Bridles for Old Horses

*’A/^oi only coifs, but horses already broken, need a bridle.’’ Indeed they do, and so also do we who are advanced in years and full of experience. Old men are not always wise men. Passions which should have been by this time quite subdued still need bit and bridle, or they may hurry us into fatal errors. Flesh does not improve by keeping, nor do corruptions sweeten by the lapse of years. New converts need to watch in the morning of their days, but old saints must be equally on their guard for the hours become no safer as they draw towards evening. We are all within gunshot of the enemy as long as we are this side of Jordan.

“Without me ye can do nothing,” is as true of strong men as of babes in grace. Temptation, like fire, will burn where the wood is green, and certainly it hath no less power where the fuel is old and sere. We shall need to be kept by grace till we are actually in glory. Those who think themselves at heaven’s gate may yet sin their souls into the deepest hell, unless the unchanging love and power of God shall uphold them even to the end.

Lord, bit and bridle me, I pray thee, and never let me break loose from thy divine control. Conduct me every mile of the road till I reach my everlasting home.