Man's Preéminence. 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 ; shey 
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 upnomore.” 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 
