Youth In Old Age
My God gives me back my youth; I can regain it in Thee. Let the shadows of my life be rekindled into morning’s glow, let my heart be lit with Thine eternal youth. Thou hast promised us eternal life, and what is that? Not merely life forever, but life forever young. Thine eternal life can make me a child again, a child without childishness.
—George Matheson.
Grow Old Along With Me
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith a “Awhole I planned,
Youth shows but half; Trust God: see all nor be afraid!”
Then, welcome each rebuff
That turns earth’s smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!
Be our joys three parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!
Let us not always say
“Spit of this flesh to-day
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!”
As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry “All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!”
Therefore I summon age
To grant youth’s heritage,
Life’s struggle having so far reached its term:
Thence shall I pass, approved
A man, for aye removed
From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.
—Robert Browning.
Alternate Reading: I Peter 2:1-10.