Job 21:8-13

(8) Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. (9) Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. (10) Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. (11) They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. (12) They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. (13) They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

Job gives, in these verses, a most masterly description of prosperous sinners: and every age of the Church affords numberless living examples, that the account is not heightened. Observe, what a view the man of Uz gives, in the first place, of their mirth. They are unvisited by affliction. The rod of GOD, as a kind father, is not felt by them. Observe the training of their children. What a melancholy picture is this of an ungodly house: They send them forth, to the dance. Alas! what thousands of graceless parents there are, in the present day, who do this, and are regardless of their children's eternal welfare. They take the timbrel and the harp (the same fashionable instruments which the frivolous make chief part of the education of our day); but not a word of taking the Bible, or the sweet sounds of the gospel of JESUS, for their little ones to be brought up in the knowledge of it: but the whole system tends to this end, how to excel in that, which the stage dancers and the lowest of animals excel in, as well as they! Observe in what striking terms Job describes the result of all this: they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. And who that looks round, and contemplates what is daily going on in the carnal world before their eyes, can require further evidence of the truth of this now, as well as in Job's days. Read what Asaph hath remarked to the same effect, and compare the scriptures together. Psalms 73:3.