What you need is a purpose to help you instead of petrifying your soul.  Alexander’s motto for the elderly was “Endeavor of to be useful, as long as you are continued upon earth.”  Sounding almost like a twenty-first century counselor, he suggests “imbecility and dotage are also prevented or postponed, or mitigated, by constant exercise of the mind.”  One may not be able to use their bodies as they did in their early years, but he encourages the elderly to find a way to use what they have for God’s kingdom. One way they can help the kingdom of God, even in old age, is through their words. 

There is a dichotomy in American life.  On the one hand we are a youth obsessed culture, and on the other hand we have a population that is aging rapidly.  As I look out on my congregation on Sunday mornings, or teach the Wednesday Bible study, the predominate hair color is grey.  I am not the only minister who is experiencing this.  I am sure others are as well.  It is not only a condition in many churches, I am existentially acquainted with it myself.  I used to be the youngest in the world of work, now I am one of the older ones with retirement not far away.  So how do you minister to the elderly?  I don’t think we should ignore it.  If we do, then we our ignoring one of the largest segments of our population.  So, who has the advice to help us?

One source that has been recently republished is Archibald Alexander’s letters to the elderly entitled Aging in Grace.  The letters have been republished by the Log College Press, but they were originally found in Alexander’s book Thoughts on Religious Experience.  Alexander (1772-1851) was the first professors at Princeton Theological Seminary, and he had a vast background in pastoral ministry that many later Princeton theologians lacked.  If there is one person who knew about the pains and joys of aging, it was Alexander due to his spirituality, but also the age he lived in—the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  It was a time before modern medicine, air conditioning and analgesics.  He was aware of the discomforts that come from aging, probably more so than we do.  Throughout his writing one gets a sense of a man who understands and shows empathy to those whose years are passing by.

Twenty First Century Americans can try to fight aging through exercise, diet, and plastic surgery.  But it is a battle that cannot be won.  In the words of Martina McBride, “We are pitching pennies into the fountain of youth.”  Take care of yourself, yes.  Fight the effects of the fall, yes. But in the end, “It is appointed unto man once to die.”  As the years go by our bodies decay.

Alexander does not romanticize age.  He understands fully the changes that age has brought.  He writes,

The autumn of our life has actually arrived.  The scenes of our youth have fled forever; and the feelings and hopes of that period have passed away also, or are greatly changed…And as the past years have passed so quickly, the few that remain will not be less rapid in their flight.  Indeed, to the aged, except when they are suffering protracted pain, time appears shorter that it did when they were young…The enchanted visons of a youthful imagination have vanished.

As we grow older, one temptation we all face is holding on to our past too tightly.  We have dreams of going home and recapturing the dreams of youth.  We have dreams of returning to our hometown or to find the romance of youth.  We may collect pictures of our youth to immortalize a particular time in our life when all seemed hopeful.  But it can’t be done.  It is gone forever.  It was just one phase of our life that we enjoyed, but now it is gone forever.

So, what does Alexander suggest?  He does not suggest a leisurely retirement.  For Alexander what you need is a purpose to help you instead of petrifying your soul.  Alexander’s motto for the elderly was “endeavor of to be useful, as long as you are continued upon earth.”  Sounding almost like a twenty-first century counselor, he suggests “imbecility and dotage are also prevented or postponed, or mitigated, by constant exercise of the mind.”  One may not be able to use their bodies as they did in their early years, but he encourages the elderly to find a way to use what they have for God’s kingdom. One way they can help the kingdom of God, even in old age, is through their words.  One of the peculiar duties of the elderly is,

….If we cannot use our hands and feet, so as to be useful in the labors which we were wont to perform, yet we may employ our tongues to speak the praises of our God and Savior.  We may drop a word of counsel to those around us; and especially, the aged owe a duty to the young, to whom they may have access, and who are related to them.

In the life of the church, the worship of God and the counsel of the aged are still needed.  Our bodies may be broken, but our tongues can still praise God through our worship, and they can still give godly advice to the younger generation.  For a godly saint, the wealth of spiritual knowledge can be beneficial to the emerging generation if they will listen and if the older generation will speak.  For Alexander, the older generation has a duty to the young to witness to the graciousness of God.  He sees Christianity as cross generational.

It is not only words spoken; it is words prayed.  The Princeton theologian writes, “But it may be that the lives of some are lengthened out, that they may offer up many prayers for the church and the world….”  A few paragraphs later, “Consider it as your chief business, to pray that the kingdom of God may come.”

Alexander’s biblical example is Anna, an elderly woman, who daily prayed in the temple (Luke 2:36-38).  When we think of purpose in life for the aged, why shouldn’t prayer be a purpose?  If we think for a moment of the great resource the church has, isn’t one the voices of the elderly?  If by prayer we reach the throne room of heaven, shouldn’t the masses of saints who have the time and means cry out?  What a resource the church has!

For revival in the Church, Jonathan Edwards called for a concert of prayer.  Perhaps in the life of the Presbyterian Church (as well as others) which is faced with various issues and a culture that is hostile, it is time for a concert of prayer across the denomination by the elderly saints.  In a time when young families are burdened with employment and childcare, those who may have time could offer up their prayers for the kingdom of God.

Dr. Jerry Robbins is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Warrington PCA in Pensacola, Fla.