Old Age | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Feb 7, 1878

Old Age.

THERE is something unlovely and repulsive in old age when not beautified and adorned with the graces of the divine Spirit. A life misspent makes old age a deformity from which we instinctively turn with pity and disgust; while, on the other hand, a life spent in doing good makes age often more beautiful and attractive than youth. The longer people live in sin and rebellion against God the more hardened and depraved they become, and the more insensible they are to divine influences and impressions; hence their moral degradation is such as to stamp itself on their persons as well as characters.

There is no sadder picture than that of the aged who are without God in the world and without hope in the future. Their earthly and groveling minds grow weaker as their years increase, until their imbecility and depravity are such as to render their society unpleasant to all about them.

Not so with the faithful servants of the living God. With their advancing years their experience of divine truth grows riper and richer, and their lives purer and holier. From their minds the darkness and gloom incident to old age is dispelled by the sunshine of God’s love, and as a general rule, preserved from decay and dotage to the latest period of their lives.

Talents rightly improved do not corrode and decay and become useless, leaving the mind a blank, and its possessor a cipher in existence. Hence those who live the life of the righteous seldom outlive their usefulness. In view of these facts, with others of equal force, the incentives to an obedient and upright life so far outweigh all other considerations and interests that a thought or a wish in regard to them appears of little consequence.—Sel.