Be Kind to the Aged by Christian Standard

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1879

Be Kind to the Aged.

By Christian Standard

Age, when whitening for the tomb, is a worthy object of reverence. The passions have ceased—hopes of self have ceased. They linger with the young, and pray for the young—and Oh, how careful should the young be to reward them with tender affection and with the warmest of love, to diminish the chill of ebbing life! The Spartans looked on reverential respect for old age as a beautiful trait of character. Be kind to those who are in the autumn of life, for you know not what sufferings they may have endured, nor how much of it may still be their portion. Do they seem unreasonable, to find fault or murmur? Allow not your anger to kindle against them; rebuke them not, for doubtless many have been the crosses and trials of earlier years, and perhaps their dispositions were less flexible than your own. Do they require aid? Then render it cheerfully. Forget not that the time may come when you may desire the same assistance from others that you render to them. Do all that is needful for the old, and do it with alacrity, and think it not hard if much is required at your hands, lest when age sets its seal on your brow, and fills your limbs with trembling, others may wait unwillingly, and feel relieved when the coffin has covered you forever.—Christian Standard.