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Job's beautiful and impressive description of human life contains no exaggerated picture. It is a just and faithful representation of the condition of man on earth.

I. MAN IS OF FEW DAYS. The short duration of human life, and its hasty progress to death and the grave, has in every age been the pathetic complaint of the children of men. If he escape the dangers which threaten his tenderer years, he soon advances to the maturity of his existence, beyond which he cannot expect that his life will be much prolonged. He must fall, as does the ripe fruit from the tree. No emblem of human life can be finer than this used in the text, "as a flower"; "as a shadow." How rapid the succession of events which soon carry man into the decline of life! How frequently is the hopeful youth cut off in the very pride and beauty of life!

II. MAN'S DAYS ARE FULL OF TROUBLE. Trouble and distress are our inevitable inheritance on earth. In every period, and under every circumstance of human existence, their influence on happiness is more or less perceptible. Some reflections —

1. Since man is of few days and full of trouble, we should sit loose to the world and its enjoyments; we should moderate our desires and pursuits after sublunary objects.

2. Instead of indulging in immoderate sorrow for the loss of relations or friends, we should rejoice that they have escaped from the evils to come.

3. We should rejoice that our abode is not to be always in this world. The present state is but the house of our pilgrimage.

4. We should prepare for the close of life by the exercise of faith, love, and obedience to our Saviour; by the regular discharge of all the duties of piety; by the sincere and unremitting practice of every Christian grace; and by having our conversation at all times becoming the Gospel.

(G. Goldie.)

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KJV: Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

WEB: "Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.