Come, friend, you too are getting old!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Flowers from a Puritan's Garden" 1883)

"We see that others are mortal — but we do not number our own days!"

This is an ordinary observation concerning that which is really an extraordinary piece of folly! What can it matter to us, how others are aging? Our main concern is our own conduct, and the spending of our own days.

Come, friend, you too are getting old! Snowflakes here and there upon those once raven locks, are prophetic of coming winter. Those spectacles, too! Why, you will never see fifty again! Half a century have you lived, and more — surely it is time to be wise!

We see that Mr. Brown is getting to be quite the old man. No doubt — but you are moving onward, too. Mr. Brown does not get a year older in less time than you do. We are all sailing at the same rate! Is it not time that we took observations, and found out our longitude and latitude?

At any rate, it were well to know what port we are bound for!

"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle!" Job 7:6

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12