---

The greatness of man is chiefly in this, that he can say to pain, I will endure; and to death, I will conquer its fear; and to old age, I will not be querulous. The glory of man is chiefly in this, that Christ enables him to go beyond the Stoic, and to say to pain, I will not only endure, but I will make suffering a step towards progress; and to death, I will not only conquer its fear, but open it as the portal of ampler life; and to old age, I will not only not be querulous, but will, therein and thereby, finish my inner development before I go. To crystallise into finished perfection was the aim and the ideal of the Stoic. To grow for ever is the aim and the ideal of the Christian. Death ended the effort and the pain of the Stoic. Death continues the effort, without the pain, of the Christian. What were the gains which blessed Simeon's age?

I. PROPHETIC POWER. He saw the Child and he knew that It was the Saviour of the world. This is the glory of a Christian's old age — vividness of spiritual vision.

II. Another remarkable gain blessed the old age of Simeon, the possession of A LIBERAL RELIGIOUS VIEW. We find the old man set free from the exclusiveness and bigotry of his time and of his youth. Those were strange words upon the lips of a Jew — "a light to lighten the Gentiles!" They had been said before. But it was not a common thought, nor a national thought, at the time of Christ's coming. Those who heard Simeon would be likely to call him a dangerous Liberal. Tolerance and a wide religious view are natural to old age, and it is very pitiable when we find it without them.

III. Simeon wins the crowning blessing of old age — DEEP PEACE. We cannot win that quiet till just before the close.

IV. But what is the SPECIAL WORK OF old age? It is partly outward, partly inward. Its outward work is the spreading of charity; the using of experience for the help of others. Its inward work is, however, the most important-the edifying of the heart in noble religion by consideration of the past; the rounding of the soul into as great perfection as possible, in filling up the broken edges of the sphere of life, in consolidating the world of our ideas. In wonder, and in joy that he has been so cared for, and so led into maturity, all thought of self passes from the old man's life, and he throws his whole being in gratitude at the feet of his Saviour and his God. It is, in fact, the first touch, even before death, of the pure and perfect life, the first faint throb of the exquisite existence into which he is going to enter, the half-realization on the borders of the world of light, while yet within the glimmering shadow, of what communion with God may mean. Then, indeed, he feels what Simeon felt when the long-repressed cry rose to his lips, for he sees the very Christ: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant," &c.

(Stopford A, Brooke.)Simeon felt that little hand that lay hidden in his bosom as if it was fast loosening the silver cord. He speaks less like a living man than as a kind of Lazarus, alive indeed, but bound. "Lord, loose me," he prays. Younger men must work with the Messiah — his day was done.

(A. Whyte, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

WEB: "Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;