Man's Preeminence. 471 



Death has been spoken of as the " land of forgetfulness " 

 the place of darkness, where all man's thoughts perish. 

 Certainly no more than this can be said of the " beasts that 

 perish." 



Other holy writers make similar affirmations. Speaking 

 of mankind in general, who " dwell in houses of clay," Job 

 says : " They are destroyed from morning to evening ; they 

 perish forever, without any regarding it." Again he says, 

 and the passage is more definite than the preceding : " As 

 the. cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth 

 down to the grave shall come up no more." And still again : 

 " Man dieth, and wasteth away : yea, man giveth up the 

 ghost, and where is he ? As the waters fail from the sea, 

 and the flood decayeth and drieth up : so man lieth down, 

 and riseth not." Chapters III and X tell of the piteous 

 lamentations of Job over his life, wherein he complains that 

 he ever was born, that existence was ever given to him, that 

 he was ever taken from a state of absolute nonentity, and 

 that even death itself can bring no relief to his miseries 

 except extinction. 



Turning to Ecclesiastes, in which book occurs the solitary 

 passage which is held to disprove a future existence to the 

 lower animals, there are passages which are even more 

 emphatic as to the immortality of man. Read what is 

 declared : " I said in my heart concerning the estate of the 

 sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they 

 might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which 

 befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one thing 

 befalleth them. As the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, 

 they have all one breath, so that a man has no preeminence 

 over a beast : for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; all 

 are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Further it is 

 said : " For the living know that they shall die, but the dead 

 know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for 

 the memory of them is forgotten." " Whatsoever thy hand 

 findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no 



