“That I may brighten up,” is the marginal reading.

I like that. Before I go hence and be no more with my family, let me brighten up, and try to brighten up things for them. Let me not cast over them the shadow of my funeral before the event occurs. Lift up Thou the light of Thy countenance upon me, O Lord, and put gladness in my heart (Ps. 4: 6-7).

One could see the light of the divine countenance in the face of a saintly woman who was celebrating her 101st birthday. Sitting before her birthday cake in the soft glow of the lighted candles, with a sweet smile on her face and gray hairs silvering over her brow, she looked beautiful! Like a lighted candle in a holy place, so was the beauty of her aged face.

Facing life’s eventide with the beauty of a lovely spirit shining through her features, this aged saint has something to say to those who regard old age as a calamity and want to keep looking young.

Each age has its own peculiar charms. When the charms of youth are gone, one can make middle age or old age radiant with its own natural bloom.

There is beauty in the oldest face if it is not distorted by an ugly spirit.

The apostle Peter offers the best beauty secret: “You are not to adorn yourselves on the outside with braids of hair and ornaments of gold and changes of dress, but inside, in the heart, with the immortal beauty of a gentle, modest spirit.”

Note that he speaks of a beauty that is immortal. Here is beauty that does not face with age—the beauty of a gentle, modest spirit.

A beautiful spirit will cause any face, young or old, to glow with beauty.

There is nothing brighter in this world than a bright old age. If you have come to a good old age, you have no occasion for being sad and gloomy. Hold on to your faith in God, and brighten up! You have God’s promise that the best is yet to be.

If life be good as bud and blossom, why shouldn’t it be good when fully ripe and waiting to be gathered?