Helping the Aged | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1873

Helping the Aged.

The Chinese have one good-natured trait. They reverence aged people, and show them the utmost kindness and attention. Old age is rather neglected in our country, and scenes like the following are not very common:—

One cold winter morning, when the sleet froze as it fell, rendering the walking dangerous even to the young and strong, my attention was drawn toward a man whose age and infirmity made it almost impossible for him to get along.

We were both walking in the same direction, but he was on the opposite side of the street. I watched him with anxiety, fearing every moment that he would miss his footing.

Presently a beautiful young girl, richly and fashionably dressed, came down the street. Just as she was about to pass the old man, he slipped and would have fallen if she had not stretched forth her hand to save him.

She stopped a few moments to talk with him, then, taking his arm, turned out of her way and led him home. What a contrast they presented—the young girl, in her elegant attire, and the aged man, in his worn-out garments!

It was a beautiful picture, an eloquent sermon upon the respect which the young owe to the aged.

I afterward found that the old gentleman had once held a high position, but through no fault of his own had lost his property, and was then very poor and almost blind. How he must have prized the kind attention of the young girl, now that he was forsaken by the friends of his more prosperous days.

Perhaps we all need to be reminded of the Bible injunction, “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man.”