The faithful Job, in the day of his affliction and darkness, declared:

"Let the day perish wherein I was born." "O that my grief were throughly weighed, And my calamity laid in the balances together!"

"O that I might have my request; And that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; That He would let loose His hand, and cut me off! Then should I yet have comfort."

"I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul."

"My soul chooseth . . . death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: Let me alone; For my days are vanity." Job 3:3; 6:2, 8-10; 7:11, 15, 16.

But though weary of life, Job was not allowed to die. To him were pointed out the possibilities of the future, and there was given him the message of hope:

"Thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear: Because thou shalt forget thy misery, And remember it as waters that pass away: And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; Thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, Because there is hope. . . . Thou shalt lie down, And none shall make thee afraid; Yea, many shall make suit unto thee. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, And they shall not escape, And their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost." Job 11:15-20.

From the depths of discouragement and despondency Job rose to the heights of implicit trust in the mercy and the saving power of God. Triumphantly he declared: