THE FAMILY ALTAR

November 13.

"Even to your old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will

I carry you; I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and

will deliver you." Isaiah. 46:4.

Old age has its own infirmities and dangers, even as childhood

and youth. But it also has the most comforting promises of God,

if it be a pious old age. "Those that be planted in the house of

the Lord," says Psalm 92, "shall flourish in the courts of our God.

They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and

flourishing; to show that the Lord is upright." Here in the text

from Isaiah God gives pious old age the reassuring promise that

He Himself will carry His aging children in His sheltering arms

to the end. Trusting in these divine promises, old age in the

Christian resembles the golden fall of the year, when mellow sun-

shine glorifies the woods and fields, and there breathes a spirit of

peace, of dreamy stillness all about one. Oh, what a blessing pious

old fathers and mothers prove to their family circle, to all their

acquaintances! They have experienced the patience, and mercy,

and faithfulness of our God from their youth through all their long

and eventful years, and can advise, and counsel, and comfort their

children and friends in all their troubles and sorrows, pointing them

always to our God, from whom cometh our help, and praying for

their loved ones and for their Savior's kingdom as long as their

dear old lips can move. Blessed the home that has such an old,

praying father or mother to shelter and to cherish. How children

and grandchildren will lovingly care for them and patiently bear

with their increasing infirmities, remembering the divine promises :

"Honor thy father and mother, that it may be well with thee, and

thou mayest live long on the earth" (Eph. 6), and: "

."

(1 Tim. 5,4.)