GROW OLD GRACEFULLY by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 15, 1879

GROW OLD GRACEFULLY.

By James White

“Old men for counsel, and young men for war,” is a time-honored maxim. With the Christian, however, the war is excluded, making it necessary to modify the latter part of the expression so that the whole may read: Old men for counsel, and to lay plans, and young men to take good heed, and to execute.

There is work enough for all to do. As a people we are pressed with labor almost beyond measure, demanding the united efforts of all, both old and young. There is one thing, and only one, that is worse than a careless, indolent, lazy young man, and that is an old man who has been worn with both cares and labors to that extent that his nervous and mental powers have become weakened, his spirits broken, and his temper soured. Such an one is worthless to any cause as a laborer, or as a counselor.

The years of a man’s activity, till he reaches the noon of life, is the time for him to form a character, for his mental powers to ripen and become balanced by study, deep thought, and experience. By these, and the grace of God, his mind and heart become right before his God and before his fellows, and he is prepared for the responsible position of a framer of plans, and a counselor to the people of God.

The men of this world are wiser than the children of light. They never send green boys to the halls of legislation, and old men to the field of battle. But those who have made a success in life, and have, by close application and untiring effort, formed well-balanced characters, are the choice of the people to represent them in the great councils of the nation.

No man really becomes a man of power among men, who seeks to go through the world light loaded. It is the exercise of every muscle to its full extent that develops and balances the physical powers of the athlete. The great reason why there are so many feeble thinkers and feeble care-takers is because they have not trained themselves to think and take care while standing under a load of responsibility. They were too indolent to secure mental culture and strength by patient thought. But there is a period in the lifetime of every man who has trained himself to be a successful burden-bearer and care-taker, when he should seriously consider the fact that the time is not far distant when the feebleness of age will compel him to let those burdens he has well borne pass to the shoulders of others. Here comes in the careful study of every discreet man when to begin to lay off the burdens, and how fast; or, to learn to grow old gracefully.

The writer has been studying this matter several years. At the age of twenty we put the armor on, and for thirty-eight years ours has been a life of toil, care, perplexity, and sickness much of the time. Our nervous system has been shocked three times with paralysis, and three times the arm that traces these lines has fallen, for a time to be raised and moved only by the other. These dangerous attacks have usually occurred after severe mental strain, such as has ever been our portion at General Conference. We were reported absent from the late Conference in consequence of ill health. Thanks to that worthy body for the vote of sympathy. It is our duty, however, to state that our absence was through fear of another break down.

Both Mrs. W. and the writer have important writing to do, books to complete which should be in the hands of the people. If we attend the Conferences and camp-meetings at the call of our people, we shall never do this work, which is not second to any other. God gave us helpers in sisters Ings and Hall, and in our own children. Sister Ings was sent to Switzerland, though it was not her choice, and as much may be said of sister Hall, reported through the Signs of the Times as appointed for another year to fill an important place at the Office of the Pacific Press. And General Conference assigns posts of duty to our children at Battle Creek, Mich., and Oakland, Cal.

The persons mentioned are eminently qualified to assist us in the preparation of works for the press. And we very much need the assistance and counsel of our own dear children. But if the highest earthly authority of our people take these from us to occupy positions we cannot fill, we shall submit, and shall from necessity retire from the front to do what we can alone to finish the work God has given us to do in the line of preparing works for the press. Thus retired, with the blessing of God, we hope to restore that “lost art” in this fretting generation, of growing old gracefully. J. W.