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I. WHAT KIND OF AN EVENT DEATH IS.

1. It is the most dreadful of events.

(1) Its personifications show this: "Tyrant," "monster," "usurper," "king of terrors," "last enemy."(2) Every circumstance connected with it is appalling.

(a)  Its cause and sin.

(b)  Its forerunners — spiritual and bodily.

(c)  Its accompaniments, forced separation, burial.

(d)  "After death the judgment."

2. It is the most decisive event. It places the righteous beyond the possibility of fear, and the ungodly beyond the possibility of hope.

3. It is that event in which the excellency of religion pre eminently appears. Religion does not prevent the hissing of the serpent, but it extracts his sting; it does not show another entrance into Canaan than through the Jordan, but it divides the flood.

II. IN WHAT SENSE DYING IS A GAIN. It exchanges earth for heaven. Think of —

1. Its beauty.

2. Its purity.

3. Its pleasures.

4. Its friendship.

(A. Pope.)

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KJV: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

WEB: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.