inwardly.
'sAnd where is my life work? 1t is not
done; it seems scarcely begun. / have all
my life been so anxious to do something
with my pen. but have always been SO full
of work and care, l am ashamed of the
little accomplished: and now, when my
heart is desolate and my hands empty,
and | would fain fill up the remnant of life
with the work which has been so long
knocking at my door, behold. am old
and people think it wonderful that l ever
use my brush. What would they say could
they know that | am still earnest and am
bilious to use my pen to some effect in the
world?'
She had been devoted mother; but now,
of her children, some were in heaven, and
some scattered over the earth, and she ac-
know ledgeu to herself. ''Come to think
am Old; it may be my mental powers are
declining, and perhaps | am foolish to keep
on irving. The results which | have long
ed to achieve need more years and more
strength, - she sadly admitted; for it is
sad and hard to give up, setting the flesh
" feet upon the nils of the land of prom
ise. SO with the discouraging conviction
that it was TOO late in life to do anything
Of consequence little by little, with many
signs and regrets the struggle for i'm
provemeut and excellence was, if not given
mp, carried on without much method or
energy.
But, as it turned out, she lived on and
on; and came to seventy, bright and strong
brighter and stronger than at sixty, be-
cause her health was better: and she was
also keeping pace with the times, her heart
pulsing with the pulses of the world, and
full of thoughts and helpful suggestions
from the experience of years, but having
given up effort in writing, she had lost
facility and power in expression, and she
sometimes thought regretfully: eff | had
only known how well | was going to be,
and kept right on, | might have made
people listen to me by this time; and there
is so much l would like to say, but now it
is surely too late to start up afresh; it is
certain | have but little time left
SO the years went on. and with un-
dimmed intelligence and pretty strong
body came the dawning of her eightieth
year.
II am aged now,' she told herself,
there can be no question about it. but
only to think that twenty years ago, when
was only sixty, | was discouraged be
cause people thought me ODD and now
it is plain that | might have made all these
years count for much more than they have
done, had l kept right on, with method
and determination, and not been inf uenc-
ed by the thought of age. Twenty years :,
but now
So the years went on again, and she was
really aged before the Lord Jesus called
her home and the first thing when she
reached heaven, He asked her: 'W hat
have you been doing these last twenty five
years to help my children on the earth,
for whom | gave My life? / gave you
those years, with some strength and tai
ent, that you might use them in helping
along My work What have you done
with those years.
Then, full of regret she had to tell
over the story-of strong intent to 90 on
with her work, and of finally yielding to
encouragement because there was so lit
tie time left, and she might be called
away or not have strength to finish. And
the somowful answer came
Did you not read my order, occupy
till | Gomez How did you know you
would not have time? There is no world
i'll the universe that needs help as does
the earth, which was your scene of labor
Adverse pens keep busy; it is sad that
yours should have stopped, for you little
know the influence for good you might
have eXerted had you continued the eff
fort
Oh, my neighbor saw it all now. If
she only had those twenty-five years to
live over again
In the extremity of regret she came to
herself, and found it was a dreamer the
twenty five years was a dream. She was
still on the earth woman of sixty; and
ioyfully she arose and went to her work
with all the enthusiasm of youth, resolv-
ing never to lay down the implements of
labor while her hands could hold them.
She would go on with her pen,
with her brush, and her music, and
make them all serve the Lord, never ask
ing whether there were time, never hest
tating because she was old: she would
not think of age.
What is "old" but the tabernacle
growing frail and withered, while the
dweller within may be growing more
beautiful, with deeper sympathies and
wider vision yea, a vision that reaches
on, beyond the clouds of earth, catching
the radiance of the immortal hills ard re-
flecting here their glory. III. n. F., in
\. Y. Evangelist.