Age, aged, old age

Rcsi^ect towards the aged as such, apart from any special claims of kin- ship, wealth, or public oflice, has always been a characteristic feature in Oriental life. tn modern Syria and t^gypt it has a foremost place among social dutie.", taking rank with the regard paid to the neighbour and the guest. Any failure to show this respect on the part of the young is severelj' frowned down as unseemly and unnatural.

In Israel the general custom was strengthened by the command in the law of Moses, ' Thou shaft rise up before the hoary head' (Lv 19"'-). This beautiful bond between youth and age may be described as a threefold cord of wisdom, authority, and afl'ection. 1. Wisdutii. — Where there is a scarcity of written record, personal experience becomes the one book of wisdom. As it is put by the Arab, proverb, ' He that is older than you by a day is \viser than you by a year.'

There \a a similar emphasis on the value of experience when thev say, ' Consult the patient, not the physician.' Hence the dillidence ami respectful waitmg of the youth Elihu, ' Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom ' (.Job ,'!2'). Similarly the taunt of Elipliaz, 'Art thou the tir.st man that was l)om?' (Job 15'), and his claim, 'With us are the grey-headed and »ery aged men' (Job 15'°).

Thus also Moses, though possessed of the learning of the Egyptians, receives helpful advice from Jethro ; and later on, the tr.agedy of the divided kingdom in the days of Iiehol)oam turns upon the dillerence of opinion l>etween the old and young advisers of the king. 2. Authorit'j. — It was natural that the voice of experience and Avisdora should also be the voice of authority. It was the tide-mark of Job's pros- perity that the aged rose up before him.

From the dignity conferred on the father as lord of the house and head of the family, the title soon pa.s,sed into one of public ollice. The old men l)ecame the 'elders' of Israel and of the Christian Church. Similarly among the Arabs, the family of the ruling sheikh (old man) bore the title of sheikhs from their youth — an extension of the orig. meaning that is seen also in the corresp. ecclesiastical term.

When the Lord sought to set forth the high meaning of discipleship with regard to enmity, slander, immorality, and murder. He at once reached a point that seemed be3'ond the ideal when He alluded to the law revered by age and authority, and declared that even it must be vitalised and transfigured (Mt 5"""*). 3. Mutual Affection.

— The teaching of the Bible on age appeals as much to the heart as to the head, and many all'ectionate interests are made to cluster around the relationship of old and young. In the language of endearment, ' the beanty of old men is the grey head' (Pr 2U'-^), and 'The hoary head is a crown of glory ' (Pr 10^').

The presence of the aged in a community is regarded as a sign of peace and goodwill, just as the rarity of old age and of natural death indicates a state of blood-feud and party strife (Job '22'"). John, who in youth came to Christ with a petition of selfishness, lives to say in his old age, ' Greater joy have 1 none than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth ' (3 Jn V.*).

The women of Bethlehem in their rejoicing over the child of Boaz and Ruth, bring the expression of their joy to her who would feel it most, and say, ' There is a son bom to Naomi ' (Ru 4"). In the same spirit the aged apostle, in his apjieal to I'hUemon on behalf of Onesimus, gives a predominance to love over law, saying, ' I rather beseech, being such an one as Paul the aged ' ( Philem V.')

The last and softest fold of this allectionate relationship is the feebleness of age, and its claim upon the protection of the strong. It was the absence of this that made Moses stand apart and unique. Barzillai is too old for new friendships and fresh surroundings. The limit is set at three- score and ten, and excess of that is increase of sorrow. Jacob's retrospect is over days ' few and evil.' There are daj's in which there is no pleasure.

Along with the recognition of long life as a mark of divine favour, the apostle can say, ' To die is gain.' Lastly, when heart and flesh fail, the prayer is made to the Almighty, ' When I am old, forsake me not' (Ps 71"). Along with this devotion to the old and reverence for the past, the Bible keeps a large space for the fact of reaction against routine, and the superseding of the provincial and preparatory.

Elihu occupies it when he says with the intensity of epigram, ' There is a spirit in man, and the breath of tlie Almighty giveth them understanding. It is not the great that are wise, nor the aged that understand judgment ' (Job 32''"). Cf. ' A new commandment I give unto you' (Jn 13*). The old existed for the young, not the young for the old.

As the wisdom of the man of years grew into the teach- ing of the historical past, it was discovered that the new was really the old, and that the latest bom might be the most mature. The very rever- ence for the wisdom of the piust set the limitation to its authority. The well-wom garment had to be protected against the loud predominance of the new patch. The old bottles were once new.

Hence along with the exhortation to seek the ' old paths ' we have the announcement that ' old things are pa,s.sed away.' Further, in the Vui Dolorosa of the centuries along which the Word of God walked with the questionings and sorrows of men, as the light forced the darkness into self-consciousness, and the kingdom of God came nearer, it could not but happen that the august form would sometimes appear to block the way, and dispute the passage of the truth for which it existed.

The appeal to the Burning Bush is always for some newer name than the God of the fathers. Hence in the course of revelation, a.s the purpose of divine grace grows luminous, the infinite spirit chafes against the limited form, and a distaste is provoked towards regimental wisdom and macadamized morality. 18 AGEE AGRICULTURE The refreshment of the brook makes men think of the fountainhead.

Hence in Israel the akedia of Ecclesiastes on account of the omnipresent past ; and in heathenism the inscription of religious despair, 'To the unknown god,' and the unrest that urged phUosophy to 'some new thing' (Ac 17^).

The Bible witnesses throughout to this vital relationsliip between the new and the old ; for its last scene is a repetition of the first — the new creature stepping into the new heavens and new earth, and m the eternal service behind the veil new notes are heard in the song of Moses and the Lamb. As long as the power of vision remains limited, it is essential to the sublime that some- thing of blue haze and boundlessness should lie on the horizon both of life and landscape. G. M. Mackie.