No Old Age in Grace

“We have our infancy at our first conversion, tvlien liable to childish ignorance and many infirmities; we have oicr youth and growing age when making progress in the way of grace towards perfection; and lastly, we have our perfect matily age when we are come to our full pitch, when grace is fully perfected in glory. In Scripticre there is nothing said of a fading and decli7iing time of old age in graced The fact being that, unhke the natural life, the spiritual life does not conclude in declining strength and inevitable decrepitude, but continues its progress even beyond the grave. We go from strength to strength, not from strength to weakness. The old age of grace is maturity, not decay; advancement, not decline; perfection, not imbecility. In the advanced years of nature we lose many of our faculties, but in advanced grace our spiritual senses are more quick and discerning than ever. The aged man feels the grasshopper to be a burden, and the clouds return after the rain; but to the advanced believer the greatest loads are light and the rain is over and gone. Old age goes down to death, but ripe grace ascends to everlasting life. Lord, let me grow ripe but not rotten, maturing but not decaying, for thy glory’s sake.