| The Secrets of a Beautiful Life |
Chapter 17 |
Page 8 |
“It is a favourite speculation of mine,” said Dr. Chalmers, “that if spared to sixty years of age, we then enter the seventh decade of human life, and that if possible should be turned into the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage and spent sabbatically, as if on the shores of an eternal world, or, as it were, in the outer courts of the temple that is above, the tabernacle that is in heaven.”
This is a beautiful thought, with a suggestion which must commend itself to many devout people drawing toward old age. It does not imply a decade of idleness, or of selfish ease, but such a use of the life in its ripeness and richness of experience as shall shed upon the world the benignest influence and the holiest benediction.
“Old—we are growing old:
Going on through a beautiful road,
Finding earth a more blessed abode;
Nobler work by our hands to be wrought,
Freer paths for our hope and our thought;
Because of the beauty the years unfold,
We are cheerfully growing old.
“Old—we are growing old:
Going up where the sunshine is clear;
Watching grander horizons appear
Out of clouds that enveloped our youth;
Standing firm on the mountains of truth;
Because of the glory the years unfold,
We are joyfully growing old.
“Old—we are growing old:
Going into the gardens of rest
That glow through the gold of the West,
Where the rose and the amaranth blend,
And each path is the way to a friend;
Because of the peace that the years unfold,
We are thankfully growing old.”
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