The Silver Greys

"The Silver Greys"

BY AXEL MADSEN

This is a glad occasion. I hope I may not mar it now but ;

would that, being blest and through your kind and helpful sym- pathy, I might here express some worthy thought on this grand theme, the very mention of which stirs a thrill of love in all our hearts, "The Silver Greys." "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man." So spake the Lord. Long life is a blessing which the favored Patriarchs of old enjoyed, and it is promised as a reward for those who yield obedience to parents. Surely youth will ever owe full homage to the "Silver Greys." For who more worthy of our love and honor, our gratitude and praise, than the brave souls who wear such crowns of glory ? "Grey hairs," 'tis said, "are the crests of foam which cover the sea after the tempest." They belong to those who have breasted the waves and met life's stormy billows, with courage strong and brow undaunted; who have weathered the tempest, and now glide gently into the peaceful harbor. Throughout the long, hard day, they've toiled and struggled on beneath the sun's hot glare, and now, at eventide, they view the settting sun in peace. It is a solemn thing to draw nearer and nearer to eternity. And these kind hearts, who've labored long to make a place for us and to smooth our pathway, "now teach us how to meet old age." "With each year they have become more genial, have cher- ished larger and still larger sympathies with their fellow men, and, if time has set on them any mark, they preserve, in all its freshness, the soul" which shall never grow old. Oh, youth is fair when, in the pride of strength and spring- time's rosy glow, it stands in innocence at Life's great Portal but ;

fairer yet, I hold, is that sweet face, though furrowed deep with cares and sufferings borne, and wearing there the battle-scars of time, which, crowned with silver grey, still smiles benignly with that same innocence untainted, though tried and proven long. That soul who, passing through this world of bitterness and sin, has been but made the gentler and sweeter for it, ripened in wisdom and love. In our own midst, assembled here with us, I see some of these stalwarts true. Wemay not know how often their gracious pres- ence we shall feel again.. But, while we may, let us make them- feel how glad we are that they are here. And when we see a stooping figure approach with faltering tread and trembling hand,

*An "Old Folks' " toast, given at a Thirty-first ward, Liberty stake, banquet, 1916.

'

"THE SILVER GREYS" 821

let us not forget that once that bent form bore burdens which would stagger us, and that those feet have trodden, perhaps, a thousand miles or more o'er trackless plains and thorny paths, to make for us a home. And those roughened hands, mute witnesses of toil, oh, hold them tenderly in a warm and fervent clasp, for they have wrought a work which God himself approved. O ye venerable men, and dear aged women! We love, we honor you ! Would that we might sing your praise one-half as well as you have done your work that we might labor with one- ;

half the zeal to do our part and carry on the work which you have begun. Oh, that we who follow might rise in splendid strength and majesty, take up a priceless heritage and bear it nobly, without spot, aswe've received it. Then should we stand a royal house, sons of kingly sires, upheld and blest by heaven. To these few words, I may add but the wish for all who wear Time's badge of honor, a long-continued life, crowned with health and prosperity, with happiness and joy. "Live on to hear your children's children rise up and call you blessed. Live on for the sake of your old friends and associates, for whom life would lose much of its luster in losing you as com- panions and friends. Live on for your own sakes, that you may enjoy the better day of which your eyes already catch the dawn. Live to enjoy the coming triumph of truth, for which you've long contended when the acknowledged power of right shall tear the :

root of sorrow from the hearts of men, and your children's chil- dren shall stand the guardians of human liberty and the regener- ators of the race!" These sentiments are paraphrased thoughts which appeal to us all. "Deal gently with them, Time, And trace decline upon their brows so slowly That, like a sunset in a northern clime, Where lingering twilight deepens into dusk, And dusk fades into light so softly That none may mark the passing of the day, So may they pass, As one who slumbering dreams, and dreaming wakes. Wakes to stand among the heavenly number of whom we sing: "Who are these arrayed in white, Brighter than the noon-day sun, Foremost of the suns of light, Nearest the eternal throne?" "These are they who bore the cross, Nobly for their Master stood, Suff'rers in His righteous cause %> Followers of the living God.

Oh why should I presume to sing their praise? Angel voices linger here, pay tribute only can. But shall not we, while yet they !" to the "Silver Greys