Verse 20. — Shall not the fewness of my days be ended shortly? 92. The end of life is chiefly to be regarded. — He shows himself to live cautiously and anxiously who, considering the brevity of the present life, looks not to its use but to its end, so that from the end he may gather that there is nothing which, though passing, delights. For hence it is said through Solomon: If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all, he ought to remember the time of darkness and the many days; which when they come, the things past shall be convicted of vanity (Ecclesiastes 11:8). Hence again it is written: In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin (Sirach 7:40).
Therefore, when fault tempts the soul, the mind must needs look upon the brevity of its delight, lest iniquity snatch it away to a living death, since it is agreed that mortal life runs the more swiftly to its end. But often the eye of our contemplation is confounded while our sorrow is aggravated by ever-increasing scourges. It is pleasing to groan over the exile of the present life, but because of the very affliction the mind cannot estimate the losses of its own blindness. Whence he straightway adds: