imself to be standing at the
very crisis of the battle, and with the deepest assurance He announces
that the opposing power is broken and that victory remains with Him.
"Now is the prince of this world cast out; and I will draw all men unto
Me." The prince of this world, that which actually rules and leads men
in opposition to God, was judged, condemned, and overthrown in the death
of Christ. By His meek acceptance of God's will in the face of all that
could make it difficult and dreadful to accept it, He won for the race
deliverance from the thraldom of sin. At length a human life had been
lived without submission at any point to the prince of this world. As
man and in the name of all men Jesus resisted the last and most violent
assault that could be made upon His faith in God and fellowship with
Him, and so perfected His obedience and overcame the prince of this
world,--overcame him not in one act alone--many had done that--but in a
completed human life, in a life which had been freely exposed to the
complete array of temptations that can be directed against men in this
world.

In order more clearly to apprehend the promise of victory contained in
our Lord's words, we may consider (I.) the object He had in view--to
"draw all men" to Him; and (II.) the condition of His attaining this
object--namely, His death.

I. The object of Christ was to draw all men to Him. The opposition in
which He here sets Himself to the prince of this world shows us that by
"drawing" He means attracting _as a king attracts_, to His name, His
claims, His standard, His person. Our life consists in our pursuance of
one object or another, and our devotion is continually competed for.
When two claimants contest a kingdom, the country is divided between
them, part cleaving to the one and part to the other. The individual
determines to which side he shall cleave,--by his prejudices or by his
justice, as it may be; by his knowledge of the comparative capacity of
the claimants, or by his ignorant predilection. He is taken in by
sounding titles, or he penetrates through all bombast and promises and
douceurs to the real merit or demerit of the man himself. One person
will judge by the personal manners of the respective claimants; another
by their published manifesto, and professed object and style of rule;
another by their known character and probable conduct. And while men
thus range themselves on this side or on that, they really pass judgment
on th