「你必壽足年邁才歸墳墓，好像禾捆到時堆積起來。」－約伯記5:26
裡頭寫道，由舊船卸下的木料特別精良結實，不僅因為年代久遠，更是因著在海上經年累月的航行，船隻經歷了無數次的拉扯、擠壓，以及海水的浸蝕、貨品的承載，終於使它發生了化學變化。
幾年前，紐約百老匯街上一間時尚的家具店展示了一些橡木板料，他們都拆自於一艘八十多年古舊的船隻。美麗的色澤，精緻的紋理，一時吸引許多市民前來參觀。
另外還有一艘航行了六十多年的帆船，它那桃花木的橫樑，也引得人們屢屢發出讚嘆。
在時間漫長的琢磨下，木料上的氣孔逐漸縮緊，顏色也日益加深；最後，它豐富典雅的色澤，竟然可與中國古代瓷器的色澤媲美。如今，這塊木料成為了櫥櫃，在一個紐約富豪的客廳裡倍受尊榮。
由此得知，那些在無謂的事上蹉跎一生、在自我的追求中恍惚沈溺的老人；和那些曾經游歷四海，覆載著無數沈重貨物，謙卑著事奉神，殷勤的服事人的年長基督徒，其中的差異真不知有多少。－班克斯
雖然太陽從地平線上滑落了，但它仍未消逝；整整一個小時，天空仍佈滿它華彩的餘暉。
當一個偉人離世時，他的榮光也不會從這世上滅跡。他雖然離去，卻仍舊說話。－畢察
"Like a shock of corn fully ripe" (Job 5:26).A gentleman, writing about the breaking up of old ships, recently said that it is not the age alone which improves the quality of the fiber in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes.
Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite coloring and beautiful grain.
Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a bark which sailed the seas sixty years ago. The years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the color, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase. It was made into a cabinet, and has today a place of honor in the drawing-room of a wealthy New York family.
So there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fiber of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes as the servants of God and the helpers of their fellow men.
Not only the wrenching and straining of life, but also something of the sweetness of the cargoes carried get into the very pores and fiber of character. --Louis Albert Banks
When the sun goes below the horizon he is not set; the heavens glow for a full hour after his departure. And when a great and good man sets, the sky of this world is luminous long after he is out of sight. Such a man cannot die out of this world. When he goes he leaves behind him much of himself. Being dead, he speaks. --Beecher
