405


mory  to  the  most  distant  posterity;  it  says,  at
such  a  time,  in  such  a  place,  lived  a  man  who
attained  his  hundredth  year.  After  this,  he  must
die.  Old  age  is  an  incurable  malady,  and  we
are  old  at  fourscore.  O!  shadow  of  life,  how
vain  art  thou!  O  grass!  how  little  a  time  dost
thou  flourish  in  our  field!  O  wise  and  instruc
tive  principle  of  Barzi'llai,  there  is  very  little
distance  between  old  age  and  death!  "  How
long-  have  I  to  live,  that  I  should  go  up  with
the  king  to  Jerusalem?  I  am  this  day  fourscore
years  old,  I  pray  thee  let  me  return,  that  I  may
die  in  mine  own  city,  and  be  buried  by  the
grave  of  my  father  and  my  mother."

But  if  the  principle  of  this  good  old  man  be
well  founded,  the  consequence  derived  from  it
is  better  founded,  that  is,  that  worldly  affairs
do  not  suit  a  man  drawing  near  the  end  of  his
life;  that  when  death  is  so  near,  a  man  should
be  wholly  employed  in  preparing  for  it.  If
Barzillai  had  been  a  wise  man  through  the
whole  course  of  his  life,  as  we  may  suppose
he  had,  he  had  not  put  off  till  now  a  prepara
tion  for  this  event,  which  is  certainly  the  most
serious  and  important  of  life.  Even  they  who
have  lived  the  most  regularly,  and  gone  inno
cent  through  all  the  busy  scenes  of  life,  have
long  accounts  to  settle,  and  questions  of  the
last  importance  to  agitate,  when  they  come  to
die.  Every  thing  engages  Barzillai  to  avoid
disconcerting  himself  in  his  last  moments,  and
to  devote  the  few  that  remain  to  seriousness.
