Joined Face To Face With A Dead Body

"The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined face-to-face with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia destroyed the life of the living victim. Virgil describes this cruel punishment: &ls;The living and the dead at his command were coupled face to face, and hand to hand; Till choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied, The lingering wretches pined away and died.'"

Without Christ, we are shackled to a dead corpse&md;our sinfulness. Only repentance frees us from certain death, for life and death cannot coexist indefinitely.