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"Hast thou marked the old way?" Antiquity is no guarantee for truth. It was the old way, but it was the wrong way. It was an old way, but they who ran in it perished in it just as surely as if it had been a new way of sinning entirely of their own invention: antiquity will be no consolation to those who perish by following evil precedents.

I. THE WAY. First, what it was. There is no doubt that Eliphaz is here alluding to those who sinned before the flood. He is looking to what were ancient days to him.

1. Now this way, in the first place, was a way of rebellion against God.

2. In the next place, the old way was a way of selfishness.

3. The old way was a way of pride. Our mother Eve rebelled against God because she thought she knew better than God did.

4. The old way which wicked men have trodden is a way of self-righteousness. If Abel kneels by the altar, Cain will kneel by the altar also. Beware, I entreat you, for this is the old way of the Pharisee when he thanked God that he was not as other men.

5. The old way which wicked men have trodden was, in the next place, a way of unbelief. Noah was sent to tell those ancient sinners that the world would be destroyed by a flood. They thought him an old dotard, and mocked him to scorn.

6. The old way which wicked men have trodden is a way of worldliness and carelessness and procrastination. What did those men before the flood? They married and were given in marriage till the flood came and swept them all away. Eliphaz says, "Hast thou marked the way?"I want you to stop a little while, and look at that road again, and mark it anew.

1. The first thing I observe as I look into it is, that it is a very broad way.

2. Observe that it is a very popular road. The way downward to destruction is a very fashionable one, and it always will be.

3. It is a very easy way, too. You need not trouble yourself about finding the entrance into it, you can find it in the dark.

4. This old way, if you look at it, is the way in which all men naturally run. For all that, it is a most unsatisfactory road.

5. One thing more, across it here and there Divine mercy has set bars. The angel of mercy stands before you now, and bids you tarry. Why will ye die?

II. THE END: "Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood." The end of these travellers was not according to their unbelief, but according to the despised truth. They would not believe Noah, but the flood came. Remember this, then, unbelief will not, laugh as it may, remove one jot of the penalty. The flood, like the destroying fire which will come upon ungodly men, was total in its destructiveness. It did not sweep away some of them, but all, and the punishments of God will not be to a few rebels, but to all. It will find out the rich in their palaces, as well as the poor in their hovels. Moreover, it was a final overthrow. The text gives us two pictures, and these two may suffice to bring out the meaning of Eliphaz. First, he says, they were "cut down out of time." The representation here is that of a tree with abundant foliage and wide-spreading boughs, to which the woodman comes. Such is the sinner in his prosperity, spreading himself like a green bay tree; birds of song are amongst his branches, and his fruit is fair to look upon; but the axe of death is near, and where the tree falleth there it must forever lie; fixed is its everlasting state. The other picture of the text is that of a building which is utterly swept away. Here I would have you notice that Eliphaz does not say that the flood came and swept away the building of the wicked, but swept away their very foundations. If in the next world the sinner only lost his wealth or his health, or his outward comforts of this life, it would be subject for serious reflection; but when it comes to this, that he loses his soul, his very self; then it becomes a thing to consider with all one's reason, and with something more of the enlightenment which God's Spirit can add to our reason. Oh that we would but be wise and think of this:

III. THE WARNING: "Am I or am I not treading in that broad way?" "Ah!" saith one, "I do not know." I will help thee to answer it. Are you travelling in the narrow way in which believers in Christ are walking? "I cannot say that," say you. Well, then, I can tell you without hesitation that you are treading in the broad way, for there are but two ways. As for you who confessedly are in the old way, would you turn, would you leave it? Then the turning point is at yonder cross, where Jesus hangs a bleeding sacrifice for the sons of men.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

WEB: Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,