The Eagle-Like Christian

THE EAGLE-LIKE CHRISTIAN

So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Ps. 103:5).

Commenting on these words, “Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s,” the late Rev. John Henry Jowett paid a beautiful tribute to a deacon of his church. Though he was an old man, he called him “the youngest deacon in my church, always a child of the morning” and interested in every forward-looking work. He said: “I have never heard him speak about sunsets. He is a child of God; his youth is renewed every day; he will die with his face to the east, looking for the morning.” Such is the eagle-like Christian.

1. The eagle is the emblem of the mature Christian in the penetration of its eye.

2. The eagle is the emblem of the mature Christian in the elevation of its flight.

3. The eagle is the emblem of the mature Christian in the swiftness of its motion.

4. The eagle is the emblem of the mature Christian in the dignity of its appearance.

5. You cannot tell how old a person is by the number of years he or she has lived.

We have known persons youthful in disposition at eighty years of age. Louis II, King of Hungary, died of old age at twenty. Haydn’s oratorio, “The Creation,” was composed by him at seventy. Humboldt wrote his immortal work, “The Cosmos,” at seventy-five. Titian was engaged on his greatest painting when he died in his one hundredth year.

Bryant, A. (1997). Sermon Outlines on the Book of Psalms (p. 58). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.