The Counsel of the Aged BY EDWARD HALLOWAY, A CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ARTIST. + "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."Prov., 1, 10. T HE first counsel of this earnest book is the appeal to youth. The writer, whose own aged, blood flows without heat, addresses the younger, more impulsive generation whom he loves. He bids them yield not to the enticements of evil. He foresees that reckless comrades will invite them to a life of violence. In those early days, bands of robbers were numerous; and even in our own time does not the life of animal strife, the seizure of all desirable things by sheer brute strength, does not this have some appeal for youth when strength first waxes full within the body? Therefore the teacher speaks in warning: "If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: "Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: "My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: "For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird." Such a life, we are warned, has always led to come to violent ends. · ISAIAH XXV—“I WILL EXALT THEE" 1157 removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall panish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. 22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. Chapter 25 1 The prophet praiseth God, for his judgments, 6 for his saving benefits, 9 and for his victorious salvation. LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. 3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. 4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. 5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. 6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. 9¶And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. 10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. 11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. 12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust. |