Sad indeed is the hope which is attained only in the grave, which has no clear vision beyond. Unillumined, uncheered, it has no brightness, no comfort. All that Job seems at present to hope for is the silence, the darkness, the rest, of the grave. There certainly does not dawn upon him file clear light of the future; at least the assurance of it is not declared in his words. It is the grave, the grave, and the grave only. Contemplate the condition of such as have this hope only.

I. NO LIGHT IS CAST UPON LIFE'S DARKNESS. Job's condition one of extreme sadness. He bears up with much bravery; but when his spirit is sorely pressed he buries his thoughts in the tomb. "I have made my bed in the darkness." No light comes from these dark shades to make brighter life's gloom. "The grave," "darkness," "corruption," "the worm," "the bars of the pit," "the dust" - to these Job is reduced; he cannot rise above them. No ray of light can come thence to make his present path brighter.

II. THIS HOPE GIVES NO EASE IN LIFE'S SORROWS. It awakens no holy emotion. It is a gloomy despair. Life ends in a tomb. The purposes of life are broken off with the ending of the day. Pain may cease then; but no ease comes thence to the afflicted one. To cry "father," "mother," "sister," to the worm and to corruption has no element of cheerfulness in it, no inspiration of brightening hope to relieve the gloomy sorrowfulness of the present. Such a future could not be anticipated but with the uttermost dread and abhorrence save by one pressed out of mind by the severity of his present afflictions.

III. SUCH A HOPE IS INSUFFICIENT, INCOMPLETE, UNSATISFYING. It leaves the soul with an unfilled void. In its incompleteness and unsatisfying character it points to the necessity for a better and Brighter hope. Human life lacks a harvest in the absence of something brighter than this. For the best life to go down into the grave as its final condition seems so anomalous that everywhere the longing for a brighter condition exists.

IV. SUCH A HOPE STANDS IN CONTRAST TO THE CLEAR, COMFORTING, ASSURED HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. Life and immortality had not been brought fully to light when these gloomy words were written. It remained for the perfect revelation and the all-perfect Revealer to make known the brightness of that future which awaits the godly. Israel held possession of the hope of the resurrection; but it is part of the skilfulness of the teaching in this book that anything short of a fully assured immortality of Blessedness is insufficient to meet the utmost requirements of the human soul. - R.G.

I. DESCRIBE THE HOUSE.

1. The grave is a very spacious house.

2. It is very dark and dreary.

3. It is a house of silence. It is empty.

4. It is the house of corruption.

5. It is the house of oblivion.

II. ALL MEN ARE GOING TO THIS HOUSE.

1. This lot is ours by the appointment of God.

2. Ever since God appointed death, He has been carrying mankind to the grave in a constant and uninterrupted succession.

3. We not only see the mortality in others, but feel it coming upon ourselves.

III. WHY WE SHOULD KEEP THIS SERIOUS TRUTH IN MIND.

1. Because God requires men to keep their mortality in view.

2. God takes many methods to impress this important truth upon men's hearts.

3. It is necessary in order to their forming all their worldly schemes with wisdom and propriety.

4. In order to form a just estimate of the world and its inhabitants.

5. In order to prepare them to endure the trials and afflictions of the present life with patience and fortitude.

6. It will have a direct tendency to prepare men for death when it comes. Improvement. Every way of thinking and acting is sinful, which tends to banish the thoughts of death from our minds.

(N. Emmons, D. D.)