The duties of aged men.
The apostle begins with the most important class in the Church—those who are the leaders of the young. Their characteristic deportment is to be fourfold.
I. SOBRIETY.
1. This habit of mind is contrasted with the thoughtlessness and levity of youth.
2. It is combined with
3. There are lofty motives to sobriety. (1 Peter 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8.)
II. GRAVITY, in the sense of a dignified deportment.
1. Old men ought not to lend themselves to the levity and flippancy of the young.
2. If they are grave in speech and gait, they will have more weight in the community. There must be no undue excitability.
III. TEMPERANCE, OR SELF-RESTRAINT.
1. The aged ought to show an example of self-government in regard to the passions, the appetites, and the will. The pleasures of sense ought not to allure them, or the love of the world to carry them away.
IV. SOUNDNESS IN FAITH, LOVE, AND PATIENCE. Here is the trilogy of graces once more, only that patience takes the place of hope, to which it is nearly allied.
1. There is to be a healthy action of these graces in old age. As if in contrast with the diseases, weakness, and age of the body. The aged have seen their best days, and they ought to reconcile the decay of nature with the increase of grace, so as to make human life to its extreme limit resplendent with beauty and truth.
2. Each of the graces has its appropriate place in the character of the aged.