Old Fashioned | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 27, 1886

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 20

“Old Fashioned.”

It was only a word dropped from the lips of a young girl, as she looked after the figure of an old lady trotting briskly down the street; only a word and a laugh to the merry companion at her side, but I couldn't forget it. I wanted to talk to those young girls, and all other young girls, upon the subject of old ladies, and old-fashioned ones in particular, and I take this opportunity to do it.

Yes, she was old-fashioned in her dress. That was evident. She was old-fashioned in her manner, or she wouldn't have smiled a greeting as she passed you, because of the love of her dear old heart for all young people. Now, I like old ladies when they keep their heart of youth. It is something they have put on when they were young, and never taken off, and, like the garments they wear, is very old-fashioned indeed. I like to find them out; to smile back at them greetings that will light up their eyes and warm their hearts with smiling remembrances of their young days. Only try it, and see what you will get in return for it. What warm hand-clasps, and what kind invitations to their own old-fashioned houses, where certain surprises await you, if you go. There are old-fashioned chairs that woo you to their comfortable depths; there is old-fashioned comfort written everywhere, and, above all, there is the dear old-fashioned hospitality, the like of which can only be found in such houses and among such people. It has a wonderful power to win even young people, again and again, to bask in its warmth.

Old-fashioned old people are like old china, somewhat rare, but rarely beautiful, and much to be prized when we find them. Don't miss the finding! Give a little of your own sweetness to win theirs; and if you are fond of the beautiful treasures that belong to the past, you will be repaid in your new-found ones, even more richly than in your old affections. Give them your confidence and win theirs. Watch the old faces brighten, and the old hearts grow young again, as they tell of their long past youth. But you will forget to do this; you will be so interested, you will forget yourself; you will live over again, with all the old pleasures, the old treasures of old hearts spread out for your young hearts to feast upon, and when you come back to your to-day, as you must, and leave their old yesterdays to them, to hear the old voices say: “Come again, girls; I have had such a good time,” I can imagine your own hearty response.

Oh, if to grow old is to grow sweet and gracious, to keep fires, love-lit long years ago, bright and glowing—though rains have fallen and snows of wintry wind have laid bare hopes cherished and dear—I pray that I may grow old, that I may keep the smiles of love for such as love the smiles of the old, and if this heart of grace shall have stamped itself upon the outer man, and left there such impress as may win me the love of the young as well as the old, then although the fashion of it be an old one, I should like to be old-fashioned.—Interior.