THE PICTURE OF OLD AGE,
From Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 according to the common Translation.
The royal preacher, in the first seven verses of this chapter, enforces the duty of early religion, by arguments principally drawn from the decay of the intellectual and corporeal powers in an advanced age. The evils induced upon the mental system are little more than cursorily spoken of. The inconveniences resulting to the bodily structure from a long series of years, are more particularly expatiated upon. Whence it is evident, that Solomon chiefly designed the reader's conviction to arise from an anatomical survey of the human fabric. But the description here exhibited of the various organs of the body is somewhat obscured by an allegorical phraseology. In order to explain the meaning of the words, and the connection of the author's sentiments, let us view them in the form of a didactic essay.
Ecclesiastes 12:1. In the earliest part of thy life meditate frequently upon thy great Creator. Remember likewise, that thou art not indebted to him only for thy existence, but for thy continued preservation, and for the repeated comforts vouchsafed unto thee daily. Be sure, therefore, to testify thy gratitude for such high obligations, by consecrating the bloom of thy youth to Almighty God. This is assuredly the period of thy most acceptable services. Do not postpone the discharge of religious duties to more advanced years, because infirmities, pains, and sorrows will then imbitter thy days, and render life an insupportable burthen.
Ecclesiastes 12:2. Consider farther, that not only the body is enervated by age, but that the intellectual faculties, those luminaries of the microcosm, are likewise impaired. The understanding is darkened, the memory debilitated; and too often the will becomes cold, languid, and enfeebled; or perverse, restive, and reluctant to the exercises of religion.
Let me also add, that besides these natural obstacles arising from deficient powers of body and mind, there are very many contingent impediments to our duty: I mean those outward troubles and afflictions, which accompany human life, and which are usually multiplied, in proportion to the number of years which a man sojourns upon earth. Hence it is, that towards the close of our days we find disappointments and sorrows arise in a quick succession, like returning clouds in a wet season.
Ecclesiastes 12:3. But as the early surrender of our hearts to God, and the steady application of our minds to his service, are matters of such vast consequence, it may not be amiss to examine with greater precision those particular lets and hindrances to our duty which are generally the effects of age. Now, these impediments will appear evident from a scrutiny into those evils which advanced years bring upon the human system.
Those hands, which should frequently be lifted up in prayer to God, being weakened by age, hang down and tremble. They are disabled from earning provision for the body, and defending it against external injuries. At the same time, the ribs and the stronger bones of the thighs and legs, which formerly gave strength, rectitude, and stability to the whole fabric; which likewise, in conjunction with the back-bones, connected and held together the several parts of the edifice: these strong and mighty supports, I say, are all relaxed, or bowed down by age, and foretel the approaching fall of the superstructure.
The teeth also, in advanced life, become incapable of discharging their office, by a decay of their substance, or loss of their number. Hence the aliment is not properly broken, and divided and prepared for the stomach. From which cause a multitude of ills arise to the system in general; because the food, being imperfectly acted upon by the teeth, is likewise imperfectly acted upon afterwards by the stomach. Whence proceed indigestion, obstructions, and a default of nourishment, through the various parts and members of the body.
The defect of vision is another concomitant evil of old age. The eyes, those valuable organs! so essentially necessary not only to the comforts of life, but also to the security and preservation of man, are incapacitated from performing their important functions. Those windows of the building are darkened by films or defluxions; and the soul is, at it were, precluded from looking out at these obstructed casements. Whence it follows, that as from the decay of our strength we are disqualified for the active duties of religion; so likewise, from the diminution of our sight, we can make no fresh acquisitions to our knowledge by reading, or thereby recal or quicken past ideas and notices of our duty.
Ecclesiastes 12:4. But to return once more to those instruments which first prepare and dispose the food for its advantageous reception in the stomach: because, since our very being depends on the sustenance that we receive, and its due distribution through all the parts of the body, we can easily infer, that the entire loss or destruction of our teeth must cause a great failure of strength and vigour to the whole system.
That old age deprives us of these smaller bones, is too obvious a truth to be insisted upon. But, besides the unhappy consequences already enumerated, an additional difficulty presents itself to our view. The gums at this period are to personate the province of the teeth. Nevertheless, the smoothness of their surfaces render them very unfit for this work. Hence what pains and labour are aged men obliged to take, before they can bruise and soften their food sufficiently for the purposes of the stomach. It is also observable, that the lips, those portals of the mouth, are kept constantly shut during the action of the jaws, lest the morsel, through the loss of teeth to withhold it, should be protruded, and fall out of the mouth.
