Connecticut western news., 1902-08-07
thee?-
Honor old Age.

A beautiful German story relates how one day little girl named Jean nette witnessed great army review. Thousands upon thousands of specta- tors crowded around the stand, before which the emperor was to watch the passing regiments. While Jeannette was seated in the stand she saw an old feeble woman trying very hard to get where she could see. The little German girl said to herself: Tt is not
 right for me to sit here, when l am strong and we'll and can stand, while that poor. feeble old woman can see nothing. I ought to honor old age as I want some one to honor me when I am old" Then she gave up her seat to the old woman and went and stood in the crowd. But while Jeannette was standing upon her tiptoes trying in vain to see a courier of the emperor, covered with gold lace, elbowed his way to her side as he said, Little girl, her majesty would be pleased to see you in the royal box" When the abashed child stood before the en- press, she graciously said: Come here, my daughter, and sit with me. saw you give up your seat to that old wom- an, and now you must remain by my side" So God hOnors those who honor his servants. God especially honors those who honor the aged and seem- ingly helpless disciples whose earthly pilgrimages are nearly ended.
 The aged Christian Is a living evi- dence that for most of us earthly life Is to be very short. Therefore what
 we are to do for Christ we must do soon or we shall never be able to do 1t at all. Sixty or seventy or eighty years are very long time to live. but most of us will never live so long. Aye, most
 of us will never reach even middle life.
 If you speak to an aged Christian, you will find that he Is like November
 leaf, hanging almost solitary and alone
 after the thousands and the tens of thousands of autumnal leaves have
 been torn from their branches by the
 equinoctial winds. You will find that most of his contemporaries died when
 he was comparatively young, that
 nearly all the rest died when he was
 In middle life and that only a very few companions of his youth are alive
 to walk by his side. The statisticians declare that a third of the human race
 die in infancy. At least one-third of
 the remainder die before twenty-one years of age have been reached, and only 6 or ' per cent of the human fam fly live to be sixty years of age or over. So the mere presence in this world of an aged Christian, with 93
 or 94 per cent of his contemporaries
 gone, Is a perpetual warning that we
 must be about our Fathers business or the death summons will come and
 we shall find that we have accomplish ed nothing.
 The Present Is the Time.
 The aged Christians ought to appeal to us in the same way that the final
 review of the Potomac army appealed to the spectators In Washington in
 1865. In that passing army the places
 of the dead were kept vacant. As reg
 iment after regiment and brigade after
 brigade marched past the president of
 the United States there were in some
 lines only ten or fifteen men. The va
 cant places showed that hundreds
 upon hundreds and thousands upon
 thousands of soldiers who went forth
 to battle never came back. Those
 ragged lines and those torn battlef1ags
 showed that there was another great
 army of the Potomac that day sleep Ing in it's grave trenches. As the little
 band of aged Christians marches past
 us today we see that 1t is a mere rem
 nant of great host which once start ed out marching side by side. The
 white lips of the dead as well as the trembling lips of the living Christian
 veterans beside us are speaking en- tirely different words from those with which the Grecian philosopher fright ened the trembling Athenians. The
 lead lips of the aged Christian con
 temporaries are saying to us; Most of
 you will never be old men. Most of
 you will never be old women. Most of you will die in your youth or in middle life. Therefore, what you are to do for Christ you must do soon or
 you will never do 1t at all"
 Perhaps this may be a chimerical fancy, but 1 believe that some of our
 aged Christians now living may be lingering upon this side of the river of death in order to carry to heaven to our departed loved ones the latest news about the dear ones. on earth. You know the Bible declares that tbe
 celestial messengers are continually ascending and descending between earth and heaven, Jacobs dream was not all q fanciful dream. The sleeping son of Isaac saw the angels ascending and descending the ladder which con nected earth with heaven. So believe that the aged Christians are lingering this side of the Jordan for awhile in
 order to carry the gospel news about ourselves to our loved ones. I remem-
 Der well when a dear old elder of the
 Brooklyn Tabernacle was dying my
 father turned to him and said: Well, Mir. Nichols, goodby for little while.
 We shall soon meet again. But, as you are going ahead of me to the celes-
 tial land, will you hunt up my boy De
 Witt and give him my loveT And the
 old dying elder said, "Yes, Dr. Tal-
 mage, I will, will" When the wid-
 over Bishop Haven was dying, he turned to his mother and said: Moth
 CT, after I have first seen the Lord
 shall want to hunt up my dear wife.
 shall give to her your love. Then I
 shall want to rest for the first thou
 sand years in the green pastures by the side of the still waters, with my head in the lap of my Mary"
 Messengera to the Other Side.
 And if some of our aged Christian
 friends are waiting for little while in order to carry the latest gospel news
 to the dear ones on the other side of
 the Jordan, what will they be able to
 tell our fathers and mothers, our broth
 CTS and sisters, our wives and little
 children, who have gone beyond and
 are awaiting our coming? Will they
 be able to tell them that you and love
 the Lord Jesus? Will they be able to
 tell our loved ones that they must keep