Rejuvenescence

“How can a man be born when he is old?” — John hi. 4.

It has been thought by some that Nicodemus uttered these words because he was an old man. I do not think he was; old people do not travel alone in the night. Nor is the idea of personal old age implied in the question. Christ had declared the universal need for a second birth. Nicodemus says: “At that rate, all the aged unbelievers will remain unconverted. There is no hope of changing habits of thought which have become inveterate. The young may take on new ideas; but the old cannot. In order to do so, they would require to perform the impossible feat of passing through the process of birth a second time.” The language of Nicodemus is not personal but sympathetic; he is not thinking of himself, but of others. Christ tells him, however, that there is no age-limit for the second birth of a soul. “The wind bloweth where it listeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” He says in effect:” The spirit has liberty at every age; it 280

can sweep the woods of autumn equally with the fields of spring. The flesh has a limit of years — a limit beyond which it can renew itself no more. But the spirit can break into morning at midnight, into June in January, into foliage in the frost of winter. The lark in the soul may sing in the evening. The dawn in the heart may come at the closing. The joy of the life may wait for the setting. The spirit of a man may be raised even at the last day.” That is what Jesus meant; and it is true. We speak of the burdens of age; and it has burdens. But, say as you will, there are burdens which age removes, and these the heaviest ones. Care presses most upon the morning, just because it is the morning. I am more troubled by shadows in hope than by shadows in memory. Earth is uncertain in my early hours; and uncertainty is unfavourable to song. But in life’s evening I can sing. I have no longer to provide for myself. Personal outlook is ended; what remains is for God to do — not for me. It seems the true time for being young — the careless time, the free time, the spiritually unweighted time. No wonder Jacob carolled then with the first song of his life! No wonder he swept, in age, the harp-strings that in his youth were silent! He had no longer to provide for his youth by a 281 stair, for his pillow by a stone, for his daybreak by a wrestling of the soul. The wings of the spirit came when the wings of the morning had rest.

Lord, give me the spirit of youth! Forbid that in my old age men should say, He belongs to a former generation “! I want to belong to the newest generation. I want my spirit to light its torch not at yesterday’s but at to-morrow’s sky. I want to be numbered with the race that is coming in rather than with the race that is going out. I can be so numbered; my spirit can be born again when I am old. I refuse to subscribe to that moral of the fleeting years — “We all do fade as a leaf.” Not as a leaf would I fade, but as a dawn. I would lose myself only in larger light. I would fade in a fuller radiance, I would merge in a mightier stream. If my taper expire, let it be in tints of gold! Kindle me again at the fire of the new generation! Let my heart catch the glow of the coming sun! However old my flesh may be, let my sympathies be young! Write my name among the early sons of this century! Interest me in their problems; inspire me with their aims; inflame me with their larger view! Give me fellowship with the love-feast of Cana; let not romance be rusted by life’s afternoon! Give me 282

Rejuvenfjscence

sympathy with the hour of first temptation; remind me of Hfe’s primitive hunger! Give me tenderness for youth’s aspirings; let me stand on its mount of beatitudes and see its coming kingdom! Give me kindliness even to early presumption; let me forgive James and John for underrating the depth of the cup! The climax of Thy leading is to make me young when I am old.