Another melancholy effect of old age, is a deficiency of sleep, whereby the strength and spirits are farther impaired. The old man frequently awakes at the crowing of the cock, and is incapable of renewing his slumbers: whereas the youth, and man of middle age, can perpetuate their sleep almost at will.
Notice has already been taken of defective vision: but the organs of hearing are likewise great sufferers by age. Those daughters of music, who by their exquisite delicacy of sensation and skill in melodious principles, formerly reduced sounds into harmony, for the entertainment of themselves and others, are now brought into the lowest estate, and are no longer in a capacity of answering the ordinary purposes of their structure.
Ecclesiastes 12:5. But, however material and weighty all these evils may be, there is still a heavier and longer train of calamities, which associate themselves with advanced years.
Whereas youth is bold, valiant, and regardless of danger, age is quite the reverse of this character. The ancient man discovers, in every action, diffidence, irresolution, and timidity. In all his short excursions abroad, he treads with circumspection, wariness, and distrust. After painfully ascending an eminence, he is seized with a temporary giddiness; and in his descent, he trembles at every pebble in the path, lest his strength should prove disproportionable to such little obstacles, and a fall ensue.
Thus fears and terrors are attendant upon the steps of that man whose grey hairs resemble the whitening blossoms of the almond-tree, and to whom, from the decline of his strength, even the grasshopper, that light and inconsiderable insect, becomes a burthen. Add to all these particulars, a disrelish of every scene around them, from the failure of desire, and the decay of other passions. Yet all these inconveniences and ills are inseparable from humanity, because man is born to die, and age is the harbinger of death. To enforce this truth by arguments, would be an insult offered to the understanding of men, while funerals and mourning relatives are frequently darkening all the streets.
From what has been already said upon the weakness, infirmities, and distempers of advanced life, the expediency, as well as the duty of early religion, must appear abundantly plain. However, as the human body is a complicated structure, and as little more than the external parts of the building have at present been considered, let us carry our researches farther, and examine what is doing in the more private and retired chambers of this wonderful fabric.
Ecclesiastes 12:6. Here we shall be astonished at the stupendous displays of Almighty wisdom, power, and goodness. Know then, that there are scattered up and down in the human body a multitude of white cords, to which anatomists have given the appellation of nerves. These strings are the instruments of sensation and motion. For if a nerve be tied hard, or cut asunder, that part to which the nerve belonged, instantly loses all feeling, and becomes destitute of action.
From the brain, which is the source of the whole nervous system, there proceeds through the entire length of the back-bone (in a cavity curiously formed for its reception and security) a cord of an enlarged size, which, on account of its resplendent whiteness, may aptly be compared to the complexion of burnished silver. From this cord are branched out thirty pair of smaller strings, which are distributed along the arms, thighs, legs, and trunk of the body. Now in old age this silver cord is very liable to be relaxed and weakened, or a part thereof to be altogether broken in its functions, as appears manifest from those paralytic complaints, to which elderly persons are peculiarly obnoxious. When a relaxation of this cord prevails, then tumours and debility are the consequences. When the canals which compose this cord, are quite obstructed, then follow complete palsies; or, in other words, an entire deprivation of sense and motion. Ought we not, therefore, to remember our Creator in the prior stages of life, before this melancholy period of deficient sensation and action arrives? For a palsy is partial death, and many times portends the speedy dissolution of the whole building.
But, agreeably to what has already been suggested, the brain is the original of the nerves. Those nerves, which are bestowed upon the eyes, the ears, the tongue, and all the other parts of the face and head, issue immediately from the brain itself, through small apertures in the skull, primarily designed for the transmission of these little cords. Any disorder happening to these nerves, and interrupting their functions, will occasion, according to the degree of the disease, dimness of sight, or total loss of vision, heaviness of hearing, or absolute deafness, defective speech, or an utter incapacity of speaking; will deprive the lips in part, or altogether, of their due motions, and likewise impair or annihilate the smell and the taste.
What an amazing organ is the brain! that source and parent of all sensation and motion! That inexplicable repository of the understanding of man! How curious its texture! How tender its substance! and of what vast importance to the present existence, utility, and comfort of the species! For which reason the all-wise Creator has securely lodged it in a strong citadel of bone; which, from its circular cavity, and the inestimable value of its treasure, may with propriety be styled the golden bowl.
But it is observable, that in the extremity of old age, this golden bowl, and more especially the contents thereof, are highly injured. The several parts of the brain, through length of time, become unfit for their various offices. It is like an exquisitely wrought machine, with complicated movements. A long succession of years breaks, wears out, and dissolves this surprising workmanship. Wherefore it must be the most egregious folly to defer the consideration of our eternal interest till the winter of life comes upon us, when we are disqualified for the common intercourses of society, and even for the ordinary actions of animal life.
