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Excerpt from book:
Light At Evening Time. TO UTH RENEWED IN A GE. BY JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D.I). Christian confidence and hope in God give freshness, strength, and joy even in the period of old age. " They that wait on Jehovah"—or, in modern English, they that wait for him, who evince their trust in his goodness and power by patiently awaiting the fulfillment of his promises, they, though no longer young (mark the contrast with ver. 30)—" shall renew their strength: they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." The same thought is in the thanksgiving of the one hundred and third Psalm, verse 5: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." From both we may conclusively gather that Divine grace has influences to bestow which can counteract and often annul the debilitating tendencies of old age. We are not authorized, it is true, to teach that any degree of religious affection can turn back the shadow on the dial-plate, restore its auburn beauty to the gray head, or neutralize the physical causes of distress; though even here, such is the power of spirit over matter, that history shows marvels of an almost youthful gladness in blessed Christian old age. But we may and can assert that he whose habits have been formed in a perpetual waiting upon God receives a hallowed unction of grace, which, so to speak, makes him young again, or, more properly, keeps him from waxing old within. In the most rapid survey, we have considered some of the causes which makes this season of life formidable. All ages have observed them; all philosophies have sought to destroy or lessen their force. The most accomplished of all Roman authors has left nothing more finished than his ce...