THE AMERICAN

NATIONAL PREACHER.

No. 12. VOL. XIII.] DECEMBER, 1839.

[WHOLE NO. 156.

SERMON CCLXXIV.

BY REV. JOEL HAWES, D. D., HARTFORD, CONN.

FRUITFULNESS IN OLD AGE.

PSALM 92: 14.-" They shall still bring forth fruit in old age." There are two events before us, which no skill or power of men can avoid. They are old age and death. All of us are advancing towards them by a steady and irresistible progress. By night and by day, we are traveling on, through the successive stages of life; nor can we stop a single moment on the road that is conducting us and all mankind down the scale of years, to the affecting termination of our earthly being in the grave and eternity.

We may indeed be cut off in the midst of our days, and thus be snatched away from the infirmities and trials of declining years; but if life is spared, we shall all very soon reach the period of old age; and when arrived at that period, the next step brings us to death and the house appointed for all the living. But though these events cannot be avoided, much may be done to mitigate or remove the evils connected with them, and to render ourselves useful and happy even down to old age and death.

Plants and trees are necessarily deprived of their fruitfulness by age, and are left to decay, or are cut down as useless encumbrances of the ground. The same is true of animals. They grow, come to maturity, decay, and die. The same also is true of multitudes of men, who, more resembling vegetables or animals, than rational beings, live only for the present moment; and having spent their little hour of being and enjoyment in this passing scene, decay like the leaves of autumn, and fall, soon to be forgotten, as if they had never been.

Not so the persons spoken of in our text. They shall bring forth fruit in old age. These are they, who, in the context, are denominated the righteous--they are like to the palm-tree, that VOL. XIII. No. 12.

is always green-to the cedars of Lebanon, that are always flourishing; they are said to be planted in the house of the Lord, and as a consequence, they flourish in the courts of God. Nature may decay, but grace thrives still, putting forth fresh blossoms and bearing fruits even amid the storms and frosts of the winter of life.

My object in the present discourse is to mention several things which are necessary to fruitfulness in old age, and then urge some considerations which should engage us to live in such a manner as to bring forth fruit in old age, should it please God to spare our lives till that period.

1. The first thing then which I mention as necessary to fruitfulness in old age, is a well regulated childhood and youth.

The young are, in general, but little aware of the inestimable value of their early days, nor do they realize in any measure as they ought, while they tread the giddy round of pleasure or trifle away the golden hours of youth in neglect of God and their souls, that they are forming the habits and fixing the character of their future years. They know not that, in a course of dissipation or vain amusements, they are training up for a useless life, a wretched old age, and a miserable eternity.

Such, however, is the fact. There is a very close connection between a misspent youth and a fruitless old age. The grace of God may indeed interpose to break this connection, and save the subject from shame and ruin. But even when this is the case, the unhappy effects of early misconduct remain through life, and greatly diminish the fruitfulness of suqsequent years. John Newton was a dissipated and wicked youth; and though, by the grace of God, he was snatched as a brand from the burning, he felt till his dying day the unhappy consequences of the habits he formed in early life. The same is true of all who spend the morning of their days in estrangement from God and neglect of duty. The habits then contracted cleave to them as a second nature, and are a great impediment in the way of a useful and happy life.

Our earliest are, unquestionably, our most important days. They are the spring season, the seed-time of life and eternity,the period when the appetites and passions are to be subjected to the higher principles of reason and virtue; when the mind and heart are to be cultivated and improved; and when, if ever, are to be formed the germs, at least, of those intellectual and moral habits which impart worth to the character and dignity and usefulness to future years. If the morning of life is neglected or misimproved, the loss is irreparable. It is like a frost in spring or a drought in summer. The one destroys the opening blossoms, the other the ripening fruits; and either cuts off all hope of a plentiful harvest. An apocryphal writer says: "If thou hast gathered nothing in thy youth, how canst thou find any thing in thine age?"

What a young man is at fifteen or twenty years of age, that he is likely to be in the leading traits of his character through life. If you see one in that tender, forming age, careful of his time and diligent in the improvement of his mind and heart; if you see him remembering God his Creator, consecrating to him the dew of his youth, and coming forward upon the stage of action under the influence of correct moral and religious habits, you see one who, having been planted in the house of the Lord, will flourish in the courts of his God. The seed sowed in his youth will spring up in age, and bear fruit unto eternal life.

On the other hand, if you see a youth improvident of his time and neglectful of his habits; if you see him breaking away from the restraints of religion, throwing from him the counsels of his parents, and indulging in vicious courses, you need be at no loss. to predict his future character. He is forming habits which he will probably retain through life, and which will render him not only a useless member of society, but a burden both to himself and fellowmen in the decline of age.

2. Perseverence in the means of promoting usefulness through every successive period of life is another thing essential to fruitfulness in old age.

We see many young persons setting out in life with every flattering prospect of success, who entirely disappoint the hopes of their friends, and sink into a state of comparative insignificance and uselessness. The reason is, they want perseverance. They have not energy of character to endure the self-denial and toil which are necessary to enable them to rise in the world, and carry them forward in a course of well-doing. They are unstable of purpose, fluctuating in effort, acting without plan, without aim; now pursuing this, and now that, till, discouraged by want of success, they give over exertion, fall into habits of indolence, often of vice, lose their respectability and influence in society, and finally sink into obscurity and neglect.

