1. In the verse following our text, the Apostle declares, "the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." Hence it is something wholly distinct from the mere physical pangs of expiring nature, or the instinctive dread and abhorrence of its own dissolution which it ever cherishes. This dread of self-annihilation is a property of life itself, which is in its very nature a ceaseless effort to be, and to avoid non-existence. Irrespective of sin or holiness, penalty or rewards, whether the death of the body be, or be not regarded as the only and certain passage to a perfect and blissful state of existence, it is in itself what we instinctively dread and shun. Like pain, we avoid it if possible. We never choose it as in the least desirable for its own sake; although we may cheerfully submit to it as we submit to bitter drugs and burning caustic, because without it, we cannot escape the pains of earth, or reach the bliss of heaven. In this light the Christian may desire death, because to die is gain, and he desires to depart and be with Christ which is far better: but not because it is in itself lovely, or otherwise than grim, ghastly and terrific. This natural aversion to the physical pangs of death, therefore, is not its sting, since it is a part of our sentient nature, and still cleaves to Christians as to others. But _the sting of death is sin_, i. e. the violation of the law of God and consequent subjection to its tremendous penalties. Thus "the law is the strength of sin," so far forth as it is a sting. Now death is the penalty of sin, its wages, "it passed upon all men for that all have sinned;" even death temporal and death eternal, the death of the body and the death of the soul. And unless its nature and power as a penalty be annulled by faith in him who conquered it, the sting of death lies in this, that it is not merely a _natural_ but a _penal_ evil, not the mere dissolution of the body, but the entrance of the soul upon the merited woes of the second death; not the mere end of life, but a transfer to the pains of eternal retribution. It is the law, the violated, threatening, immutable law, that invests sin with this fearful power. Viewed in this light, the only light possible out of Christ, death indeed has its sting, which no tongue can tell or mind conceive.