nd careless ease, but they are always, even through
their whole life, liable to be thus haunted and incommoded. Whenever the
thought of death is brought home to them, as in the course of events it
is ever and again sure to be, they are appalled and terrified. They then
feel that death has a sting, and they have some foretaste of its
sharpness and venom. They see nothing in death but the ruin of all their
earthly hopes and schemes, and nothing after death but "a certain fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the
adversaries," and when they seem to be themselves stricken by the hand of
death, how do the terrors of hell make them afraid!

"O death, how shocking must thy summons be,
To him that is at ease in his possessions!"

There is a difference however, and a very great one, between the fear of
death and the fear of dying. Many good people are often tormented by the
latter kind of fear. It is frequently the result of a sensitive
organization, or ill health, or a naturally gloomy temperament; and many
who have been much troubled by it through life have found it to vanish
completely when the supreme moment came. But the fear of death is
founded on the consciousness of unpreparedness for it, and on the
anticipation of the punishments which it will bring. Every unsaved
sinner has abundant reason for the fear which, however he may laugh it
off, will assuredly at times gain the mastery over him. The brooding
sense of insecurity; the secret sudden pang, stabbing him in the midst of
his wildest joys; the desperate effort never to think, and the resolute
refusal ever to speak of death; tell their tale, and show that the slaves
of Satan are always liable to the fear of death. O, if this be your
case, it is high time to look to yourselves! If you cannot bear the
thought of death; if the great and solemn hereafter is haunted by images
that scare and threaten you; if you "put far away the evil day;" be sure
there is something radically wrong. Be sure, by that token, that you are
the slave of the devil. Be sure that you "are in jeopardy every hour."
Never rest, never for a moment be satisfied, till you can look death
calmly in the face, and discern for yourself the life to come, and your
inheritance in heaven.

3. _For we all may have deliverance from our bondage to Satan_, _and
from this characteristic effect and sign of it_. The death of Jesus has
provided this deliverance f