Every station and stage of life has its own special duties. Childhood has its duties, such as obedience to parents, modesty, and willingness to be taught. A husband and wife have their duties. Manhood has its duties; grown-up men or women are required to be useful in the world, and not to live unto themselves, but unto the Lord.

And so, too, old age has its duties. I will mention some of them.

1. You should endeavor to be patient and gentle. Amid all your pains and infirmities, how blessed if you can feel a cheerful submission to God’s will, and if you can accept, not merely with resignation, but with actual thankfulness, all that He lays upon you. God can give you this patient, humble, submissive spirit, if you will earnestly and daily seek it from Him.
2. You should try to be cheerful and considerate of others. Sometimes old people are a little apt to dwell too much on their own troubles and desires. Guard against this, and seek to make those around you happy. You cannot do much, perhaps, but you can do something. A gentle word or two, or even a kind look, will cheer some and encourage others.

Little drops of water, little grains of sand, Make the boundless ocean, and the beauteous land; Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, Make our earth an Eden, like the heaven above.
 

Do not grudge young people those delights which you can no longer enjoy. But put yourself often in their place, and remember that you were once a child yourself. The very feeling that you are trying to make others happy will make you happy yourself.

3. Be much in prayer and in the reading of God’s Word. These are great helps to a Christian pilgrim; they are like so many staffs by the way. Use them diligently and they will help you onward. As you read a little further, you will find some directions how to profit by the use of them.
4. You should sit loose to this world, and be in readiness to leave it. This, you will say, is the duty of us all. Yes, but it is especially your duty; for the clock of time seems now to be sounding its warning alarm in your ears. Every day seems to be saying to you, “Prepare to meet thy God! The night is far spent; the day is at hand. The judge standeth at the door.”

It is a sad sight to see an old person bent down with years, standing at the edge of eternity, and yet unwilling to loose his hold of this world — clinging to life with an eager grasp, as much busied as ever with its trifling concerns, still thirsting for its poor pleasures and yet unable to enjoy them, all before him a blank, having no hope as regards the future. Such an old age is indeed a sad one.

But you will perhaps say, “Surely when any one has grown old, and when he has sown the wild oats of youth, he will, as a matter of course, become thoughtful, and turn his mind towards that world he is so shortly to enter.” But no; this does not at all follow. On the contrary, I have seen many in old age be just as worldly minded as ever, putting from them, even then, the thoughts of a life to come.

Dear friend, only grace can make you anxious about your soul. Only grace can prepare you for eternity. We all need the powerful working of God’s Spirit to draw our minds from earth to heaven, from sin to holiness.

Happy for you, if heaven is the home of your heart! Happy for you, if your thoughts are centered there! Happy for you, if you can say, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14b); “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen!” (2 Cor. 4:18a)

5. Your conversation should be heavenly. Your time is nearly ended; and therefore you should not think much about this world which you are about to leave. Its pleasures, its riches, its occupations, should not occupy your mind. You should rather busy yourself with preparations for your journey to your everlasting home. You should love to speak about your Father’s house.
   True, our evil hearts will ever be “cleaving to the dust” (Ps. 119:25). There is a weight upon our wings ever keeping us downwards. But oh, struggle against this. Pray against it. Ask God to be continually drawing your mind heavenward, and to enable you to “set your affections on things above” (Col. 3:2). Speak thankfully of His preserving mercy. Bear testimony to His goodness and faithfulness, and recommend others to trust Him without a doubt, and to give their whole hearts to Him.
6. Try to set a good example for others. We should all wish to be useful in the world. But now that you are grown old, you feel perhaps that your time for usefulness is past. Satan may whisper, “You are too old to be useful now.” But not so; you may do something still. It is true you cannot labor for your family as you once did. You cannot go here and there to help those who need your assistance. But you may be very useful even now — useful if you are rich, and useful, too, if you are poor. As you sit by your fireside, you may speak Christian words; you may show by your conduct and temper the blessed effects that religion has upon your heart. You may, by your prayers and praises, by your patience and perseverance, by your watching and waiting, glorify God. A really Christian old man or woman may thus be a great blessing to the house and place in which he is living. He may spread a feeling of contentment around him. He may stop many a bad work, and soften many a quarrelsome spirit. He may show forth so clearly the power of grace in his own conduct that he may lead others to seek it, and pray for it themselves.

Without speaking much, or doing much, you may honor God by your Christian conduct; and thus your light may so shine before men, that you may glorify Him. We know that a nice pic­ture in a room is a pleasant thing to gaze upon; we constantly turn to it with pleasure. And what picture is there more beautiful than that of an aged Christian, old in years, and ripe in grace? “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness” (Prov. 16:31).

Yes, remember always you may do much by your example. This will say more than your words, for your words may be mistaken, but your life cannot be. It must and will speak. Paul reminded the Corinthians of this when he said, “Ye are our epistle ... known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ” (2 Cor. 3:2-3); that is, your lives plainly declare whose and what you are.

These are some of the duties which belong to old people. Dear reader, neglect them not; try to fulfill them. It will be for your own happiness, and for the good of others. Thus you will be “bearing fruit in old age.”