given them little concern now hang as a heavy weight upon them (Eccles. xii. 5). Every little thing is ready to overset them, but God will carry them by supporting their spirits, and putting strength into them, so that they shall not faint and sink (Deut. xxxiii. 25).

2. He will comfort them under all their infirmities and sorrows. "I will

The word sometimes signifies, as the former did, to support and sustain; but more frequently, to exalt or elevate. It may denote lifting up the soul in joy or comfort; and so it may be considered as an advance upon the former thought. The aged need the fulfilment of this promise. The infirmities of nature come upon them apace; the senses grow weak; the active powers decay: they need the help of others almost as much as they did in their infancy. Often the faculties of the soul languish. Their relish for company, business, and pleasure is gone (2 Sam. xix. 35; P. D. 103, 113). Nay, they find their thoughts confused, their affection for divine things flags, and they cannot serve God with such fixedness of heart, such warmth of zeal and love as they have done. What they hear and read quickly slips away; and their minds are no longer easily impressed with divine truths. In these melancholy circumstances, God will bear and lift up their souls. He sometimes in a most wonderful manner strengthens the powers of the mind. Under the infirmities of nature, He will afford them the consolations of religion; elevate their minds above the trifles of earth and sense; strengthen their faith in His promises; and enlighten the eyes of their understandings, to see the glorious inheritance of the saints, and their own title to and qualification for it (2 Cor. iv. 16).

3. God will deliver them out of all their fears and tribulations. "Even I will carry you, and will deliver you." Many of God's aged servants, through the languor of their spirits or weakness of their faith, are continually distressed with anxious fears

of poverty, of increasing afflictions, of the temptations peculiar to old age, of apostacy in their last days, of death. But the Lord will deliver them from all their fears, will streng then their hearts, and will make them desire to depart and be with Christ (H. E. I. 322, 1602, 1642, 1643). And at length He will give them an everlasting release from everything painful and distressing (H. E. I 1629).

II. REASONS WHY THEY SHOULD CONFIDE IN THIS PROMISE.

1. He is your Maker. "I have made," saith He, "and I will bear." GOD formed your bodies and souls. Why, but to communicate happiness to you, that you might serve Him on earth and be for ever with Him? He who freely gave you your life, will surely grant you every needful good (Matt. vi. 25). God made you must He not therefore be a very wise Being? Must He not know all your needs, distresses, and fears? God made you: must He not therefore be a very powerful Being? Is there any evil so great that He cannot deliver you from it, any good so valuable that He cannot confer it upon you? (ch. xxvi. 4).

2. He hath been careful of you and kind to you hitherto. This is intimated in the text, which is a promise of continued care and favour; and it is plainly expressed in the preceding verse. Have you not reason to acknowledge, with aged Jacob, that the God of your fathers has fed you "all your life long" to this day, and redeemed you from evil? What stronger argument can there be to encourage your faith in His promises, than your long experience of His goodness? To distrust Him will be peculiarly unreasonable, and highly ungrateful. Holy men of old thought it a very substantial reason to exercise faith in God, that they had long experienced His care (Ps. lxxvi. 17, 20; 2 Tim. iv. 18). Hath God carried you sixty or seventy years, and will He cease His care and withdraw His kindness? How unreasonable such a conclusion! God hath been an old friend to you,

a tried friend, and you may be assured He will never leave nor forsake you; especially when you consider

3. He is an unchangeable God. am He"-an expressive word elsewhere rendered "the same" (Ps. cii. 27). "I am He that I was of old to the saints in former generations, and will continue the same through every succeeding age, and not like the idols of the heathen, that were made yesterday, and are destroyed to-morrow." This renders God the proper object of our trust. Creatures change, but He is the same. When men grow old they often find that their friends forsake them; their old acquaintance look shy on them; their children sometimes turn their backs upon them; the world is almost weary of them, and wisheth them gone. But their God remains the same powerful, wise, and gracious Being, whose affection for His aged servants does not lessen. It was a remarkable saying of Cardinal Wolsey, at the close of his life, “If I had served my God as long and as faithfully as I have served my prince, He would not have cast me off in my old age." The unchangeableness of God adds the strongest security to His promises and covenant, and is a sufficient encouragement to His people to hope in Him, whatever changes and alterations there may be in the world about them (Ps. lxxxix. 34, xlviii. 14).

III. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.

1. How unreasonable and unbecoming is it for aged saints to sink under their burdens and infirmities! Be they ever so many and great, you have the promise of God to depend upon, that He "will bear, and carry, and deliver" you. We have seen that it is a sure promise. Therefore, instead of fretting and complaining in the midst of trial, plead it, and it will be fulfilled to you.

2. Aged saints are under great obligations to God, and should be faithful unto death. To Him you are under innumerable obligations as your creator, preserver, and benefactor. Therefore proceed vigorously in His service, and

let not your infirmities be made an excuse for negligence and sloth (P. D. 2598). Labour to maintain the seriousness and spirituality of your devotions. Let your hoary heads never be spotted with any sin. If God gives you ability for active services, abound in them, for death is at hand. If you cannot do this, adorn and recommend religion by patience and resignation to His will, and by quietly waiting for His salvation. Glorify Him by calm faith in the final hour. I heartily wish your souls and mine may then be in the same frame as that of a pious Scotch minister, who, being asked by a friend during his last illness whether he thought himself dying, answered, "Really, friend, I care not whether I am or not; for if I die, I shall be with God, and if I live, He will be with me."

3. Young persons should choose God as the guide of their youth, if they desire that He should be the support and comfort of their age. If this great choice is not made in youth, it probably never will be made (H. E. I., 1457, 1458).—Job Orton, S. T. P: Practical Works, vol. i. pp. 373-382.

These words were addressed to God's ancient people in view of the time when Babylon would be brought to ruin. Bel and Nebo, its gods, would be carried away, unable to defend themselves. In contrast to them Jehovah, who had, like a mother, carried His people, would continue to carry them, through all the duration of their existence. To the end it would be as it had been from the beginning (Deut. xxxii. 11, 12). The words were spoken to the nation, but they contain a truth equally precious to every individual; and in this view we will consider them. We will notice

I. THE APPREHENSIONS THEY CONTEMPLATE. They are those incident to old age and its prospect. While no one can be certain that he will reach old age, no reflecting man can fail to think sometimes of the possibility that he may. At such times we remember several things, as that it is a period

1. When a man's pecuniary resources are likely to be diminished. Where an inheritance has been derived from ancestors, and where successful commercial enterprise has realised wealth, it is not so. Where it is possible to provide for old age, it is dutiful. But in the majority of cases, it is impossible. The family swallows up all. The decline of power to perform customary work means diminished income. This is the case of the labouring poor, and of many widows. Yet old age is the period of life when there is diminished ability to endure privation. The elasticity of youth rises above a change of circumstances; old age sinks under it. There is then a tendency also to greater anxiety about worldly comfort and sufficiency.

2. When friendship is less available than in youth. If poverty comes with it, it is too often found that "the world forsakes whom fortune leaves." Most of the friends of earlier days have gone whence there is no return; and there is neither equal disposition nor opportunity to make new ones. The old man feels himself becoming less important to the community. In private life he often becomes less capable of affording happiness. He may be garrulous; but it is about things not of present interest. Thus he is in danger of sinking into neglect; perhaps he is too sensitive, and fancies himself neglected and forsaken when it is not really the case.

3. When the physical powers fall into decay. It is not necessarily so with the intellectual and spiritual powers, which are often most vigorous in advanced life. But the body is like a house, it falls into ruin after a number

of years. Its powers decline.

Its

capacity for action lessens. The enjoyment of existence departs.

4. It is the period nearest to the hour of death. True, death is also near the young; only to them he does not show himself so plainly. But he cannot be far from the old. Death stands before them; a dark enemy who must be faced; a dread moment when, amidst unknown suffering, all that has made life interesting must be left behind.

