about 'the prince of the world' in Scripture. Mercifully the
existence of such a being is not plainly revealed until the fact of
Christ's victory over him is revealed. But however ludicrous
mediaeval and vulgar superstitions may have made the notion, and
however incredible the tremendous figure painted by the great Puritan
poet has proved to be, there is nothing ridiculous, and nothing that
we have the right to say is incredible, in the plain declarations
that came from Christ's lips over and over again, that the world, the
aggregate of ungodly men, _has_ a prince.

And then my text tells us that that prince is 'judged.' The Cross did
that, as Jesus Christ over and over again indicates, sometimes in
plain words, as 'Now is the judgment of this world,' 'Now is the
prince of this world cast out'; sometimes in metaphor, as 'I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven,' 'First bind the strong man and
then spoil his house.' We do not know how far-reaching the influences
of the Cross may be, and what they may have done in those dark
regions, but we know that since that Cross, the power of evil in the
world has been broken in its centre, that God has been disclosed,
that new forces have been lodged in the heart of humanity, which only
need to be developed in order to overcome the evil. We know that
since that auspicious day when 'He spoiled principalities and powers,
making a show of them openly and leading them in triumph,' even when
He was nailed upon the Cross, the history of the world has been the
judgment of the world. Hoary iniquities have toppled into the
ceaseless washing sea of divine love which has struck against their
bases. Ancient evils have vanished, and more are on the point of
vanishing. A loftier morality, a higher notion of righteousness, a
deeper conception of sin, new hopes for the world and for men, have
dawned upon mankind; and the prince of the world is led bound, as it