But at the hour when Christ appeared on the cross, the signal of His defeat was given.  His kingdom suddenly departed from Him; the reign of idolatry passed away:  He was beheld to fall “like lightning from heaven.”  In that hour the foundation of every pagan temple shook.  The statue of every false god tottered on its base.  The priest fled from his falling shrine; and the heathen oracles became dumb forever.

As on the cross Christ triumphed over Satan, so He overcame His auxiliary, the world.  Long had it assailed Him with its temptations and discouragements; in this hour of severe trial He surmounted them all.  Formerly He had despised the pleasures of the world.  He now baffled its terrors.  Hence He is justly said to have “crucified the world.”  By His sufferings He ennobled distress; and He darkened the luster of the pomp and vanities of life.  He discovered to His followers the path which leads, through affliction, to glory and to victory; and He imparted to them the same spirit which enabled Him to overcome.  “My kingdom is not of this world.  In this world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Death also, the last foe of man, was the victim of this hour.  The formidable appearance of the specter remained; but his dart was taken away.  For, in the hour when Christ expiated guilt, He disarmed death, by securing the resurrection of the just.  When He said to His penitent fellow sufferer, “To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise,” He announced to all His followers the certainty of heavenly bliss.  He declared the cherubim to be dismissed and the flaming sword to be sheathed, which had been appointed at the fall, to keep from man “the way of the tree of life.”  Faint, before this period, had been the hope, indistinct the prospect, which even good men enjoyed of the heavenly kingdom.  Life and immortality were now brought to light.  From the hill of Calvary the first clear and certain view was given to the world of the everlasting mansions.  Since that hour they have been the perpetual consolation of believers in Christ.  Under trouble, they soothe their minds; amid temptation, they support their virtue; and in their dying moments enable them to say, “O death! where is thy sting?  O grave! where is thy victory”?

VI.  This was the hour when our Lord erected that spiritual kingdom which is never to end.  How vain are the counsels and designs of men!  How shallow is the policy of the wicked!  How short their triumphing!  The enemies of Christ imagined that in this hour they had successfully accomplished their plan for His destruction.  They believed that they had entirely scattered the small party of His followers, and had extinguished His name and His honor forever.  In derision they addrest Him as a king.  They clothed Him with purple robes; they crowned Him with a crown of thorns; they put a reed into His hand; and, with insulting mockery, bowed the knee before Him.  Blind and impious men!