The More Things Change

In Elbridge Paige’s book of Short Patent Sermons published in 1841 we find

    [There are those] who would rather ride to hell in a hand-cart than walk to heaven supported by the staff of industry.

 Things haven’t changed much, have they?


Sharkey points out in the comments that language changes.  I, personally, am old enough to remember when "industry" did mean application of oneself to productive behavior.  Thus it did not occur to me to think in terms of current usage when I read the above line.  Old guy.

Celebrating the Days of Our Lives

This rant was posted a couple of years ago.  For one reason or another I have chosen to post it again.  The real crux of the matter, apart from my own aversion to the proclivity to use unnecessary euphemisms, is that each day is a gift.  Today truly is our best day.  Make something of it.

Seasoned citizen, keenager, golden ager, matured, senior. No. I am old. I may be your elder. There is truly no need to find a euphemistic expression to describe my progress through this adventure we call life. I may call myself a coot, but it is not necessary, nor even desirable, that you refer to me in that fashion. I would never refer to an older lady as a biddy. But I might call her old.

The Wesleyan Church has a ministry for people past fifty which they call "Best Years Fellowship." It is an achievement to have arrived at "these years" but if they are the best years, then what of the fifty or more years we frittered away getting here? Every year is your best year. It is the one you have now. The Baptists defer the membership in their fellowship of old persons to age fifty-five, but they designate them "Keenagers." Oh, yes. That is keen.

While we in the Western World tend to worship youth, seeking to hold on to it long after its time in our lives, the peoples of the East seem to have a rather different outlook. They actually go so far as to venerate and honor the old. Imagine that.

Spare me the pussy-footing around it. Call me vanilla, call me David, call me old if you must. But I am not a senior. I was. Twice. In high school when I was seventeen and in college a few years later. I may be keen, but perhaps not so sharp as I once was. What is golden about my age? Silver, yes. I can see that. In the mirror. The truth about this stage of our lives is perhaps best expressed in the final chapter of Ecclesiastes:

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Proverbs

22 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.

² The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.

³ A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

⁴ By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life.

⁷ The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

⁹ He that has a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he gives of his bread to the poor.

¹⁵ Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

¹⁶ He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want.

I don't often select passages at random, but today's passages are from Proverbs 22 which was a "thumb between the pages" choice.  Included here are only eight of the proverbs from this chapter which includes way too much for me to digest in one sitting.

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Keep the Faith

In the forty-seventh chapter of Genesis, we see that Joseph has brought his father, Jacob, before the Pharaoh of Egypt to introduce him.

And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?

 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

Here is a man who was blessed with a dozen sons, who was endowed of God with wealth beyond his wildest imagination, who is the bearer of the promise given to his forebears, who reports, at the age of 130, that the days of his life have been "few and evil."

Yet with faith in the promise, Jacob, when dying, blessed both sons of Joseph, and worshipped God.

What hope, then do we have?  The days of our life are indeed few.  That they will be plagued with evil is a given.  In the blessings that God grants us, we have hope only in the greatest blessing of all, the gift of salvation through His grace in the redeeming blood of His only begotton Son.

Hebrews 12:1-3
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.