question describe as a cross, within the walls of the Eternal City as
the symbol of their victory, did Christians ever set on high a
cross-shaped trophy of any description.

Moreover, but for the fact that, as it happened, the triumph of
Constantine resulted in that of the Christian Church, we should
probably have deemed the cross, if to our minds a representation of the
instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed, as anything but the
symbol of Victory we now deem it.

This is evident from the fact that the so-called cross of Jesus
admittedly fulfilled the purpose for which it was erected at the
request of those who sought the death of Jesus. And even according to
our Gospels the darkness of defeat o'ershadowed the scene at Calvary.

To put the matter plainly, the victory of Jesus was not a victory over
the cross; for He did not come down from the cross. Nor was it a
victory over His enemies; for what they sought was to get rid of a man
whom they deemed an agitator, and their wish was gratified, inasmuch
as, thanks to the cross, He troubled them no more.

In other words the victory which we ascribe to Jesus did not occur
during the gloom which hung like a pall over his native land at the
time of His execution, but upon the then approaching Sun-day of the
Vernal Equinox, at the coming of the glory of the dawn.

For the victory in question, from whatever point of view we may look at
it, was not the avoidance of defeat, but its retrieval. And its story
is an illustration of the old-world promise, hoary with antiquity and
founded upon the coming, ushered in every year by the Pass-over or