ss, be assailed or injured by "him that had the power of death:" nor
shall he see his enemy again, unless it be to triumph openly over him, in
that day when "death, and hell shall be cast into the lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone." Many good people are unduly afraid of the
devil, and especially they are in dread of his possible power in their
last moments. But we may dismiss this fear as altogether needless and
unworthy. Christ has not only rendered our great enemy utterly powerless
for evil, but has, by his own most precious death, compelled even Satan
into the service of the sons of God. He has turned the supreme calamity
brought into the world by the arch-fiend into the supreme glory and joy
of all who believe in himself. To all those who are by Jesus' death "to
life restored," the day of death is infinitely preferable to the day of
birth, for then beginneth that new life which shall never die. "I know
whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which
I have committed unto Him until that day."

II. LET US NOW CONTEMPLATE THE WORK OF JESUS, IN HIS DEATH, AS A WORK OF
DELIVERANCE. "And deliver them who, through fear of death, were all
their lifetime subject to bondage." If we ascertain the import of this
description of those whom Christ died to deliver, we shall easily
understand the nature and mode of the deliverance wrought out for them.

1. _They were in bondage_. They were in fact enslaved by "him who had
the power of death." This is a very fearful view of our natural state,
and one which contradicts all the conclusions of our own vanity and
self-complacency. Unconverted men believe that Christians are slaves,
fettered by doubts, scruples, self-accusations; bound in the bands of
moral routine, and able only to move in certain prescribed grooves;
afraid to do as they list. According to their notion, true liberty
consists in throwing off religious restraints, and following as much as
may be "the devices and desires of our own hearts." But this is a
terrible delusion, which only serves to show the depth and subtlety of
him who, besides having "the power of death," is also "the father of
lies," the great deceiver and ensnarer of mankind. History is full of
analogous examples among men. In how many instances have the most cruel
and remorseless tyrants made use of the passions and brute force of the
multitude to secure their own elevation to absolute power, inducing their