But additional motives for early religion will result from a scrutiny into the effects of age upon the heart, and the great vessels which proceed from this fountain of life. We most assuredly ought to secure the favour of our Maker before these large canals, which issue from the heart, and receive, like pitchers at a well, the contents of this spring, be grown incapable of discharging their office aright. For it is an incontestable truth, that in elderly men, these grand conduits, which take the blood from the heart, in order to circulate it through the lungs, the brain, and all the organs and members of the body, become bony, rigid, and inflexible: whereby they are disabled from acting upon the blood, and driving it through all the distant pipes of the system. Hence those languors, faintings, and sudden changes, which frequently occur in persons much advanced in years.
But also the heart itself, that cistern of the whole building, which receives and dispenses to the farthest extremities, in an appropriated period of time, every particle of blood belonging to the body; I say, this powerful reservoir is rendered by old age unfit for its important charge. Part of its substance, like the great canals already mentioned, degenerates into bony fibres, which are unable to perform their due action. For the heart propels the blood to the extreme parts by a contractile force. If this contractile power is abated by the hardness and inflexibility of the heart's substance, it is apparent that the circulation of the blood cannot properly be carried on; but momentary stagnations, sinkings of spirits, and universal weakness must follow. Because this power of contraction, like the wheel of a water-engine, is the grand and principal cause of the distribution of the fluids through all the numerous channels of the system.
This is a true, though uncomfortable, representation of the animal oeconomy in the decline of life. Whoever, therefore, attentively surveys this picture, ought to act answerably to the admonitions which it suggests. He should acquaint himself with God from his youth, and secure the friendship of that Almighty Being, who will not forsake him in his old age, and when he is grey-headed.
Every serious and thinking man must be convinced, that the dedication of the prime of his days, and the vigour of his strength to heaven, is both wisdom and piety. To all procrastinating votaries, will not the prophets interrogatories be very apposite? "If we offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if we offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto the governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? faith the Lord of Hosts."
Ecclesiastes 12:7. But it must also be noticed, that these defects and decays of the system are the immediate forerunners of its dissolution: that, when this great change befals us, the materials of which our bodies are composed shall be all resolved into earth, from whence they were taken; and our souls, which animated these organized particles of dust, shall return to God, the Father and Judge of our spirits; who will reward or punish us, according to our deeds in the flesh. This is an argument of infinite weight, and indeed far superior to any arguments hitherto urged for the remembering of our Creator in the days of our youth. Wherefore, let the rising generation consider, that if through grace they nobly scorn the blandishments of sense, and inviolably attach themselves to their duty, they will be most gloriously recompenced at the grand tribunal, Ecclesiastes 12:14. "when God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."
REFLECTIONS.—1st, This chapter is a continuation of the subject which closed the preceding. We have,
1. The application of the Preacher's discourse to young men, by way of admonition and counsel. Remember now, without delay, thy creator, or creators, the triune God, whose right to us is unquestionable; not only our Maker as men, but our Redeemer also as sinners, and thus twice our creator; and therefore justly expecting that we should glorify him in our bodies and in our spirits, which are his.
2. He urges his exhortation by the suitableness of the season, and the prospect of the evil days which are approaching, when the infirmities of age and sickness as much disorder the mind as the body; when we should have gotten, and not be then to seek, the supports of religion, which these days of evil and anguish need; and when, if at last we should reflect on our past days, it must give us the most painful reflections, to look back on the flower of our years spent in the service of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and only the dregs of age remaining for God.
