Job 17:13

If I wait, the grave is mine house.

The house of the grave

I. Describe the house.

1. The grave is a very spacious house.

2. It is very dark and dreary.

3. It is a house of silence. It is empty.

4. It is the house of corruption.

5. It is the house of oblivion.

II. All men are going to this house.

1. This lot is ours by the appointment of God.

2. Ever since God appointed death, He has been carrying mankind to the grave in a constant and uninterrupted succession.

3. We not only see the mortality in others, but feel it coming upon ourselves.

III. Why we should keep this serious truth in mind.

1. Because God requires men to keep their mortality in view.

2. God takes many methods to impress this important truth upon men’s hearts.

3. It is necessary in order to their forming all their worldly schemes with wisdom and propriety.

4. In order to form a just estimate of the world and its inhabitants.

5. In order to prepare them to endure the trials and afflictions of the present life with patience and fortitude.

6. It will have a direct tendency to prepare men for death when it comes. Improvement. Every way of thinking and acting is sinful, which tends to banish the thoughts of death from our minds. (N. Emmons, D. D.)