10. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The cell is dark of itself, and the fear of execution casts a still
denser gloom over the prison. Such is the cruelty of man to man that tens of
thousands have been made to linger in places only fit to be tombs; unhealthy,
suffocating, filthy sepulchres, where they have sickened and died of broken
hearts. Meanwhile the dread of sudden death has been the most hideous part of
the punishment; the prisoners have felt as if the chill shade of death himself
froze them to the very marrow. The state of a soul under conviction of sin is
forcibly symbolized by such a condition; people in that state cannot see the
promises which would yield them comfort, they sit still in the inactivity of
despair, they fear the approach of judgment, and are thereby as much distressed
as if they were at death’s door. Being bound in affliction and iron.
Many prisoners have been thus doubly lettered in heart and hand. In a spiritual
sense affliction frequently attends conviction of sin, and then the double
grief causes a double bondage. O you who are made free by Christ Jesus,
remember those who are in bonds.
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