of strength in themselves and of appetite in the stomach.

"And those that look out of the windows be darkened." The Vulgate translation is per foramina, through the holes, as Zech. xiv. 12; elsewhere rendered windows, 2 Kings vii. 19; Isai. lx. 8; Gen. viii. 2. So it is understood of the dimness of the eyes in aged persons, Gen. xxvii. 1; and xlviii. 10. Cajetan applies it to all the senses; but the words, look out and darkened, plainly limit the meaning to the sight only, which, through the want of spirits, dryness, inaptitude of the organs, hardness of the membranes, and other inconveniences, is much weakened in the decline of life. So that it is noted as remarkable in Moses, that when he was a hundred and twenty years old, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, Deut. xxxiv. 7.-We should learn from these infirmities in early years, to provide for them, and lay in comforts to support us under them, and not to trust in the strength of our own feeble arms, but to make the Lord our arm, and his right hand our defence, Isai. xxxiii. 2; Deut. xxxiii. 27; Ps. cxxi. 5: not to rest upon our own foundation, nor stay ourselves upon our own strength, by which no man shall prevail, 1 Sam. ii. 9; but to trust in the Lord, and to stay ourselves upon our God, in whom is

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everlasting strength. He is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, increaseth strength, Ps. xviii. 18; Isai. xxvi. 4; xl. 29; and xli. 10; Ps. cxlv. 14.

4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.

Various interpretations are given of these particulars. Some understand the first clause literally: The doors of the house, by which he was used to go into the streets to visit his friends, or to walk up and down in the prosecution of his business, shall be closed; he shall, by reason of his many infirmities, keep within doors, and abstain from all public meetings, which in his younger years afforded him great delight. Others refer it allegorically to the body, here compared to a house, whose doors towards the street in old age are shut up and become useless: as, first, the two lips, which are the doors of the mouth externally, Ps. cxli. 3; the word is in the dual number: or, secondly, the mouth, which is the door of the heart; and thus the epithet may be applied

both to eating and to speaking, to the œsophagus and to the arteria, the passages for the food to pass into the stomach, and for the breath to go to the lungs. These pipes are probably to be considered as the street or passage into several parts within the body, which have doors or valves, that open one way and shut another when we eat and drink, that our food may proceed directly to the stomach, and not in a wrong channel to the lungs. Now these doors, in old age, are through weakness shut, or as it were unhinged, being incapable of performing their office so pliantly and readily as formerly. Whence comes difficulty of swallowing and of speaking, to both which most of the interpretations of this passage nay be referred.

"When the sound of the grinding is low." This is applied by some to the hearing, when it becomes weak; by others to the decay of the concoction of the stomach: but the most probable interpretation is that which applies to the teeth, which, being few and decayed, occasion a less sound in eating than those of young persons; frangendus misero gingiva panis inermi. When the teeth are gone, the lips are compressed, the mouth falls, and the organs both of food and speech are much disabled.

“And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird." At the chirping or singing of any little

bird; an expression either denoting the little sleep of old men, or their weariness even in bed, so that they are disposed to rise as early as the feathered tribes leave their nests.

"And all the daughters of music shall be brought low." By daughters of music may be intended: First, some organs of the body adapted to music, as those fibræ vocales which are bent and inflected in singing; or the ear, which judges of sounds, as the palate of meats: or, secondly, all kinds of musical concert and harmony, vocal or instrumental, the peculiar delight of young persons, as it was of Solomon, Eccles. ii. 8; but which becomes unsuitable to the aged and infirm, who can neither sing themselves, nor enjoy the performances of others, 2 Sam. xix. 34, 35. From these defects we are instructed, in the days of our youth, to open the doors of our heart to receive the Saviour, that in old age, he may be with us; and that when our appetite fails, he may sup with us, Rev. iii. 20 ; when our sleep forsakes us, he may compose our minds to rest; and when all other delights are worn out, he may give us songs in the night, Job xxxv. 10; Ephes. v. 19.

5. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way,

and the almond-tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.

These are further degrees of the infirmities of old age, when it becomes more decrepit, and advances nearer to the grave.

"Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high;" either to ascend any eminence, through. fear of weariness, shortness of breath, giddiness of brain, disability to hold out, or danger of slipping; or lest any thing that is over them should fall upon them and hurt them.

"And fears shall be in the way." They shall go slowly and timorously, lest they should stumble at every stone or hillock that lies before them, or be injured by any thing that passes by them, or any infirmity overtake them in their journey; no way is so smooth and easy in which there may not be some cause or occasion of fear and apprehension.

"And the almond-tree shall flourish." Some understand this expression in a literal sense, as intimating, that when the almond-tree flourishes in the beginning of spring, and when the grasshopper is fat in the middle of summer, then shall the desires and delights, which, in the period of their youth, they were used at Co