3. The calamities of old age are elegantly and feelingly described: probably the sacred penman now spoke from experience. The sun, the light, the moon, the stars are darkened, the eyes of the body grow dim, and can no longer enjoy the surrounding objects of light, and the faculties of the mind are impaired; the judgment awakened, the memory lost, the imagination frozen: and the clouds return after rain, successive troubles and ails follow each other, and under painful defluxions the body melts away. The keepers of the house tremble, the paralytic head, the shaking hand, and tottering knees bespeak the feeble frame, and the strong men bow themselves; the legs can scarcely support their weight, and on some artificial prop the body bending to the tomb is sustained: the grinders cease, because they are few, the toothless gums no longer perform their office to masticate the food: and those that look out of the windows are darkened, the eyes sunk in their sockets, and no more sensible of the light of day. And the doors shall be shut in the streets; they eat little, close their lips to keep their food in their mouths, having lost their teeth; and are unable to appear as formerly in the streets; and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, his broken rest is easily disturbed with the crowing of the cock, or the least noise, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; the voice becomes inharmonious and harsh, the ears dull of hearing. Also they shall be afraid of that which is high, unable to ascend the hill, or climb the tower; their breath fails, their head turns round, and fears shall be in the way; they are afraid of falling through weakness, and ready to stumble at every thing in their path: and the almond-tree shall flourish; with silver hairs their heads are covered,* and the grasshopper shall be a burden, either their chirping is irksome, or, if used for food, however light of digestion, too heavy for their stomach; and desire fails, the appetite lost, and the passions of youthful days utterly quenched. And in this debilitated and exhausted state, death cannot be far distant; because man goeth to his long home, the grave, where the abode of his body must be till a resurrection-day; or, to the house of this world, that eternal world which should alone be regarded by us as our proper home: we should consider ourselves as pilgrims upon earth, and strangers while here below, and look for, and hasten to, the everlasting habitations which await us above; and the mourners go about the streets, either those who were hired to weep for the dead, or those dear relatives, who with no fictitious tears bedew the bier of their departed friend, and fill the air with their lamentations. The silver cord, the bond of union between body and soul, will then be loosed; the golden bowl, which contained the animal spirits, be broken; then shall the pitcher be broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, the heart cease to beat, the blood to flow, and universal stagnation and death ensue. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, such is the dire effect of one man's sin, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it, to receive its doom; either admitted to the blissful presence of God, or reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Well might the Preacher conclude from this humbling view of mortal man, with the position that he had advanced as the text of his discourse, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
* See note on this passage.
2nd, The Preacher is drawing to a conclusion, and warmly recommends what he has written, as the dictates of wisdom and experience. He tells us,
1. The pains that he took for our instruction. Moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; what God had given him, he freely communicated; and, being recovered from his falls, returned to his former happy employment of making others wise unto salvation: yea, he gave good heed, extracting all the instruction he could find among books or men, and well digesting and pondering it in his own mind, and sought out with elaborate and accurate investigation the more difficult parts of science, and set in order many proverbs. 1 Kings 4:32. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, such as might most effectually, powerfully, and pleasingly convey the sacred truths which he laboured to inculcate; and that which was written was upright; being the dictates of God's Spirit, even words of truth, proceeding from the God of truth.
2. The use and intention of his discourse. The words of the wise are as goads, sharp and quickening, convincing the conscience of sin, and stimulating our stupid hearts to diligence and activity in working out our own salvation: and as nails, to fix the wavering soul on God, fastened by the masters of assemblies, the ministers of the true religion, whose office and business it is, with ceaseless labour, to inculcate these words of truth, which are given from the one shepherd, who alone can make their ministry effectual to the conversion of men's souls; and he has promised to be with us always, even unto the end of the world. In dependance upon him, therefore, must we go forth, and confidently expect to be assisted by him, and made successful in the preaching of his gospel.
3. The Bible is the book of books; compared with this, all others are insignificant; and whatever corresponds not herewith is carefully to be avoided. And further, by these my son, be admonished, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these sacred truths; or of what is more than these beware, and affect not to be wise above what is written, but reject every writing which pretends to add to, or diminish from, what is revealed in the word of God: of making many books there is no end; it is vain to expect conviction from any other book, if the book of God do not produce it; and though our study were crowded with writings of philosophy and morality, one page of God's word speaks with more power, authority, and evidence to the conscience, than these numberless volumes; and much study is a weariness of the flesh; the composing or reading human works with fixed attention wearies both the mind and body; but the study of the book of God is as pleasing as it is profitable.
3rdly. Behold, reduced to a single point, the sum of true religion, the certain means of happiness, and the great end of man: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God, and keep his commandments; the one the principle, the other the practice which necessarily flows from it. The fear of God comprehends all serious godliness, a reverence of his majesty, a deference to his authority, and a dread of his displeasure, and this will engage us to keep his commandments diligently, constantly, universally; making conscience of all our ways, and seeking to have them more exactly conformed to that perfect rule which he has prescribed. Two things are urged to enforce this.
1. The consideration how much it is our bounden duty thus to fear and serve God. This is the whole duty of man, it is the great end of his creation, and should be his first concern; or, this is the whole man, he is then truly blessed and happy; which all the world and all the things therein can never make him.
2. The consideration of the judgment approaching. For God shall bring every work into judgment: of what infinite moment these must it be to us, how we shall appear at his bar, where, according to our deeds, our eternity must be determined for endless joys or everlasting burnings! God sees and marks all our ways, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil; before the assembled world of men and angels they will be produced, and judgment, according to the truth, be executed. Happy they who keep this great day ever in their view, and feel the impression of it deep upon their hearts, restraining them from evil, quickening them in their course, supporting them under trials, and engaging them to persevere, faithful unto death; they shall have great boldness in the day of judgment, be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man, and be admitted into the everlasting joy of their Lord.