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經文：「好像禾捆到時收藏。」（伯5:25） 曾經有人提出關於拆解古老海船的報告，報告中說老船船身的木料質地之所以極佳，不僅是因爲年代久遠，還因爲船身曾在海上經歷了許多磨練，再加上所接觸的海水，與承載的各種物品，使它發生了化學作用。 也曾經在紐約百老匯有一家舊式家具店，陳列了一些橡木板料；這些板料取材自一艘具有八十年歷史老船的橫樑；其色澤之美，紋理之精細，吸引了許多市民的參觀與重視。 還有一艘六十年前航行海上的帆船，它那桃花心木的橫樑，同樣地非常出色。悠久的歲月與航行的歷程，使木料的氣孔緊縮顏色加深，其堅韌的質地與古趣盎然的色澤，足可與中國古瓶媲美。這些木料如今在紐約一位富豪的客廳中被製成一個小小的暖閣，成爲客廳中的尊貴象徵。 由此看來，那些不經磨練，渾渾噩噩虛度一生的人們，和那些曾經滄海背負各種重擔，事奉神又幫助人的基督徒，在本質上具有極大的差別。後者不僅有過被磨練的經驗，他們所背負重擔中的生命氣質，更滲入他們待人接物的美德中。 太陽雖已降落地平線，但是從未消逝。就算是日落之後，天上仍有整整一個小時的明亮。一位偉大的義人離世以後，他的生命雖然消逝，但是他的人品事蹟依然常。身後所留下的一切，對後世有貢獻的事物，令他的生命雖死猶生。--皮邱 Beecher 法國文豪雨果過了八十歲以後，曾說過下列這段名言來表達他的心境： 「我感覺到將要擁有的新生命；就像曾被無數次砍伐的森林，但是每逢重發新芽，就再度充滿了前所未有的活潑生機。令我彷彿升向高空，陽光照在我的頭上，大地賜我豐富的活力，天上的明光四射，使我明白了神秘的宇宙萬象。」 「人們說靈魂不過是肉體能量的延伸，那爲什麽我的體力開始衰退，我的靈魂卻變得更爲光明？冷冽的冬季臨到頭上，永恒的春季卻在心底。此刻我呼吸著丁香，羅蘭，和玫瑰，就像當初二十歲的時候一樣。我愈接近人生的終點，愈聽得清四圍歡迎我的交響樂，迎接我前往那不朽的世界。這一切似乎神奇，但道理卻十分單純。」 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "Like a shock of corn fully ripe" (Job 5:26). A gentleman, writing about the breaking up of old ships, recently said that it is not the age alone which improves the quality of the fiber in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes. Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite coloring and beautiful grain. Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a bark which sailed the seas sixty years ago. The years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the color, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase. It was made into a cabinet, and has today a place of honor in the drawing-room of a wealthy New York family. So there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fiber of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes as the servants of God and the helpers of their fellow men. Not only the wrenching and straining of life, but also something of the sweetness of the cargoes carried get into the very pores and fiber of character. --Louis Albert Banks When the sun goes below the horizon he is not set; the heavens glow for a full hour after his departure. And when a great and good man sets, the sky of this world is luminous long after he is out of sight. Such a man cannot die out of this world. When he goes he leaves behind him much of himself. Being dead, he speaks. --Beecher When Victor Hugo was past eighty years of age he gave expression to his religious faith in these sublime sentences: "I feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest which has been more than once cut down. The new shoots are livelier than ever. I am rising toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights me with its unknown worlds. "You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. I breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses as at twenty years. The nearer I approach the end the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple." ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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