It is the appointment of Providence that nothing great or good can be obtained without perseverance. It matters not what may have been your advantages in youth, nor how accomplished your education, nor how splendid your talents, nor how varied your attainments, nor how flattering your prospects; all will not avail to render old age useful and happy without continued effort. Industry and economy, for a few hours in a morning will not atone for idleness and prodigality the rest of the day. The fairest setting out will not suffice to secure success without patient continuance in well-doing. The tendency of human nature is downward; and nothing can keep us in course of improvement, but unremitted and unwearied exertion. The moment we cease to make effort to rise and go forward, we begin to sink and go backward. There is no point where we can stop or fold our hands in slothful ease, without diminishing proportionably our usefulness and happiness in the decline of life.

There is another fact to be kept in mind. It is much easier to lose a character than it is to acquire one. Virtuous influence, usefulness, is a plant of slow growth. It requires much time and the most careful cultivation to bring it to any good degree of perfection. But a single stroke in a single minute can destroy it. One misstep has often ruined the reputation of a long life, and rendered the subject of it wretched and useless the remainder of his days. Esteem is lost, confidence is destroyed; and when thesə are gone, no man can be either useful or happy. Fruitfulness in old age, then, demands not only persevering exertion, but habitual watchfulness, lest in some unguarded hour the tempter seduce the heart from the ways of virtue and uprightness, and thus blast the character and destroy the usefulness and peace of future life.

3. In order to bring forth fruit in old age, it is necessary that we keep up with the spirit and improvement of the times in which we live. If we would be useful in our day and generation, we must move on with the progress of things, and keep up an acquaintance with what is going on in the world. If we neglect this, we shall soon fall behind the advancing spirit of the times, and feel ourselves to be strangers in the world to which God has called us to live and act for the glory of his name and the good of our fellow men.

Let a man in this active, stirring age fall asleep, and remain in that state five or ten years, and then wake up, and he would scarcely know where he was or what he had to do. He would be in a new world; and for want of sympathy and fellowship with the living, active beings around him, would feel himself entirely disqualified to enter into their designs or unite with them in any plans of general improvement.

Not unlike this must be our condition, if we cherish not in ourselves the spirit of the age to which we belong, and move not with the moving world around us. If we stop or quit our post. only a short time, we are left in the rear, and must pursue the remainder of our journey alone. Stereotyped habits of feeling and thought are not in keeping with the spirit of the age. If we retire from the scene of action; if, through attachment to former days or dislike of innovation and change, we refuse to go forward in our habits of feeling, and thinking, and acting with the advancement of public sentiment and the progress of events, we must cease to be useful, because we shall cease to have any sympathy or fellow-feeling with the agents who are at work around us. It is owing to a defect in this particular that some ministers, and not a few professing christians, manifest a strange indifference to the benevolent operations which distinguish our day. And what is worse, we sometimes see persons of this description looking with an evil eye upon those operations and opposing them as useless, if not hurtful innovations upon that order of things to which they have been accustomed. The reason is, they have not kept up with the spirit of the times; they have fallen behind the

age in which they live, and in their habits of feeling and acting belong to a generation that has passed away.

There is another thing to be noticed in this connection, As aged people perceive the infirmities of years coming upon them, they usually feel a growing reluctance to every thing that requires activity and labor. Their feelings are like those of a man who is chilled through with the cold; they are inclined to lie down and repose. But the consequence of yielding is fatal. The reluct ance to activity increases by indulgence, and is soon succeeded by a torper both of body and mind, from which nothing can rouse them. It is far wiser to keep the mind, and the heart, and the hands actively employed in our Master's work till the last. Many aged people have I known, who, by a sort of inherent energy or force of character, have kept off for years the infirmities of age, and by exerting themselves to keep up with the spirit of the times, have continued to shine as lights in the world even till the going down of their sun.

*

4. Another thing essential to fruitfulness in old age is to guard against the faults that are incident to that time of life. If the aged are less exposed than the young to the sins of vain mirth, and loose desires, and irregular appetites and passions; or if they are less exposed than the middle-aged to the sins of ambition, and pride, and worldly aggrandizement: they are more exposed than either to be querrulous, impatient, discontented; to be suspicious, jealous, and vainly fearful of neglect and want. They are also much exposed to be disatisfied with the present generation and the present state of things, and to speak of the former days as better than these; and while they have but little fellowship with what is passing around them, they are very apt to be obstinate and self-willed; to be distrustful and jealous of those who are coming upon the stage of action after them; and what is still more surprising, to be much addicted to the sin of covetousness, when nearest to the end of their days.

Covetousness is styled by the Apostle the root of all evil; and as the "root in winter retains the sap, when the branches have lost the ir leaves and verdure; so in old age, the winter of life, covetousness preserves its vigor when other vices have disappeared." Strange as it may seem, when men are about to leave the world, they often cling fastest to it; and at the sun-set of life, are careful and troubled about many things, providing for a long day. Andrew Fuller explains the fact by saying, "The lust of the flesh has nearly spent its force, the pride of life has lost its charms;

* A remark of Dr. Rice, in his life, page 366. There are two errors to which aged men are exposed. One is, of holding on, and refusing to admit that they are old. The other is precisely opposite. It is allowing themselves to grow old, prematurely Failing to exercise their faculties, they become rusty. and move like an old door whose hinges are never oiled. I have no doubt about the fact, that when the organs through which the mind acts, fail, mental imbecility ensues. But I am equally certain, that ceasing to exert our faculties greatly impairs their strength. And I am convinced that when a man, whose life has been very active, retires, he very soon sinks into a second dotage.