SPIRITUAL life is not bound to the wheel of our natural life, even though it passes through phases of development. There is something of the eternal about the qualities of character produced in a godly man, qualities which remain fruitful whilst his faculties remain. Simeon in the temple nursing a babe of a few weeks is like life in the truth. Throughout our days we nurse spring within us, the vibrant promise of life to come, the undying hope which sustains our mortal spirit. Fullness of summer and the abundance of harvest are found in the satisfying plenitude of life in Christ. The threat of winter and of the cold sleep in the ground is warmed by a transforming hope, a confidence in the mercy of God, which turns death into a sleep in the Lord, and the long wait into but a moment; or, as another part of scripture puts it, “or ever I was aware, my soul set me among the chariots of my princely people” (Song of Solomon 6:12).

HARRY TENNANT, The Man David, pages 192,193.