Sermons Volume 2; Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church, Brooklyn (Paperback)

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: Old Age. " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shall say, I have no pleasure in them." .ecclesiastes, xii., 1. This passage, which stands in the midst of a remarkable and eminently practical description of youth and old age, has usually been construed as a dissuasive from pleasure, as a dissuasive from many of the innocent enjoyments of youth; and as teaching that we are to bear in mind the coming of old age, and that we are not, since we are the creatures of an hour, to unduly estimate the transient joys and pleasures of life. If we take into consideration the closing verses of this chapter, I think we shall give another construction to the text: " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: " "Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth Fear God, and keep his commandments: " that is the way to remember him " while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." That is, remembering that there is such a thing as a miserable old age, so conduct yourself in youth by remembering God and obeying his commandments that the misery of old age shall be escaped, and a brighter day be awarded you. In other words, this passage seems to me to be a cautionary suggestion as to the method of so living as to make old age desirable, beautiful, and happy. Old age is a distant port for which the whole human racestart, toward which they steer. More than half perish at the commencement of the voyage. Should every alternate ship go down before reaching the light-ship, off the harbor of New York, it would represent the human race, one half of which dies in infancy. Of the remainder, ...