II. THE ANTIDOTE THEY ADMINISTER. "Even to your old age I am He and even to hoar hairs will I carry you." They encouraged the exiled Jews to put their trust in the Lord. They may encourage us in the like manner in spite of the presence or the gloomy prospect of old age. He will be our God. He will lead and carry us through life to old age; and in old age will relieve the darkness by the brightness of His presence, the sufficiency of His power, and the tenderness of His love. The text reminds us of

"To

1. His permanent. existence. your old age I am He." His life runs through all ages and generations. The care of earthly parents gradually dies away as their children reach maturity. Parents usually die before their children. Should they survive until their children become old, they are themselves cast on the care of their children. However great his solicitude, no parent can guarantee that his own life will continue as long as his children need his care. But our heavenly Father will continue to exist through our lives and beyond. He can undertake the charge of His children to the end of their lives.

2. His enduring ability. "I will carry. . . . I will bear." The help rendered by any man may be discontinued from loss of ability. Human promises must be conditional on the continuance of ability. But God's ability suffers no diminution. You cannot survive His power to help.

3. His unchanging purpose. God says, "I will." It is a purpose formed in infinite wisdom. It will be executed with unfailing faithfulness. He will not change His mind as men sometimes do. The purpose is formed in the tenderness of unchanging love. Who can measure the duration of the

mother's love for the child she has carried in her womb? Long as life lasts, it is in her deepest heart. Even though he go astray, and others cast him off, the mother will not give him up. This is the love with which the Lord here says He follows His children, notwithstanding their numerous follies and faults (ver. 3). May we not regard this declaration as a sufficient antidote to the apprehensions we are apt to entertain in prospect of the various anxieties and inconveniences of advancing years?

You who are advanced in life can bear testimony to the Lord's faithful love, which has attended all your days. Have we not heard the aged speak in terms of satisfaction and thankfulness, notwithstanding the trials they have experienced in their life journey (Ps. lxxi. 6, 15). See that you honour God to the end by trusting yourselves to His disposal.

You who are young, make the Lord your confidence from your earliest days. Friends, health, business capacity, opportunities may fail. Lean on One who is independent of changes. Make Him your friend. Say to-day, "My Father, Thou shalt be the guide of my youth."-J. Rawlinson.

The words "I am He" mean "I am still the same: I will not alter. My love will not grow cold, my care for you will still continue." The God of our youth and manhood will be the God of our old age, losing none of the tenderness with which He has guided us through previous stages. What

a consoling promise! Though originally made to Israel, and applied to them in a national sense, each believer can make it his own (2 Cor. i. 20); and it is good for us, not only to rest on such a promise as we pass into the future, but to mark its fulfilment in our past experience, and in the experience of others who at life's close have borne testimony to the continued goodness, the sustaining power, the unfailing faithfulness of Him whom they trusted and served.

I. THE PERIOD OVER WHICH GOD'S CARE EXTENDS.- "Even to your old age," "to hoar hairs." God engages to be our life-long Friend. He will tend us all the way from infancy to old age, and then He will not forsake us. This golden thread of divine care through the whole web of our life, brightening its most sombre colours.

runs

God engages, 1. To be our Friend to old age. Some of us may think we can dispense with His help on the way to old age, though when we reach it, with enfeebled powers and diminished comforts, we may be glad to have recourse to His help. But God's promise is larger than our poor thoughts. He takes us up in His supporting arms as soon as we draw our first breath, and never leaves us, if we do not leave Him, until we have drawn our last.

2. To be our Friend in old age. Having conducted us to this period, He will not cast us off (Ps. lxxi. 9, 18). Old age is often a time of feebleness and neglect, with few friendships and enjoyments, but with His presence and support we may be peaceful, serene, useful in it. Instead of being repulsive, as we often see it, it may be beautiful, attractive, and honourable in us (Lev. xix. 32; Prov. xvi. 31). It is pitiable to see an old man who has missed the object of life. "To pass out of the world in the world's debt; to have consumed much and produced nothing; to have sat down at the feast and gone away without paying his reckoning, is not, to put it in the mildest way, a satisfactory transaction" (Earl of Derby). Such a spectacle is not uncommon; but, even then, a change may come. "God can put a fresh kernel into an old and worn-out husk." The sun of God's favour may shine on the declining days of a life spent in the darkness of unbelief, but such a case does not fall within the scope of this promise. Only those whom God has guided to old age can count with certainty on His support and blessing in old age. Many an aged saint can testify to the continued goodness of God. Is old age a second childhood? God is a