There is bitter irony in the prophet's description of the poor
flickering spot of light in the black waste and of its swift dying out.
The travellers without a watch-fire are defenceless from midnight
prowlers. How full of solemn truth about godless lives the vivid
outline picture is!
Men try to free themselves from the miseries of ignorance, sin, and
sorrow.
Think of the insufficiency of all such attempts, the feeble flicker
which glimmers for an hour, and then fuel fails and it goes out. Then
the travellers can journey no further, but 'lie down in sorrow,' and
without a watchfire they become a prey to all the beasts of the field.
It is a little picture taken from the life.
It vividly paints how men _will_ try to free themselves from the
miseries of their condition, how insufficient all their attempts are,
how transient the relief, and how bitter and black the end.