Christian Consolations - 1881 Author:Andrew Preston Peabody Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON III. OLD AGE. THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL FLOURISH LIKE THE PALM-TREE : HE SHALL GROW LIKE A CEDAR IN LEBANON. THOSE THAT BE PLANTED IN THE HOUSE OP THE LOR... more »D SHALL FLOURISH IN THE COURTS OF OUR GOD. THEY SHALL STILL BRING FORTH FRUIT IN OLD AGE. — Psalm XCU. 12-14. Among my hearers are many who have passed or are passing the meridian of life, and of those still young almost all look forward to length of days upon earth. I would now address those who feel that they are growing old, or who hope to become old, and would offer them such counsels as may save them from the misery of a barren and hopeless age, and make them like those cedars of Lebanon, around which generations, states, empires, have been born and have passed away, and which still clothe themselves with the verdure and the fruit of their youth. We are accustomed to think of the prospect of death as full of the most solemn and sad interest.It seems to me that the prospect of a lengthened life upon earth may well awaken even a deeper seriousness and pensiveness of spirit. And in saying this, I cast no reproach on the Creator or his world. I regard both the old age and the death which God means for us, and for which his spirit ripens us, as blessed and desirable. But old age, where the youth and prime have been passed in frivolity or worldliness, and death, where God has not been owned in the life, cannot be regarded with excessive dread, or warded off with a diligence too early or too constant. Let us now look at some of these inevitable experiences of advancing years, which evince the need of some principle of greenness and vitality beyond the power of time or of earthly change. In the first place, if we live long, we must outlive the keen enjoyment of mere pleasure, — of the lighter and gayer portions of li...« less